Please tell me this is true

[Superstar Tradesman]

Great news.

 

But what are the facts here and where does that leave us?

 

The debt is gone which I presume means we're not paying installments on that plus interest.  I seem to remember a figure of £1/2m per year being banded about that went towards servicing the debt.  Where does that 'extra' money go now?  Stadium?  Training facilities?  Players budget?

 

I can't say I've heard of WM Donald before, any of you guys have any dealings with them?  Do they automatically get the contract for the stadium and training facilities?

 

Do any of you know Willie and Elaine Donald personally?  Are they regulars at games?  Surely it can only be a good thing that they're locals rather than some two-bit, faceless consortium from out of town?

 

It all sounds peachy but my only concern is that we're now debt free and we charge into building a new football facility (which the fans have never really bought into) and we're £20m+ in the hole and back to servicing the debt each year.

[tommydon82]

Long time lurker, first time poster... signed up to reply to the above comment.

 

I used to work for WMD for 6 years, you will have seen their blue vans with yellow writing at nearly every major piece of house building or infrastructure work from in the AB and DD post codes.

 

Willie and Elaine run the firm on a day to day basis, and are both very genuine and decent people, who run a family business, which they started very successfully and prudently over the last 30+ years. Indeed they have been match and ball sponsors in the past. They also have advertising boards at Pittodrie and a lot of the highland league teams.

 

They and their family are all season ticket holders and attend all home matches when they are home. With regards to the being guaranteed the future stadium works this is unlikely. WMD specialises in housing and light industrial estate substructures along with associated sewers and roads. They may well be in the mix for parts of the works.

 

Obviously I have no details as to how the current debt payments will be utilised in the future, but, I would imagine seen as they have taken 20% shares in the firm along with giving shares to the community trust any substantial repayment would only be if/when they decided to sell their share.

 

Has the preferred bidder for Pittodrie not been announced yet, I thought it was a new sports science campus shared between RGU and AU? The previous prices expected was £15-20m, so any shortfall will be negligible now for a new stadium, notwithstanding investment from other local companies far more likely with club in the black.

 

I believe there is a very real possibility we could be in a new build stadium and still be debt free before turn of the decade. If I was a betting man, I would be putting my money on the old AECC site as the new home of the Dons.

 

Stand Free

 

 

[BigAl]

Welcome on board Tommy and thanks for your insight into the Donald's background 

[BigAl]

Filthy rag, but cracking article in the Record today.

Just love the bit about the Zombies greeting in their cornflakes

 

ABERDEEN’S annual accounts used to get shoved through the shareholders’ letterboxes every year and land with a thud.

 

Folk would be terrified to open them up because the contents inside were getting more gruesome every 12 months.

 

Not this time. This year’s report looked so good it could have come off the top shelf and delivered in a brown envelope.

 

Congratulations, your club? is debt free. Talk about a pre-Christmas bonus.

 

There’s no better feeling than that final mortgage payment (so I’ve been told), paying off the car (so I’ve been told ) or that last standing order from your loan (so I’ve been told).

 

Even your pal telling you to forget about that score he chucked you the other week is pretty nice (so I’ve been told).

 

But to have nearly £15million wiped from the accounts in one fell swoop is cause for another parade down Union Street.

 

The Dons lifting the League Cup last season was pretty special. Lifting the debt is absolutely huge.

 

They might not have gone on about it but Aberdeen were being crippled by their borrowings. Having to stump up half a million every six months on repayments was like trying to run a marathon with a sumo wrestler on your back.

 

Sooner or later the strain was going to tell. The club was balancing the books but the dirty great big debt beast was dominating everything.

 

The new stadium was in development hell, the training ground on ice, and Derek McInnes’s budget couldn’t budge.

 

Now they are free – and more importantly they’ve got out of the hole without having to sell their souls. No stadium rights, no merchandise deals, no car park securities or henchmen in the boardroom.

 

Aberdeen secured their financial boost the good old fashioned way – from local people who have the club’s best interests at heart.

