Article : Stadium Plans April '07

Pompey have put down the clearest marker yet they intend to be a major player in the the Premiership in the next few years with the announcement of the location of their new stadium...

Location. Location. Location. The estate agent's mantra has been well and truly received and understood by Pompey with surely one of the most breathtaking proposals to build a new stadium for a football club Britain has ever seen. With land at a premium in the second most densely populated part of the United Kingdom, the decision to reclaim land from the sea in the heart of the historic and cultural heart of the city looks simply inspired. Throw in a transport interchange on its doorstep most clubs would die for, getting to the new ground by public transport from Portsmouth and beyond could not be simpler: a sustainable stadium for a sustainable football club.

And then there's the coup de theatre: the stadium itself. Wow! And wow again. Not for us the off-the-shelf, identikit stadiums of Saints, Leicester and Derby. Even Bolton and Huddersfield's innovative designs are left looking very 20th century. It may not have the scale of Old Trafford or the Emirates, but even with a capacity of around 40,000, this stadium will be up there among the most iconic arenas the game has to offer. By day it looks spectacular. By night, it will be stunning.

If Gaydamak can pull off this audacious, soaring, angular, yet rounded and proportioned product of a prestigious architect's imagination Portsmouth Football Club are looking to put themselves well and truly in the elite league of European football. No more, no less. This is more than a stadium. It is a landmark. Another chapter in the economic re-generation of a proud city and a statement of intent Pompey are in the Premiership for the long haul.

What could go wrong? Plenty of course, but this seems more like the real deal than any other plan laid before fans in the past. To get to this stage alone will have cost a small fortune: bespoke designs like this don't come cheap.

But now is simply a time to marvel at what our club could be in just four years' time.

(www.pompeyfans.com)