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Peterborough sets January 2023 opening date for new stadium

League One football club Peterborough United has confirmed today (Thursday) that it has been given the green light to resume work on its new stadium and has set an opening date of January 2023.

The project has suffered a short delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the club has confirmed that work will resume following a meeting held yesterday.

Co-owners Stewart Thompson, Jason Neale and Darragh MacAnthony have pencilled in an opening date of January 2023, subject to the necessary planning permission, funding and construction timetables.

The stadium will form part of a wider redevelopment of the Embankment site in Peterborough that will also include the new Anglian Ruskin University, a technology centre, pubs, restaurant and additional entertainment venues.

In February, Embankment Properties, which is made up of the club’s three co-owners, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Peterborough City Council that outlines a collaborative agreement and shared vision for the project.

MacAnthony revealed last month that the timeline for the stadium had been pushed back by a year due to the pandemic, with the start of the 2022-23 season having initially been targeted as an opening date.

The revised timeline has now been confirmed and Thompson said in a statement today: “Throughout this process, we have worked closely with the Peterborough City Council and shared our vision of the future and they have been extremely positive, and we have worked well together.

“Nobody could foresee how coronavirus would affect everything, but despite a pause in our progress, it is great that we now have the green light to continue down our path and look forward to moving into the new stadium, which will not only be fantastic for the football club but for the surrounding community too, in January 2023.”

Peterborough currently plays at Weston Homes Stadium and the club is still in the process of buying the ground while it works on plans to move to a new stadium.

The new stadium is set to have an initial capacity of 17,500, which could be expanded to 23,000.

Image: Peterborough United