Reef.. I'm afraid that statement simply shows how poorly informed you actually are on these topics and also again highlights your tendency to come up with the first unsubstantiated statement which comes into your head as long as it suits your preconceived point of view.
What actually happened was that INE's (not HIE's) preferred stadium site was Stratton Farm on the A96 which they wanted to develop to kick start the Golden Mile. This was one of a short list of four sites from a long list of 13 from Bruce Hare's 1993 feasibility study into stadium sites in Inverness - which is incidentally not at all well endowed with suitable sites. Also among the four was the current East Longman site which was the strong preference of THE CLUB. ICT and INE then had a protracted debate about this during the spring of 1994 and the CLUB's will eventually prevailed.
So Inverness Caledonian Thistle's stadium is where it is because that is where Inverness Caledonian Thistle and not INE wanted it!
It is also reasonable to mention that the possibility of a marina first arose away back in 1995 - over four years before David Sutherland had anything to do with ICT - in an interview I did with Councillor Clive Goodman, Chairman of the Harbour Trust, about the possibility of the stadium road linking through to the Harbour which he said could vastly increase the value of the area, which indeed it has.
The Common Good Fund's £900,000 stadium grant has been refunded many times over by that alone.
slightly off topic but i used to go with one of councillor clive goodmans daughters back in the day an the guy is a crook.
Seem to remember a few years ago reading about him in the local rags also.