The man who led England to its historic Rugby World Cup victory has claimed Aberdeen deserves a modern stadium that everyone “can be proud of”.
Sir Clive Woodward was asked his thoughts on the Dons’ proposed move to Kingsford prior to taking the stage as guest speaker at an Offshore Europe event, organised by Mintra Group.
The legendary coach, who won the World Cup in 2003, has a lengthy business background and was invited to share his thoughts on the importance of training and improvement in making a firm successful.
And he also shared his view on the £50million stadium proposals, which could mean a 20,000 seat arena, training academy and heritage museum would be built at Kingsford – between Westhill and Kingswells.
Plans for the major new development have been backed by a number of high-profile figures, including former AFC boss Sir Alex Ferguson, as well as club heroes Willie Miller and Bobby Clark.
Sir Clive, who also had brief stints as performance director and director of football for Southampton FC, said: “I think a city this size with a club with the ambitions of Aberdeen – especially with their history, with Ferguson – it should have a great stadium and it should be targeting European football which means people want to come to the ground.
“It also does represent your town, your city and where you live and I think a football team is really important especially when you’ve got city where there’s one major club – it’s not like London where you’ve got Chelsea, Tottenham , Arsenal.
“This is one club and it represents Aberdeen, so I think the more you can showcase that the better.”
However, he also urged fans to not expect instant success if the new stadium is approved when the council meets in October.
“There’s no right or wrong. I’ve seen people build wonderful stadiums and not get the results they want,” he added.
“Look at West Ham, I’m not sure their move to the Olympic Stadium has been as successful as they were hoping, so it takes time.
“The more the community can be involved in the stadium 24/7, 365, then the more you’re going to get people coming and it doesn’t become once every two weeks when you’re playing there – it can be used every single day.
“And the stadium can be used for all sorts of different things as you’ve seen with Twickenham, like pop concerts. It’s about running a profitable organisation.
“You want to go to a great stadium and it’s something you’re proud of.”
The No Kingsford Stadium has campaigned against the project since it was first put forward, highlighting a number of environmental concerns about the site being built on green belt land, the potential for an increase in traffic, and other issues.
