RUFC - Stadium Talks Fail

Rotherham United seem to be back to square one after talks failed over a site for the new stadium this week. The owners of the private land, which the club thought as suitable, were reluctant to sell.

Chairman, Tony Stewart told David Beddows of The Advertiser, 'Of the three or four sites we have been looking at, the one we thought more suitable was a privatly owned site in Rotherham. We have been in talks with the people concerned for the last six or eight weeks but they have come back and said they weren't going to do a deal. It's disappointing because we put a lot of time and effort into it and it was in a good location.

'I have now taken the initiative and called upon more expertise to drive this search forward and look at other areas in Rotherham. I'm stepping up the tempo, getting the maps out and looking again.'

Mr Stewart has admitted that the search is taking longer than he imagined and said, 'I'm disappointed. We started looking in November when the site off Meadowbank Road came available. I'm not criticising anybody but I left it to the council and that went on until April. I then found out things were not happening quick enough so since then I've been actively involved. The council are doing everything they can - we're not talking about a three bedroomed house here we're talking about a big stadium and it's location is very important.'

Even though a year has now passed of the four that the Football League gave us to move back into the town, Mr Stewart is not panicking. 'I'm not worried,' he carried on, 'There's more activity now that there has ever been and once we get the location then the fun part starts because you're into design, capacity and other things.

'But, it is going to take as long as it takes and it's going to be right. It will happen when it happens and I do know we will get there.'

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