Two separate sources on the Arsenal mailing list, including the reliable Paul Matz from AISA, say that there will be "bad news" regarding the new stadium in the very near future, possibly as early as tomorrow. People are questioning the timing - wouldn't an announcement tomorrow demoralize the team? People also speculate that a massive remake of Highbury is in the works.
Talk sport said tody that contractors working on the stadium have been told to stop, they quoted Ananova as the source, I've had a quick look but can't find anything. As for the remake of highbury I cant see it as being feasable what with the nimbys, and the lack of space, personally I think this is all adding up to a groundshare with our under achieving nieghbours, at Wembley, which as far as I'm concerned would be a disaster, I know you guys in the states will say I'm spoilt but wembley is such a pain in the arse to get to for most Londoners. I started to suport Arsenal because they were and still are my local team, I would hate them to leave Islington.
Any re-design of Highbury are not very feasible. The ground-share with any club at Wembley, undesirable as it is makes sense-Funds from Arsenal, the other club, and the government would certainly get it done, and from the club's perspective decrease its financial burden considerably allowing it to afford to re-sign our current stars and pursue new players as well. So its not entirely a disaster if this happens, even if it diminishes the magic of Wembley(that's pretty much already happened) and even if it leads to sharing a ground with(trying not to vomit)S***S. I think we need to keep that in mind. We don't want to sell our team to finance this project and then have a crap team to open the new ground as has happened numerous times recently to clubs in this circumstance. And these are rumors right now, I'd wait before reacting until we know for certain what is happening...
A state of the art stadium would be nice but in this economic climate, it might be better to cancel or delay the plans. Given the choice, I'd rather see the money spent on keeping our current players and signing some new ones.
Re: Re: Stadium scrapped? Strong rumors abound... I wouldn't say you're spoilt my Wembley. It is a pain to get there. Having a home pitch shared by rivals doesn't feel right. Here in NY, the MetroStars are lucky to have 25,000 in 77,000 seat Giants Stadium. I don't think the Gunners want that for a Worthless Cup Monday night matchup, but maybe they don't care. I've always fantasized they'd keep Highbury for those things, in addition to Ashburton Grove for the big matches. My point here is that Giants Stadium is shared by the gridiron Giants and Jets, and as a Giants fan, I can't stand it. Wembley didn't work a few years ago, as it wasted any home pitch advantage. Very interesting rumour, this.
This just in from the authoritative sources at Arsenal.com: "Media reports suggesting that the Club's proposed move to a new stadium has been scrapped are completely untrue and we remain fully committed to relocating to Ashburton Grove." Read the full official statement here:http://www.arsenal.com/sportsappcon...e&type=com.sportapps.news.NewsItem&id=3753244 Hope this helps in the rumor department. Vive le AFC! OPArsenal PS - LET ARSENAL SUPPORT ISLINGTON!!!! ____________________ [size=0.75]“OPArsenal, you rock!” – Farrell Fan, singing the praises of a punk kid from Vice City[/size]