 

Stewart Milne has received a kicking over the years but he’s taken the hits and continued to bankroll the club. Along with Aberdeen Asset Management they have ploughed in the dough and instead of waiting to be repaid they have continually transferred loans into shares.

 

Those guys have managed to keep the club afloat but now it will be full steam ahead thanks to a couple from Stonehaven.

 

Willie and Elaine Donald have sunk in the dosh to allow Milne to clear the £10m loan with the bank and wipe out the £15m club debt.

 

In return? A chunk of shares but not much else. Certainly not the family gold or control of the boardroom. We‘ll have to wait to next month’s agm to discover if they want to rename Pittodrie the Willie and Elaine Area but somehow I doubt it.

 

The couple were determined to put something back in to the club and community but wanted to do it on the quiet.

 

Not because they are shadowy figures looking to pull the strings in the background for their own gains. They’ve only been named because under financial rules they had to be. They just wanted to continue to have a quiet life, supporting their team and their region.

 

No doubt there will be Rangers fans greeting into their cornflakes reading this as it’s impossible to ignore the contrast. The soaring success of last term shot Aberdeen’s turnover through the £11m barrier and boosted the wages kitty to more than £6m.

 

That won’t be going unnoticed in boardrooms all around the country. Celtic aside, those figures blow the rest of the Premiership out of the water.

 

It’s also not a kick in the backside off what Rangers are spending right now.

 

The Dons are in place to really lay down the gauntlet in the next couple of years. There might even be more scope for investing in the team.

 

Rangers have been so focused on working out how they can eventually compete with Celtic they’ve taken their eye off the ball. It looks like it will be hard enough for them to compete with Aberdeen.

 

[Kowalski]

Long time lurker, first time poster... signed up to reply to the above comment.

 

I used to work for WMD for 6 years, you will have seen their blue vans with yellow writing at nearly every major piece of house building or infrastructure work from in the AB and DD post codes.

 

Willie and Elaine run the firm on a day to day basis, and are both very genuine and decent people, who run a family business, which they started very successfully and prudently over the last 30+ years. Indeed they have been match and ball sponsors in the past. They also have advertising boards at Pittodrie and a lot of the highland league teams.

 

They and their family are all season ticket holders and attend all home matches when they are home. With regards to the being guaranteed the future stadium works this is unlikely. WMD specialises in housing and light industrial estate substructures along with associated sewers and roads. They may well be in the mix for parts of the works.

 

Obviously I have no details as to how the current debt payments will be utilised in the future, but, I would imagine seen as they have taken 20% shares in the firm along with giving shares to the community trust any substantial repayment would only be if/when they decided to sell their share.

 

Has the preferred bidder for Pittodrie not been announced yet, I thought it was a new sports science campus shared between RGU and AU? The previous prices expected was £15-20m, so any shortfall will be negligible now for a new stadium, notwithstanding investment from other local companies far more likely with club in the black.

 

I believe there is a very real possibility we could be in a new build stadium and still be debt free before turn of the decade. If I was a betting man, I would be putting my money on the old AECC site as the new home of the Dons.

 

Stand Free

 

Great post. WM Donald are fairly well known.

 

I can't see the AECC site being used, they'll be wanting to keep the traffic away from the city centre. Somewhere near the AWPR would be my gues.

[Tyrant]

So is Lotiston completely out of the running?

 

Do we really need a new stadium? If the land that Pittodrie is on wasn't worth an absolute fortune to hoose builders would we even move?

 

Not sure that I buy the "Pittodrie costs x amount of millions to stop it disappearing into the dunes" argument. Sure it costs money to run but so much that it's genuinely cheaper to build a new stadium? If it was up to me I'd put 50% focus on a left back (and, fuck it, a centre back to replace Taylor/Anderson. We're debt-free. Let's go mental) and 50% focus on training facilities that will allow our players to avoid dog shite in the parks they use presently.

[tom_widdows]

So is Lotiston completely out of the running?

 

Do we really need a new stadium? If the land that Pittodrie is on wasn't worth an absolute fortune to hoose builders would we even move?

