Plea to fans as Birmingham City ponder the future of St Andrew's
Oct 12 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
CARSON Yeung still has plans for an improved Birmingham City stadium – but needs the fans to work ‘hand in hand’ with the club for it to be a viable concern.
He is leaning towards a £20 million redevelopment of the Garrison Lane Stand, which was formerly known as the Main Stand.
But the club remain in talks with Birmingham City Council chiefs about leaving St Andrew’s for a new site, effectively reviving the City of Birmingham Stadium concept in Saltley.
Yeung celebrated a year in charge of Blues today and right-hand man Peter Pannu told the Birmingham Mail that a major future objective of the regime led by the Hong Kong tycoon was to resolve the ground issue.
“Things are in the pipeline,” said acting chairman Pannu. “We are talking with the City Council, and doing project reports. Once they are available I’ll study them and I’ll discuss with Carson and our consultants on this issue.
“We will then determine the projected fan base. It is important to understand that this is a long-term plan, and eventually nothing may happen.
“The capacity at St Andrew’s is 30,000. We are considerling pulling down our old stand as another option. What prompted this is the fact that I have considered lots of fans’ feedback when we first came in.
“They said ‘look, Peter, why don’t you consider developing this ground, we have got an attachment to this area, rather than go to a new field’. That’s made me look into this option as well.
“For us to build this extended capacity, the indication from our experts is that it would be a size increase to 45,000, 46,000.
“From 30,000 to that, an increase of 16,000 and with our current average capacity load of about 25,000, 26,000 – then we are 20,000 short of filling a redeveloped ground.
