Steve Lansdown is not the type of chap to shirk from taking decisions. No one who has helped create one of Britain's most successful companies could be.

In the world of stocks, shares and investment markets, decisions are the name of the game.

In the next few weeks, months and on past the summer, though, Steve Lansdown is going to be waiting for other people to make some decisions.

What they decide, which way they jump, will all be crucial to the way forward for Bristol City Football Club.

But there's far more at stake than that, he believes.

The right decisions now could help secure Bristol as a host city in football's 2018 World Cup.

It could put Bristol on the map globally and kick-start so much more for the city.

For Steve Lansdown the new stadium project is all a question of looking at where the club sits in the grand scheme of the football leagues.

"When I first got involved with the club we went up into what is now the Championship for one disastrous year and came back down again.

"We had been a big fish in a smaller pond of League One for nine years and as a League One club Ashton Gate is fine. That's because the number of people you can get into the ground and the wages you need to pay to be reasonably successful both match up.

"When you move into the Championship, inevitably, wage demands for quality players increase and you are also, suddenly, one step away from the Premier League – the big time.

"You then realise the stadium you thought was rather cuddly, cute and traditional is just no longer practical.

"I know people's initial reaction is 'You are not filling it every week, so why would you be better off with a 30,000-capacity one?', but the reason I think it so important for Bristol City in the first instance is that we need the ability to be able to attract regular crowds of 24,000 to 25,000 the same way as other clubs we ought to be equal to, like Ipswich, for example, who have been able to do so over time.

"This gives extra revenue to be able to fund a wage bill to make you extra competitive in the division.

"Also, a new stadium of the nature talked about, gives you the ability to have better corporate hospitality and potential for sponsorship arrangements, everything to make you more profitable but also high profile and therefore a bigger club.

"If you have ambitions for your football club – and I do – to be as successful as you can, it needs a good stadium .

"It's not without risk because if you're not successful it can become a bit of an overhead and that's why you need to make sure, when you build it, you add on all the other facilities to make it pay for itself, conferencing, banqueting and things like big rugby matches and concerts.

"From an aesthetic perspective it gives the club a feel-good factor. Fans feel more proud of their club with a state-of-the-art stadium, players like playing there and it helps attract players to the club .

"The other aspect is that companies want to be part of the thing because of its uniqueness."

Realistically, then, what does he think of England's (and Bristol's) World Cup bid for the 2018 tournament?

"You'd fancy your chances. England bid for 2006 and got it horribly wrong and learned the lesson from that. There's been a reasonable breathing space and this is the first available World Cup they could go for. It won't have been held in Europe for two World Cups before that.

"So if you are then looking at the fact it should be held in Europe again, then England has a great chance against the opposition.

"It is easy to talk about the benefits but when you start to think about it there's the sheer number of visitors who will come to Bristol in that period, all the different nationalities.

"They will come before and after. What gets overlooked, as that competition is just one month in one particular year, is all the visitors who come prior to the World Cup – even if it's just on inspection visits to look at the area and get familiar with it.

"Whether it is teams coming here, authorities checking it out, tour operators, TV companies and so on and the fact that whenever the World Cup is mentioned Bristol will be there, prominent.

"Assuming we're successful, we will be a host city and therefore it's something the city can live off in marketing and PR terms for a long time and we're talking about the biggest worldwide event there is with all the associated publicity to go with it. You just cannot buy that sort of advertising."

His stadium dream has two distinct aspects. One is, obviously, Bristol City Football Club, the other is the City and County of Bristol.

An iconic, high-class stadium could see many other events hosted there. It's not, he emphasises, just about top-flight football.

"The football World Cup is the biggest, but it could equally be the World Cup in rugby in 2015 or things like that.

"I just think that's too big an opportunity to miss."

Where exactly, I ask, is the project at this moment in time? A crucial stage?

"Yes, very crucial. On the stadium development itself a considerable amount of money has been spent by the football club and myself to get to this point.

"And we've gone through public consultation, lots of architects' drawings and designs, formulating the planning application which will be in with the council by the end of the May, hopefully.

" We've been working closely with the council and planners in putting this together. So they are not going to get any surprises with the application and, while we appreciate it can't be seen to have preferential treatment, we would hope it would go through as quickly as it can.

"On the back of that we are looking to send tender documents out ahead of receiving planning permission. They are due to go out in July because we want to start building this in spring of 2010 to be completed in 2012 for the 2012-13 season."

Such a move does, surely, carry an inherent risk?

He agrees. "Yes. People can object to planning, can't they."

Steve Lansdown, however, believes any major objections would have surfaced by now, although he does think there will be some.

"I would be surprised if there weren't any. I suspect the residents of Ashton Vale will have their say. Generally, though, the support for the project has been overwhelming and even a lot of Ashton Vale residents I have spoken to are very supportive of it.

"We know we are not going to please everybody, you never can."

I suggest that people may read something into the club going out for tender for the new stadium in anticipation of planning consent.

"The whole point of this exercise is that if the city of Bristol wants this stadium and all the benefits it brings then it is no good dragging heels.

"From a personal perspective I am not prepared to sit around for years and years for it to drag on.

"There should be no dragging of heels."

There's a hint that he has a worrying little niggle about the situation. He has and explains it like this:

"Bristol always has this habit of being reticent about being positive about things and they have got to overcome that reticence.

"The critical stage here is that, from a personal perspective and the club's, we have got to know the city of Bristol and the Regional Development Agency are 100 per cent behind this and give it every support they can."

There is, he concedes, a worry they might not be.

He explains: "Bristol's reputation goes before it. Of things being pulled at the last minute and not succeeding. That's always in the back of your mind in a situation like this and despite all the comforting words and actions to date I really do need to see they are serious about it."

Which is where the "old" site, the current Ashton Gate stadium, comes into play.

"Obviously for this exercise to work we need maximum value out of the old Ashton Gate site.

"Redevelopment of the old site is crucial to the funding of the stadium.

"The new stadium will cost £80 million to build, we would expect a quarter of that cost to come from the sale of Ashton Gate – £20m in round numbers."

Tesco, as we now know, wants it, and describes it as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Bristol and the region".

Planning permission for a change of use for the current Ashton Gate would go in during this coming September from the club itself.

But Steve Lansdown stresses: "One couldn't go without the other being in place. One enables the other to happen.

"If the old Ashton Gate development is not going to go through then alternative funding has got to be found."

They would have to find the other £20m, which is why obtaining maximum site value is the key that opens the doors on the new stadium.

"We have found a buyer and entered into negotiations and signed an exclusivity agreement with them for a period of time in which to bring it to planning."

Steve Lansdown then switches back to the core issue – the new stadium.

"What we're talking about here, is a regional stadium for Bristol so we can start moving towards the World Cup. It is also the regeneration of south Bristol, part of the regional spatial plan. It's an opportunity to open up the area through Ashton Vale."

He cannot do it on his own and makes this plain.

"There's a feeling that Steve Lansdown is going to pay for the lot but the city of Bristol has to pay for some of it because this is going to be around a lot longer than I am. I'll pay for some of it but there are others who can chip in as well."

So the next weeks and months must be his biggest financial challenge?

"Oh yes, because it's outside my comfort zone. I am not a property developer, have no desire to be. I love the game of football and I love the city of Bristol. Now I want the two to be combined, to be a major force in England.

"For the city to be successful it has to attract visitors and having a major sporting institution here and stadium is a very good way of doing that.

"Look at who benefits: the construction industry, local employment, local hoteliers, other visitor attractions, transport… it is difficult to put numbers on these things but you just know it bring benefits."