 

Not sure that I buy the "Pittodrie costs x amount of millions to stop it disappearing into the dunes" argument. Sure it costs money to run but so much that it's genuinely cheaper to build a new stadium? If it was up to me I'd put 50% focus on a left back (and, fuck it, a centre back to replace Taylor/Anderson. We're debt-free. Let's go mental) and 50% focus on training facilities that will allow our players to avoid dog shite in the parks they use presently.

 

Please fuck can we not start this again.

 

We apparently get debt free and yet the plan is to continue to spend hundreds of thousands continually repairing buildings which will eventually have parts deemed unsafe by the Fire service & HSE thereby reducing the capacity and one of the main streams of revenue?

 

 

 

 

[Nellie The Don]

Please fuck can we not start this again.

 

We apparently get debt free and yet the plan is to continue to spend hundreds of thousands continually repairing buildings which will eventually have parts deemed unsafe by the Fire service & HSE thereby reducing the capacity and one of the main streams of revenue?

 

Moving out of town is not a viable solution to this problem.  Being within walking distance of the city centre is absolutely essential for a club looking to maintain the sort of attendances we want.

[tom_widdows]

Moving out of town is not a viable solution to this problem.  Being within walking distance of the city centre is absolutely essential for a club looking to maintain the sort of attendances we want.

 

I agree which is why I would like to see the sketch proposals for the new stadium on the site of the Broadhill bar and Driving Range resurrected but even that has serious issues with regards to modern regulations.

 

However Aberdeen's quest to have the most flats and shopping malls per person in Europe has left little to no land in or around the city centre which is large enough to accommodate a Football Stadium. The neglected Broadford works site is the only one I can think of but even that is too small for a modern 20000 seat stadium and the road infrastruture would never get it past the planning stage.

An ideal spot could have been the railway yard on which now site Union square.

 

Redeveloping Pittodrie inline with the current planning & building regulations will drastically lower the capacity so its either that or moving out of town.

The AECC site is a non starter without the Bypass and Loriston I just cant see working unless they cough up another 3million and pay to re-build the railway station at Cove (might be an option if the debt is gone)

 

I dont know what the best option would be (redevelopment or new) but just staying at Pittodrie in its current state is a license to burn money.Personally I'd like to see a redeveloped reduced capacity pittodrie however that will require another loan from the bank and there will be no room for extension should it ever be required.

 

 

[Andrew]

The simple answer would be to have a stadium built where union terrace gardens is and have the stands rising above union street. Easily done.

[tom_widdows]

The simple answer would be to have a stadium built where union terrace gardens is and have the stands rising above union street. Easily done.

 

[Madbadteacher]

I'm nae replying to any fishing, but the obvious place to build a completely new stadium complex (if that's the answer) is Northfield.

 

Knock down the school and the flats and build there. Rejuvenate the area, easy access for fans from the North, (a spur from the fabled land of Oz AWPR) (fuck the visiting support) and keeps us in the town!

[Andrew]

I'm nae replying to any fishing, but the obvious place to build a completely new stadium complex (if that's the answer) is Northfield.

 

Knock down the school and the flats and build there. Rejuvenate the area, easy access for fans from the North, (a spur from the fabled land of Oz AWPR) (fuck the visiting support) and keeps us in the town!

 

Northfield is just as far away from the centre as Loirston is.

[Superstar Tradesman]

I've still to read a decent enough reason to move from Pittodrie.

 

For a town of 200,000 engineers who can extract fossil fuels from 20,000 leagues under the sea, deep in the Earth's core, they sure as shit make out that it's mission impossible to build a fucking concrete structure at street level, despite flats shooting up in a heartbeat all over the city.

 

Close one stand, knock it down, rebuild it to suit, fill in the corners, open it the following season or whenever it's ready and close the next stand.  Repeat the process until you've got a 360 degree bowl stadium with all the hotel/bar/hospitality facilities that you want.

 

Training facilities you can build in any corner of Aberdeen or the North East because you're only having to organise travel plans for 50 or 100 players/staff instead of disrupting 20,000 fans.

