Last updated at 08:37, Tuesday, 22 May 2012

WHEN Carlisle United managing director John Nixon looks up, he sees the dizzying heights of Championship football gazing enticingly back down at him.

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The Blues’ ambitions are unquestionable, their efforts this season a testament to that, but one thing is standing in their way.

The much-loved Brunton Park stadium, built within walking distance of the city centre and surrounded on three sides by residential streets, feels like home to the thousands of United fans that flock there on matchday.

Close to the motorway for visiting and home fans alike, within marshalling distance of the station Brunton Park seems like the perfect lower league stadium.

Beneath the surface, however, things aren’t quite a rosy as they seem.

The 102-year-old stadium is in desperate need of updating. The club has been advised that it would cost at least £18m to redevelop the infrastructure to meet all the necessary standards, including a ruling that would involve having an all-seater stadium in place within three years of promotion.

A financial commitment of that kind at a time when United would be forced to invest in squads and facilities just to maintain a Championship standing would prove overwhelming for a club of their size and income.

So the search started for alternatives... and the top secret Project Blue Yonder looked at as many as 17 potential sites all over Carlisle, some of which were almost instantly ruled out while others showed real potential.

After months of crafting a realistic blueprint for United’s future the club finally announced to fans and shareholders that their preferred option was to build a brand new stadium on land at Kingmoor Park industrial estate, a site on the outskirts of town and one which was growing increasingly in importance thanks to the then-upcoming Carlisle Northern Development Route (CNDR) and a steady influx of high-profile companies wanting to make a home at Kingmoor Park.

The proposal is for a 12,000 capacity all-seater stadium and training centre at the site.

The news was greeted with a mixture of excitement and trepidation by United’s fans.

Some saw it as a clear message that here was a club with its sights firmly set on life outside the lower reaches of English football, excited by the prospect of a shiny new stadium and facilities.

Others expressed concern at the site’s distance from the city centre, forcing almost all of the club’s fan base to travel to matches. Some doubted whether the club could actually finance a move given far from capacity crowds in recent seasons.

John Nixon, however, was adamant. To compete with the likes of Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest in the Championship things needed to change at Carlisle United.

“We perceived the Kingmoor Park site to be the most appropriate in terms of enabling development.

“It also provides a robust development partner with the financial backing to promote a scheme of this size,” says Mr Nixon.

“The costs associated with the redevelopment of Brunton Park are so high that, if this route were to be pursued, achieving and maintaining Championship football would be highly unlikely and would saddle the club with extensive debt.

“As owners and directors, we are merely stewards of the club, guiding it forwards to be successful both on and off the pitch.

“We appreciate that Brunton Park has been the home of Carlisle United FC for just over 100 years and that it is the fans’ spiritual home, so we will require some powers of persuasion to assure the faithful that the new development is best for Carlisle United FC.

“Considering all the options carefully we feel the only viable route would be a new stadium which could be built for the same costs as redeveloping Brunton Park, or less.

“Most importantly, this route would not burden the club with any significant debt and would, in our view, provide the foundations for long-term progress and the possibility of Premiership football.”

Now the dust has begun to settle on the announcement, United say their recent run of form has only served to highlight the need for the new stadium.

Pointing to the potential benefit such a development would bring to the city as a whole, Mr Nixon says they would far rather spend the money the club would receive from promotion on building a squad to boost their chances of staying in a higher league than on renovating a stadium likely to continue haemorrhaging cash.

“The extra £2m or £3m of income promotion would generate would be spent on the stadium and not the team if we stay here [Brunton Park],” he explains. “We want the new stadium proposals to go forward to have that income to spend on the team rather than an old stadium.

“I think we’re lifting the profile of the city. We have made good progress in the four years we have had our current management team and we are continuing to try and progress and build the club, which should be something the city is proud of.”

Another United director, Lord David Clark, also agrees this season’s progress adds weight to the new stadium call.

“It shows that if we’re going to move forward, we probably need a new ground,” says Lord Clark. “People want the club to succeed and having a new ground would be part of that success.”

United’s move from Brunton Park would be part-funded by an enabling development, built in conjunction with the stadium. Details of what that may be have not yet been confirmed.

In fact, despite the ambition of the club and its directors, formal plans for those developments have not yet been lodged with Carlisle City Council.

Mr Nixon, however, believes there is cross-party political support for the proposals from within the authority and from city MP John Stevenson.

The plans for a stadium and its enabling development are just some elements of a boom at Kingmoor Park on the back of the city’s new western bypass opening.

A number of companies are finalising deals to move onto the estate with three food retailers and a convenience store/petrol station operator also being lined up to take units on its centrepiece hub development.

It’s all evidence to Kingmoor Park’s chief executive Tony Goddard that Carlisle is a city on the up. “The stadium plan is important because it will turn the park from a five-day-a-week site to a seven-days-a-week one,” said Mr Goddard. “It will create a critical mass of people coming in – 6,000 to 7,000 people coming here every other Saturday. If we can bring the stadium it will give us greater opportunity to put like-minded businesses on the site. It could really push us into the leisure sector. Carlisle is pretty short of entertainment facilities.”

First published at 13:46, Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Published by http://www.in-cumbria.com