Groundtastic GT24 | Page 6

Main Stand : League News Around the ninety-two . . . League News Southend United have been dealt a blow over plans for a new stadium behind the site of their current training ground at Fossetts Farm. The Blues bosses had hoped that the council would discuss the proposals at the planning meeting in February but this did not happen. The council suggested that the plans were not sufficiently detailed and that there were concerns over the impact on local residents and transport links. The club hope that the plans will proceed shortly as they now only have two years left on their lease at Roots Hall. Wimbledon are still looking at plans for a new stadium and in January the possibility that they may move to Milton Keynes was floated. The New Town is keen to attract a club for its planned 45,000-seat stadium intended for a 55-acre site at North Denbigh near Bletchley. Dons fans are unsurprisingly alarmed at the idea and have made their feelings known to the club’s owners. Another suggestion, according to the Milton Keynes town website, is that the club could be renamed the MK Dons! The C&G Stand Milton Keynes Stadium Hot on the heels of the opening of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Stand at the Prestbury Road end of Whaddon Road in August, Cheltenham Town have confirmed that a new 2,000-seat stand will be built on the Wymans Road side during the summer. The new stand will cost between £500,000 and £1 million to build and will be 65% funded by the Football Foundation. Interestingly, it has been revealed that local Hellenic League side Bishops Cleeve have been given the option to take the current Wymans Road stand to their basic Kayte Lane ground. Brentford have announced that they have considered selling their current Griffin Park home and are looking at possible ground sharing options. In recent years four schemes for a new stadium have been investigated by the west London club but all will require a large initial outlay to secure the necessary land for the stadium to be built. Bees chairman Ron Noades is also reportedly frustrated that his attempts to invest in one of the aforementioned schemes, the Feltham Arena, have failed. The plan seems to be to sell Griffin Park and then hold the money in the bank pending a suitable site for the new stadium becoming available. Kingstonian and Woking are two clubs re6 GT 24