Dundee managing director John Nelms has confessed that the club’s progress with a new stadium is moving very slowly.
The Dee are still confident they will be able to move into a new home, across from the city’s Camperdown Park. The club are still at the planning stage, despite hoping to have moved on from this in the summer. They had hoped to be working on the new stadium already.
Speaking to the Evening Telegraph about the plans, Nelms said: “My timescale was six months ago to have the project in for review by the summer.
“I’ll keep pushing and, hopefully, have it sooner than that. We have a public partnership when it comes to the financing and that process takes a long, long time.”
Would a new stadium work for Dundee?
One of the biggest barriers to these plans is the development costs of the project. It could reportedly rise to over £20 million, and for a club like Dundee, those figures are something you can only dream about. Despite this, the Dee could be doing with a move away from Dens Park.
This is Dundee’s best bet for the future. They have been stabilised in the Premiership for four years, and seem to be out of the dark days that clouded the club when they were in administration. The new American owners have brought about stability not seen for a long time at Dens Park.
Despite this, Dundee are far from perfect. They are operating on a loss once again.
On the pitch, the squad looks promising, but the players fail to deliver. Last season especially, the team should have been good enough to challenge for the top six, yet they languished near the bottom.
A season that sees the Dark Blues stay in the Premiership should be considered a success though.
The new stadium is a gateway to the club’s future, or at least it could be. If plans can be carried out right, this move could make Dundee a bigger club. The events at Aberdeen have taught the Dee something, and it’s that these efforts take patience, and lots of time. With the right additions to the squad, and a new stadium, Dundee could be top six regulars in a few years’ time.