RUFC - Chairman hopeful stadium will get go ahead

Rotherham United Chairman, Tony Stewart is anxious to show the fans how the new stadium will look and is hoping he will be able to do that early in the new year.

With hope that the green light will be given for the outline planning permission of the new stadium next week Mr Stewart told David Beddows of The Advertiser, 'We are favourably optimistic that things will proceed in a way we think fit.`

Mr Stewart is hoping that permission for the twelve thousand seated stadium on the old Guest and Chrimes site is given so that work can begin in February.

'At the moment we`ve got four different contractors and four different architects competing for the opportunity to work with us who are working, at their own cost, to put forward tenders to prove, to us, that they can build an iconic stadium. We will probably short list the best ones in December and make our nominations in the New Year.`

Talking about the stadium, Mr Stewart said, 'It has to be stylish with head-turning facilities that make Rotherham proud as a club and as a community. We`ve seem what Chesterfield have done and we want to go better than that and show Rotherham supporters and the local community as a whole that we are moving with the times.

'I have bought extra land around the site which will allow for more facilities around the stadium which will act as profit centres going into the football club.

The stadium, which has to be ready for the Millers to move into at the start of the 2012/13 season, is part of a rejuvenated Guest and Chrimes site near the town centre which hopefully will bring the Millers back from their adopted city Sheffield and to their rightful home in Rotherham.

The council planning board will meet next Thursday to see if the Millers get permission for the new stadium.

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