Cambridge United reveal vision for new multi-purpose stadium to the east of the city

Cambridge United have unveiled ambitions to build a new stadium that will be at the heart of strategic plans for development to the east of the city.

U’s chief executive Ian Mather will reveal the hopes to relocate to land close to junction 35, Stow cum Quy, of the A14 to business leaders at the Built Environment Conference at the Guildhall today (Wednesday).

In May, Marshall stated its intention to relocate Cambridge Airport and its aerospace and defence business, paving the way for a development of 12,000 homes in the eastern part of the city.

United held preliminary talks with Marshall on a potential future stadium location, and are now putting forward more detailed proposals.

In discussion with Marshall and Cambridgeshire County Council, the club have identified a site close to the A14 for a 12,000-seater stadium on green belt land owned by the local authority.

The club have worked with leading architects KSS to come up with a sustainable design and location for the structure, which could also become a hub for future transport plans for the city, linking with the possible relocation of the Newmarket Park & Ride and the ambitious plans for the CAM Metro.

“It’s massively exciting,” said Mr Mather. “It’s exciting because when I look at all of the angles, this is in the flow of what politicians want and what landowners want.

“Marshall and the county council submitted their land to the call for sites [an early part of the Local Plan process], in that submission they said that they would like to include a new home for a community stadium for Cambridge United.

“We have landowners who are supportive of this, it also fits with planning ideas to develop out to the east of Cambridge. I’m conscious we’re in the middle of a planning process which is about a call for sites.

“This land is in green belt, it’s subject to that call for sites concluding and this site being included within the planning envelope.

“There are lots of reasons to say it should be, and if it is, this is a very good site for it.

“It presents a more sustainable option because you can locate the stadium closer to the A14.

“There is potential to move the Park & Ride – free that land up – closer to the A14 and there is also the potential to put in the metro link, which I think Cambridge really does need.

“The metro going out to the east is already in the Greater Cambridge Partneship (GCP) plans and you can put a metro stop next to the stadium. It would mean people could travel from Cambridge central station to the stadium in five to seven minutes.”

United have been looking for a new home ever since selling the Abbey Stadium to Bideawhile 445 Ltd, partly-owned by John Howard, in 2004.

Grosvenor bought the ground from Mr Howard’s company in 2010, and has been actively helping the club search for a new home ever since.

There were hopes to build a sports village on green belt land at Trumpington, initially to house a new stadium, but there was never a groundswell of opinion in favour and the plans were eventually withdrawn in 2017.

It meant that redeveloping the Abbey, for which the club have a long-term lease, became the focus of United’s plans for a more modern stadium but that also met with problems.

“With previous plans at Trumpington, I came into that in 2016. The difficulty there was that it was a site which nobody wanted other than the football club and the landowner, Grosvenor, so we were going against the political flow,” said Mr Mather. “I think there were merits in that scheme, but in the end it was on green belt land and the political will was against it, and the application was withdrawn.

“On the current site at the Abbey, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at that in detail with local developers, Wrenbridge, who have been very good and supportive.

“But when you boil it down, there is a funding gap of about £20m, which is linked to the need for 40 per cent affordable housing [on a redeveloped Abbey site] and all the restrictions on height that you can build around here.”

United have always been keen to remain in the Abbey ward, their home since 1932.

The club are rooted in the area and its community trust work is flourishing in one of the most deprived areas of the city.

Marshall’s plans to relocate the airport brought forward that possibility, with the site only a mile from its current home, but there are plenty of hoops to jump through, not least the aspect of funding.

It is anticipated that the cost of building the new stadium would be between £40m and £50m, although it is felt that the possibility of hosting other services within the footprint of the new site – such as medical, conference and community facilities – may prove attractive for any potential investors in the scheme.

“Somebody who I respect in the world of building stadia said ‘first of all, you’ve got to actually bake a cake before you can sell it’,” said Mr Mather. “To that extent, if we can create something which actually is perceived and genuinely is of value in terms of the revenue it can generate by being used as more than just a football stadium, and it is of sufficiently high quality and sustainable construction, I think the funding will follow.”