The Stadium (8 replies)

A few weeks ago I mentioned about bumping into a fellow dog walker who works in the surveying industry, and he was at the meeting at St Andrews with several other interested parties to throw around a few ideas, feasibilities, etc. Whilst not going into great detail, what he said was bourn out to be on the mark.

Anyhow, I met him again today and asked if he knew of any updates. He said more than 10 architectural firms had been approached to come up with a design for the stadium. Whilst not wanting to give any names away, he said think of the typical names that have been involved in recent stadium designs across the world, from Europe, the Middle East, America, to Hong Kong, etc. He said they're all big players, and Populous was one name he agreed was involved in the process.

He added that it doesn't take too long to come up with some design concepts, a few months (as I'm sure many of here are well aware of) and sees no reason why a short list of, say, four couldn't be pinned down by the autumn and one chosen by the years end/early next year.

The main issue, as he sees it, is one of scheduling/timetabling so many projects. Whilst the Etihad stadium and campus is clearly the inspiration, that has evolved over 20-ish years. KH want the SQ in a much shorter timeframe. It might be that priorities are given to the stadium(s) and approaches to act as a catalyst for the rest. However, I imagine if Knighthead say something can happen, it most likely will happen.