We are probably never going to move due to funds at the club, but lets say theoretically the club has appointed you to buy land and develop a stadium, where would you buy land? How would you design your stadium? And why? 

 

This thread is entirely for fun, and out of interest I can't wait to read your replies. As for me, I'm going to spend a little time thinking about it before replying to this thread. :D 

I'd build an island in the Beauly Firth and we can play there.

We are probably never going to move due to funds at the club, but lets say theoretically the club has appointed you to buy land and develop a stadium, where would you buy land? How would you design your stadium? And why? 

 

Coincidentally I am writing this just two days after the 20th anniversary of the formal creation of "Inverness Thistle and Caledonian FC", the limited company on which the club is based, in Balnain House on February 24th 1994. The inaugural board eventually chose the current site about three months later.

As it happens, what you have suggested was more or less what a consultant called Bruce Hare was commissioned to do at that time and he published his final report in March 1994. A lot more land has been taken up by subsequent development, but even 20 years ago it was pretty apparent that Inverness was not at all well endowed with suitable stadium sites. A long list of eleven sites was very quickly reduced to four since most of them were fatally flawed and this then came down to just two which would actually fit the bill. These were the current one (which was the strong preference of the club) and Stratton Farm beyond the Retail Park (which was the strong preference of Invernes and Nairn Enterprise). So the top and bottom lines are that respondents here might be hard pushed to come up with viable answers.

Think I'd probably buy some land along the Longman. I'd then have a one stand stadium designed that looked totally unfinished. I'd add a couple of stands behind the goals and also add some unuseable terracing to finish of the fourth side.

 

Joking aside I'd be looking at the Bught and spending around 30 million or so on a sporting complex. 10k oval stadium + 4G pitches, indoor arena, tennis courts, fitness suite etc.

Stratton Farm scored the highest score in the feasibility study carried out in 2004, which I was party to. As such, it is still my first choice. It is also jointly owned by a former chairman and current director of the club together with two directors of Nairn County.

a football stadium should be within a city limits not on the outskirts! We are not Inverness-shire CT lol.

The Bught being redeveloped as a sporting complex as described by Alex would have been my choice

What were the 11 sites? Why was inshes never given serious thought, where matalan is? Personally i think that would have been a good site, right in amongst housing, shops etc. a good base to expand future support

Put it on stilts in the middle of the Ness next to the Greig St bridge.

Put it on stilts in the middle of the Ness next to the Greig St bridge.

Might cause problems for the ballboys and girls.

Was an old quarry not considered as one of the sites, which would have created a rocky amphitheatre type of thing?  (I may have dreamt this!).

 

Also, was there not talk about knocking down the current stadium and moving to out Daviot way or something?  This would have been about a decade ago.

Edited February 27, 201412 yr by Renegade

What were the 11 sites? Why was inshes never given serious thought, where matalan is? Personally i think that would have been a good site, right in amongst housing, shops etc. a good base to expand future support

As is the one from Row S, this is very perceptive post which has sent me into the bottom of the wardrobe to find the copy of Bruce Hare's report which Fiona Larg gave me when I was writing the book, in which I didn't list all 11. But these are - Stratton Farm, East Seafield, West Seafield, East Longman, The Inshes, Drumossie, Cradlehall, Castle Heather, Torvean Quarry, Holm Mains and Beechwood. The short list was - Stratton Farm, West Seafield, East Longman and The Inshes. That then boiled down to Stratton and East Longman and the rest is history.

Seven departed at the first hurdle for reasons ranging to sheer impracticability (Torvean - see Renegade's post) to cost of land and probable resident opposition (Inshes). I imagine that the Matalan site comes under Inshes and I also don't know what the local plan might have been saying for there, given the way things have developed since 1994.

 

Regarding the Bught area, I think the problem of getting traffic in and out would have been insurmountable and will remain so until this new road goes in. Just about everything would have to go over the Ness Bridge and along Glenurquhart Road which are already a nightmare.

Row S is absolutely correct in saying that Stratton Farm scored highest - but not initially! The matrix which Hare produced clearly shows East Longman as the leader and that was the case in his interim report. But come the final report (with, one suspects, some lobbying from INE who wanted to kick start the Golden Mile) Stratton had miraculously taken over as the leader. 

 

I know there is an ongoing viewpoint that a new stadium site should be considered, but I really can't see a viable alternative to the current arangement - even though Hare's report did stress that East Longman's attraction depended on moving the travelling people and the salt store, which has never been done.

Personally speaking, the Northern Meeting Park would be good! 

Personally speaking, Brisbane would be nice

I'd suggest the summit plateau of Cairn Gorm

Cairn Gorm Rainbow..............there's  snow ......chance

Northern Meeting Park, Bught, Below Charleston Complex were all sites investigated by Caledonian FC well before the merger was mooted and all were rejected, by the Council etc for various reasons. As far as I remember Stratton Farm was sold to the clubs at the time re the Golden Mile would have been extended out to Smithton by now. That hasnt happened and although our present location is far from ideal sometimes, the Stratton one would have been disasterous imo as its too far to walk to from the City Centre. I do remember Norman Miller stating that there would be no merger if the stadium was to be sited so far out of town!

 

However if we are allowed to choose a location from a wish list I too would choose the Bught area.

Edited February 27, 201412 yr by old caley girl

 

What were the 11 sites? Why was inshes never given serious thought, where matalan is? Personally i think that would have been a good site, right in amongst housing, shops etc. a good base to expand future support

As is the one from Row S, this is very perceptive post which has sent me into the bottom of the wardrobe to find the copy of Bruce Hare's report which Fiona Larg gave me when I was writing the book, in which I didn't list all 11. But these are - Stratton Farm, East Seafield, West Seafield, East Longman, The Inshes, Drumossie, Cradlehall, Castle Heather, Torvean Quarry, Holm Mains and Beechwood. The short list was - Stratton Farm, West Seafield, East Longman and The Inshes. That then boiled down to Stratton and East Longman and the rest is history.

