THE costs associated with building Oxford United’s proposed new stadium at The Triangle are being analysed on a weekly basis, a senior figure at the club has revealed.
United are looking to build a 16,000-capacity ground south of Kidlington Roundabout, with a budget north of £100 million set for the construction.
That figure surpasses the £71m it cost for Brentford to build their new 17,250-capacity stadium, which opened in 2020.
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U’s property director John Clarke said: “These stadiums are incredibly expensive if you want to do them right, and we absolutely want to do it right.
“We’ve got a total construction cost of over £100 million. It’s a bold commitment from the shareholders and the football club, but it’s something we’ve got one shot of getting right and we want to do something that the whole of Oxfordshire can be proud of.
“We’re talking about costs weekly and monthly as we’re going through the process, to make sure we get this right and to make sure we can afford what we’re putting out there.”
On September 19, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet approved in principle the lease of The Triangle, however a number of conditions must be met.
These include United obtaining planning permission from Cherwell District Council and the production of a net zero carbon plan.
Clarke said: “Sustainability is incredibly high on our agenda. We’ve got an opportunity to develop something that the whole of Oxfordshire can be proud of.
“Oxfordshire County Council in the decision on the 19th has rightfully set us some stringent requirements and some targets, as we’ve set ourselves.
“Our architects AFL and Mott MacDonald are choosing materials that will allow us to achieve our sustainable goals.
“For example, at the moment we’re talking about whether we have the roof structure made of timber or steel.
“We’ve got polycarbonate instead of glass in some locations in the stadium, so we’re making those decisions and going through the process of ensuring that what we do develop is highly sustainable.”
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Last week, CGI images and a virtual flythrough of what the proposed new stadium could look like were released, offering U’s supporters a first glimpse of the plans.
Asked how closely they could mirror the planned ground, Clarke responded: “These are concept designs at the moment. We’ve got to go through a full planning process.
“We hope that they’ll reflect what will actually get built, but until we’ve gone through that process, there are likely to be some changes from the images, but hopefully not too much.”
He added: “There’s been some incredibly bright people doing some incredibly hard work over a period of months, and I’d like to thank them.
“But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there’s some incredibly important work to continue to do.”
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