 

Personally I'd redevelop the Pittodrie car park out the back of the Main Stand.  Make it multi-story so that you can charge more people to park there on match days and put the training facilities on the top floor with a nice tin roof to keep the seagulls and shite weather out.

 

Job done.

 

 

 

 

[manc_don]

As Tom has already said, we redevelop Pittodrie, we will have to severely reduce the capacity with no chance of any future development. 

 

However, with all that being said, there are ways to deal with this, but it would involve closing Pittodrie street temporarily and buying up the land behind the SS.  A project I am involved with in South West London deals with the relocation of football stadium, albeit within a new masterplan but incredibly tight site.  I'd actually be interested to see what space is available to us and compare what we've done there. 

 

But this would mean we would have to play elsewhere for at least a season and cost an absolute fortune.

[tom_widdows]

What land behind the SS Manc?

 

 

[manc_don]

What land behind the SS Manc?

 

Of course, I forgot it's long gone hasn't it? As I said, it would be a more expensive option, i'm just saying spatially it could work from comparing (albeit on googlemaps...) areas.

[Superstar Tradesman]

Why do we need more space?

 

There is currently no seating between the Main and Merkland Stands, the Main Stand and Dick Donald, and the Dick Donald and the South Stand.  That’s an additional what, couple thousand additional seats right there?

 

If you’re still needing more space then there’s that large concourse out the front of the Dick Donald that I presume the club owns because they were laying fan’s plaques there a decade ago.  Scooch (that’s the technical term in architecture) the whole stadium towards the beach, which will give the Merkland Stand more room to breathe for development.

 

Again, I don’t get this negative attitude towards the redevelopment of the Pittodrie.  We’re looking to knock down a 20k seater stadium to build a 20k seater stadium.

 

All this talk of ‘you’ll have to close Pittodrie Street’ is nonsense as well.  You’d only have to close the part of Pittodrie Street that is out the back of the Main Stand which currently has no residential properties there (there’s only the car park) so nobody needs access to their home.  You could drive from King Street all the way down Pittodrie Street until you come to the stadium then do a loop around past the Merkland and back up to wherever.  It’s all one way down that neck of the woods anyway.

 

Access from King Street to Golf Road for emergency vehicles seems to be banded about as some sort of excuse but why can’t they just use the next road over, it’s only about 50m away?  If that’s still a stumbling block then have the upper tier of the Main Stand cantilever over the road or with the consensus of the council we could have a tunnel like they do under the hotel in Monaco (the one they drive through in the GP).

 

Severe lack of thought and ulterior motives at work here I think.

 

The fans are being shafted on this.

 

[Edinburghdon]

Why do we need more space?

 

There is currently no seating between the Main and Merkland Stands, the Main Stand and Dick Donald, and the Dick Donald and the South Stand.  That’s an additional what, couple thousand additional seats right there?

 

If you’re still needing more space then there’s that large concourse out the front of the Dick Donald that I presume the club owns because they were laying fan’s plaques there a decade ago.  Scooch (that’s the technical term in architecture) the whole stadium towards the beach, which will give the Merkland Stand more room to breathe for development.

 

Again, I don’t get this negative attitude towards the redevelopment of the Pittodrie.  We’re looking to knock down a 20k seater stadium to build a 20k seater stadium.

 

All this talk of ‘you’ll have to close Pittodrie Street’ is nonsense as well.  You’d only have to close the part of Pittodrie Street that is out the back of the Main Stand which currently has no residential properties there (there’s only the car park) so nobody needs access to their home.  You could drive from King Street all the way down Pittodrie Street until you come to the stadium then do a loop around past the Merkland and back up to wherever.  It’s all one way down that neck of the woods anyway.

 

Access from King Street to Golf Road for emergency vehicles seems to be banded about as some sort of excuse but why can’t they just use the next road over, it’s only about 50m away?  If that’s still a stumbling block then have the upper tier of the Main Stand cantilever over the road or with the consensus of the council we could have a tunnel like they do under the hotel in Monaco (the one they drive through in the GP).

 

Severe lack of thought and ulterior motives at work here I think.

