Cambridge: New Stadium Plans
25 April 2012, 11:46 | Updated: 25 April 2012, 12:22
Early sketches of what a new stadium for Cambridge United Football Club could look like have been revealed.
The proposals for what's being called a 'sporting village' in Trumpington include:
- An 8,000 capacity stadium
- An indoor sports dome
- Facilities for the Cambridge United Youth & Community Trust
- Outdoor sports pitches
- Community leisure facilities, including a commercial gym, restaurant and conferencing & function facilities
- Sports Science labs and classroom for Anglia Ruskin University
- New facilities for the British Judo Association
- Elite athlete testing centre
The facility would replace Cambridge United's current ground, The R Costings Abbey Stadium on Newmarket Road in Cambridge.
Ed Skeates, Grosvenor’s Projects Director, said: "Our vision for the Cambridge Sporting Village is of a new community stadium surrounded by inspirational and accessible sporting facilities for the community.
There will be a variety of sports catered for but a central part of our plan is to provide an exciting and sustainable future for Cambridge United and the Cambridge United Youth and Community Trust.
Chris White, Wrenbridge Director, said: "The stadium will provide a stunning architectural gateway to the City and be an inspiration for the local community to get active.
There is a clear need for accessible sporting facilities in Cambridge and this is an ideal opportunity to meet this need in a location which offers an abundance of transport options.
We are very excited to be part of the Cambridge Sporting Village project."
David West, Director of Studio Egret West, the architects behind the Cambridge Sporting Village, said: "The community stadium has been designed as an integrated, mixed use building with use and materiality complementing both urban and rural aspects.
This has led to two unique and responsive elevations. Rather than a stand alone building the community stadium will mesh into the surrounding built and natural Cambridge landscape."
Cambridge United First Team Manager Jez George said: "Seeing these early designs is really exciting for the whole football club.
We already know how important the Cambridge Sporting Village is for our future but seeing these fantastic early ideas of how it could look really lifts everyone at the club.
The new stadium is vital to the future of this club and the CUYCT. We are so much more than just a football club and this stadium will give us the opportunity to expand the Trust’s community activities and get this Football Club back into The Football League."
Cambridge Fans United Chairman, Dave Matthews-Jones, said: "Although we will all be sad to see the club leave its R Costings Abbey Stadium home it is essential for the long term future of the club that we find a new home.
The Cambridge Sporting Village is the best opportunity the club has had in years and its time now for everyone who wants to see United move into modern and inspiring sports facilities to get behind the idea and help make it happen."
The plans are currently still in the developmental stage and would need to pass planning permission.
Click here to visit the Cambridge Sporting Village website.
Meanwhile developers Grosvenor and Wrenbridge will soon be holding a consultation event on the future of Cambridge United's current Abbey Stadium site.
The public consultation drop-in evening is being held in the Cambridge United Supporters Club at the Abbey Stadium, in Newmarket Road, Cambridge, on Monday April 30 between 6pm and 9pm.
Ed Skeates, Grosvenor’s Projects Director, said:"We are fully committed to creating a new home for the football club and we are progressing well with those plans, as residents of the Abbey ward will hopefully be aware of by now.
However, the redevelopment of the Abbey Stadium site is an important part of the overall business plan for the new stadium so we must begin to look in detail at what is possible there."