With the team performing better than we have seen in sometime, notwithstanding some poorer results recently, the new stadium proposals, with the Planning Permission in Principle application now submitted, and the recently announced partnership with Burnley, there is a lot of excitement around the Dundee support just now.
The Burnley link is particularly intriguing to me as I spent several years living in the Lancashire town. My wife and I still have friends down there, and I was last at Turf Moor earlier this season. It is a fantastic club from a great part of the world, and I hope that this partnership delivers for all parties.
The Dee4Life board is obviously delighted by the prospect of Dundee taking steps forward on and off the park but – as I outlined last month – the founding principes of the Trust mean we must always ask questions about developments, even those that appear exciting and potentially transformative.
With that in mind, we have submitted a series of questions (see below) relating to the stadium development. I hope that the club takes the time to consider these and provides answers that will go some way to addressing the concerns that members tell us they still have about the Camperdown plan.
At our November AGM we agreed to hold a follow up meeting in the first quarter of 2024, and I can confirm that this will take place on the evening of Monday 18 March. Following on from another suggestion, this will be online to allow a wider selection of members than usual to attend. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible then. Further details, including how members can join the meeting, will follow in our next update.
Ahead of that discussion, we want to gauge the views of members about how the Trust and the club and to find out a bit more about you and how we can best represent you. To this end, we have compiled a short survey which members will find in their email inbox. I would be most grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill in before the end of February.
Thanks for your time and I am hopeful February gives us more league points.
Regards
Keith Winter, Chair
Questions submitted to the Dundee FC board via club SLO John Burke:
1. When will the full planning application likely be submitted? Or any submissions required by the grant of the current PPIP under any attached conditions, notably suspensive conditions?
2. Is the target of football being played in the new stadium by summer 2025 still valid given the fact that planning permission in principle still has to be determined?
3. What are the phasing arrangements for the delivery of the elements contained in the development mix? Will the football facilities be included in the first phase or is the stadium contingent on the successful delivery of the other, revenue-generating elements?
4.Will Dundee FC own the stadium? If not, will the rental terms be set at a commercial rate or on other terms, such as a set percentage of the club’s turnover?
5. If the club is not to own the stadium, will the club pay more in rent than the current arrangements at Dens Park?
6. The ONS notes that private commercial construction costs have risen by around 30% in the past seven years, including approximately 14% since December 2021. Interest rates have risen significantly in this time too. How has all this impacted on the affordability of the project?
What protections are in place for the club should DBPH experience financial difficulties that prevent the project from being delivered, or the company to cease trading?
7. Records from the Land Registry suggest that both the Camperdown site and Dens Park have been used as security against loans obtained from the Soho Green finance company. Is this correct, what has this finance been used for and have the loans been repaid? What guarantees can be given that Dens Park will not be lost if repayments are not met?
8. Is finance in place for the new stadium development and is this in the form of investment or lending? If it is the latter, are the club liable for repayments of this?
9. Whilst the planning application process and subsequent development takes place what are the arrangements and investments planned for Dens Park?
10. In any delay on delivery of the Camperdown proposal what is the strategy and practical arrangement for the continuing use and operation of Dens Park over each of say 3, 5, 7-year periods or indeed indefinitely?
11. Should planning permission be refused or should the development fail to materialise for any other reason, what is the club’s Plan B position?
Dee4Life 