Steve Lansdown pleads case for new Bristol City stadium

Bristol City FC chairman Steve Lansdown has urged councillors to give their support to the stadium plan.

Councillors meet tomorrow to decide the club's application for a new stadium at Ashton Vale.

He said: "The end result won't just be a new home for Bristol City Football Club, it will be a new regional stadium that the whole of Bristol and the West of England can be proud of.

"It will be a stadium that will be a national and international showcase for everything that Bristol has to offer.

"As a Bristolian, I am proud of my city and I believe that a facility like this is long overdue.

"I want this stadium to represent Bristol for a hundred years and more. So my message to the planning committee is quite simple – say YES!"

He says the new £65m stadium is vital to City's future on and off the pitch.

Club chief executive Colin Sexstone said: "Ashton Gate has been City's home for over 100 years and we will all be sad to leave, but it costs many thousands of pounds to maintain it and simply keep pace with Football League regulations and ground safety standards.

"We've looked in detail at developing on the existing site, and it is not a viable option. And as well as costing money to maintain Ashton Gate, it also generates much much smaller revenues than our competitors.

"Quite simply, it is the commercial advantages that a new stadium will bring that will enable the club to compete both on and off the pitch in the future.

"The new stadium will also be about much more than just football. Our two community initiatives – the BCFC Study Centre and Football in the Community – are a vital part of the club's place in the local community, so we are building new, state-of-the-art homes for both of them, as well as a new community gym.

"The stadium will provide a concert venue that will bring the biggest acts to Bristol. And the stadium's 1,000 seater conference hall will be the biggest in Bristol.

"Overall, the stadium will create a new, iconic attraction for the city as a whole.

"So my message – as a Bristolian as well as a club official – is a simple one; Bristol deserves this stadium, so say YES!"

The club has spent nearly two years preparing its planning application which has been drawn up by a team of professionals.

The architects design is the first of its kind in English football and engineers have created a solution to the challenge of putting a 30,000-seater stadium onto a former landfill site.

Specialist technicians have designed a 'rainwater harvesting system' that will use rainwater that falls onto the stadium's roof to irrigate the pitch and flush every toilet in the stadium, helping to reduce the pressure on local services and natural resources.