All you need to build a stadium: (l-r) a banker, a developer, an MP and a planner
Work has already started on building the new Swindon Stadium.
As the local dignitaries, planners, builders and financiers went through the symbolic launch on Friday afternoon, Gaming International CEO Clarke Osborne announced that work on the new grandstand is already underway.
He said: “The grandstand is built built off-site and is already under construction. Once delivered it will be fitted together and the assembly period is ten weeks. We expect to be fully functional by May 2017 and the plan is for closure of a maximum of one week while we transfer from the old stadium to the new.”
At last cynical racegoers may finally accept that the new stadium is going to happen. So why has it taken ten years?
Osborne replied: “Probably five years of that was down to the recession and it simply wasn’t fundable. Beyond that, it has been an enormous task integrating the two separate entities, the building of 550 houses, while still continuing to trade with the greyhounds, speedway and in-door market.
“You can’t just keep a building open. There are car-parking issues, sewage, electrics and other services. Somebody wants to disconnect the electric supply for many months as the other end of the site and you have to keep trading. But we are there now, and I can’t help feeling very chuffed, if a little exhausted. Now we kick on again from Monday with the site preparation.”