Seven departed at the first hurdle for reasons ranging to sheer impracticability (Torvean - see Renegade's post) to cost of land and probable resident opposition (Inshes). I imagine that the Matalan site comes under Inshes and I also don't know what the local plan might have been saying for there, given the way things have developed since 1994.

 

Regarding the Bught area, I think the problem of getting traffic in and out would have been insurmountable and will remain so until this new road goes in. Just about everything would have to go over the Ness Bridge and along Glenurquhart Road which are already a nightmare.

Row S is absolutely correct in saying that Stratton Farm scored highest - but not initially! The matrix which Hare produced clearly shows East Longman as the leader and that was the case in his interim report. But come the final report (with, one suspects, some lobbying from INE who wanted to kick start the Golden Mile) Stratton had miraculously taken over as the leader. 

 

I know there is an ongoing viewpoint that a new stadium site should be considered, but I really can't see a viable alternative to the current arangement - even though Hare's report did stress that East Longman's attraction depended on moving the travelling people and the salt store, which has never been done.

 

 

Charles - Your excellent record keeping has brought it all back to me. As both a supporter and a town planner it was a great exercise to be involved in.

 

Stratton Farm emerged as the preferred choice in view of the best access to the trunk and local road networks for away and home supporters' traffic. It was also on a bus route with a frequent service. 

 

You may recall that the new road connecting the stadium to the harbour under the Kessock Bridge did not exist other than as a dotted line in the Council's Local Plan in 1994. A share of this eventually had to be included in the cost of the stadium development. There was also some doubt about the landfill gas situation at the East Longman tip and the limitations of the gas main (which restricts the width of the fourth stand). 

 

The Inshes site was allocated for community facilities and a park in the Local Plan - church, health centre, fitness club, Inshes park etc but then got permission for retailing as well. The Bught area would only have been possible if the West Link of the SDR had been in place.

 

I also remember the point being made at the time that as the club did not have "Inverness" in its name why did it have to be within in the town boundary?   

Seem to remember there was a site in Carse which was investigated by Caley as an alternative, pre-merger.

 

Although developed now, it's never been a major retail site and may have been an ideal stadium for Caley had they decided to apply for entry to the Scottish League without merging, with room for expansion and, most important of all, so close to Telford Street Park that nobody would have really noticed any difference in travelling distance.

 

I wonder if there would have been sufficient room for expansion on that site, as there is little doubt that had Caley gone for it on there own back then, they'd be in a similar position to ICT today.

 

But hey, let's not start any merger controversy!

Northern Meeting Park, Bught, Below Charleston Complex were all sites investigated by Caledonian FC well before the merger was mooted and all were rejected, by the Council etc for various reasons. As far as I remember Stratton Farm was sold to the clubs at the time re the Golden Mile would have been extended out to Smithton by now. That hasnt happened and although our present location is far from ideal sometimes, the Stratton one would have been disasterous imo as its too far to walk to from the City Centre. I do remember Norman Miller stating that there would be no merger if the stadium was to be sited so far out of town!

 

However if we are allowed to choose a location from a wish list I too would choose the Bught area.

You're correct there OCG. The Charleston bid in 1991 met with particularly bitter resident opposition. And (as CaleyT points out) there was also the Carse Farce (two rounds of it) where the District Council faffed around for months before deciding not to let it go ahead. It's my personal belief that if Caley had got the Carse in 92-93 then the merger would never have taken place and we would now be watching Championship - League One yoyo football. And I do indeed remember Norman's fear that Stratton Farm could kill the merger because, although the company had been formed, when it was Stratton v East Longman in the spring of 1994 agreement on transfer of assets was still many months away.

 

As already stated, I'm not so sure about the Bught or anywhere in that general area de to traffic issues.

 

As for the Northern Meeting Park... Northern Counties cricket club would NEVER allow anyone else on there

Edited February 27, 201412 yr by Charles Bannerman

I've never understood the traffic opposition issue with regards to possible stadium sites, theres stadiums of 50,000+ seats in city centers all over the world.

 

Even in Scotland theres plenty of bigger stadiums than ours in "poor" locations.
 

etc etc

I'm no town planner so I have no idea what's looked at when determining a new stadium location. However Clacher I'd imagine that most of the grounds that you've shown have been sited on these locations for (in some cases many) decades when planning regs / infrastructure were very different or the area may not have even been that built up at the time.

 

Even if we had plenty money to burn and a really good sized site slap bang in the town centre that was unused would it be allowed to be built anyway? Something tells me no. Had either Caley or Thistle's ground been kept and radically redeveloped then that's a different story.

Castle Heather park would have been cool, certainly big enough! Im sure there was some sort of flaw though - don't think many of the houses were built at the time so they may have been concentrating more on housing development

Newtonmore. Less travelling for team and me. Less moaning from central belt clubs.

Lets face it! Any future stadium move would be rejected by the Board of Tesco!

Did the £20,000 wasted on consultation not choose Inshes?  

Even if we had plenty money to burn and a really good sized site slap bang in the town centre that was unused would it be allowed to be built anyway? Something tells me no.

 

I suspect the same.

 

The more I hear about the merger process and the ambitions and ideas tabled at the time, the more I'm convinced the whole project was hijacked by clueless idiots at each stage.  Especially with regards the stadium design, cost and location.

I wonder if we would have stayed and developed Telford Street had we known a Victoria Park sized site was all that we required?  I don't think the 10,000 seat rule was in place until later but I'm sure somebody will correct me on that.