In March 2015 the PST Board asked Trust Members to become involved in a Stadium Working Group to assist Portsmouth FC in its consultation exercises regarding the stadium issue facing the club and options for the future.
Around 50 PST Members expressed an interest to be involved and three groups were set up focussing on Short Term Strategy, Long Term Strategy and Precedent Case Studies of how other clubs have relocated or rebuilt their stadia.
Of these groups the Long Term Strategy became the most productive group consisting of 14 members and through regular meetings over a period of 18 months, produced two reports. The first looked at the history of relocating the football club over the last 40-50 years and whether any of the previously investigated sites were still feasible. The conclusion was none of the previously investigated sites were still feasible and unless new sites never proposed before could be proposed, the most suitable long term option for the football club as a community club would be to take advantage of the existing planning policies and redevelop the site at Fratton Park.
The second report took lead from the first report and investigated how feasible the Fratton Park area was to provide a suitably redeveloped stadium that could accommodate a minimum of around 30,000 seats and the associated development required for a profit making modern stadium facility. These reports were intended to be the PST's recommendations to the football club as it went through similar viability exercises as a community club.
The second report was approved by the PST Board in March this year, but obviously events regarding the proposed takeover by Tornante meant their publishing to the wider membership was postponed until the future of the club was known. They were however shown to Tornante as part of the negotiation process and helped to demonstrate the PST had more to offer the club than just being a shareholder.
As the club moves into a new era, those reports can now be published to inform the wider debate. It should be stressed that these are the collective impartial views of PST Members who had an interest in the future of Pompey's stadium and whilst informing Tornante of what could be possible, were not commissioned by Tornante, nor necessarily reflect their aspirations for the stadium issue moving forwards.
The PST Board would like to thank Mike Saunders and the Long Term Strategy Group for all their hard work.
The reports:
Group members:
- Mike Allgrove
- David Benneworth
- Gary Buckner
- Tony Camilleri
- Barry Harmer
- Andrew Harnor
- Steve Higgins
- David Maples
- Nick Moore
- Colin Redman
- Mike Saunders
- Paul Simpson
- Andrew Smith
- Alan Stillwell