 

The fans are being shafted on this.

 

Great, in one post you've done what countless others far more qualified in the field have failed to do and stopped us having to move from pittodrie.

 

Ignoring the current building regulations etc for a moment... Your next challenge is how all this is being paid for without selling off the land the stadium is currently on. Money tree perhaps?

[manc_don]

Great, in one post you've done what countless others far more qualified in the field have failed to do and stopped us having to move from pittodrie.

 

Ignoring the current building regulations etc for a moment... Your next challenge is how all this is being paid for without selling off the land the stadium is currently on. Money tree perhaps?

 

Wow, you're in a good mood today

[Superstar Tradesman]

Great, in one post you've done what countless others far more qualified in the field have failed to do and stopped us having to move from pittodrie.

 

Thanks, don't mention it.

 

Have they actually tried though, or have they just went down the route of 'we must move' and not even given much thought about redevelopment?

 

That was my point.  Little old me who knows the square route of fuck all when it comes to building stadiums managed to dream up a few alternatives or workarounds off the top of my tiny brainbox.  Whereas I'm sure some cleverclogs who's paid to do this as a 9-5 could easily come up with a viable redevelopment plan.

 

That is if they even bother to.

 

Personally I think they're hell-bent on moving regardless of what the fans want.

 

Ignoring the current building regulations etc for a moment... Your next challenge is how all this is being paid for without selling off the land the stadium is currently on. Money tree perhaps?

 

Again, that ain't my gig.

 

But I'm guessing they'll still have to pull money off that money tree you're whimsically chuntering on about regardless of where they build because one football stadium sized bit of land, in a relatively cheap area of Aberdeen does not equal the costs of an out of town stretch of ground, plus an all singing, all dancing, shiny new stadium.

[Edinburghdon]

Wow, you're in a good mood today

 

Just think how cheery Id have been if it wasn't my birthday

 

Thanks, don't mention it.

 

Have they actually tried though, or have they just went down the route of 'we must move' and not even given much thought about redevelopment?

 

That was my point.  Little old me who knows the square route of fuck all when it comes to building stadiums managed to dream up a few alternatives or workarounds off the top of my tiny brainbox.  Whereas I'm sure some cleverclogs who's paid to do this as a 9-5 could easily come up with a viable redevelopment plan.

 

That is if they even bother to.

 

Personally I think they're hell-bent on moving regardless of what the fans want.

 

Again, that ain't my gig.

 

But I'm guessing they'll still have to pull money off that money tree you're whimsically chuntering on about regardless of where they build because one football stadium sized bit of land, in a relatively cheap area of Aberdeen does not equal the costs of an out of town stretch of ground, plus an all singing, all dancing, shiny new stadium.

 

The point I was making (rather sarcastically I'll admit, sorry about that) is that this has been looked at by people fully clued up with both the needs of the club and with the regulations involved in staying and redeveloping the current location, have you considered that the club may have investigated the options you've thought up and found them to be unfeasible? People have pointed out in other threads the difficulties the club face with keeping the current stadium maintained. There was also a widely publicised study done on potential locations for a new stadium. We've missed the boat for staying at pittodrie as soon as the surrounding land was sold off.

 

Do you really think that if there was a suitable site within the city centre area the club would flat out reject it for no good reason? Maybe, just maybe the current plans (as unfavourable the reception it's got from the fans) were the best solution available?

 

Also, it's not like moving stadium is being pushed for by the club so Milne can get his hands on the land pittodrie sits on for next to nothing...

 

As far as paying for the new stadium goes, at least selling the land pittodries on will go a long way towards paying for a new stadium, even if it won't cover the full thing.

 

I don't think anyone would disagree that in an ideal world we would stay at pittodrie, unfortunately it's not an ideal world.

[Tyrant]

How much do we reckon Pittodrie is worth again?

 

£10m - £15m? If that's true why is it still ours to sell? Why did Lloyds write off their debt to us? Couldn't they have forced us to sell to pay back our debt (that they'd apparently written off in 2009)?

[tom_widdows]

Been approved at the AGM

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30489266