Cardiff City given stadium lifeline by council

The Football League club has been given an ultimatum by the council to deliver the new stadium by the end of the year or the council will step in to make sure it's finished. Council leader Rodney Berman warned that he could not allow continuing delays over the 30,000 project at Leckwith.

It opens up the possibility of the council following the lead of Swansea where the stadium was built by the local authority and then leased back to the Swans football club and the Ospreys regional rugby team.

Cardiff council has reached agreement with developers Capital & Regional allowing them extra time until December 31 to reach a target of pre-letting two-thirds of retail space, which would trigger the release of funding to build the Leckwith scheme. The last deadline ran out on April 30 and so far only American Warehouse Company Costco has signed up.

"We can't just let this drift on indefinitely. If the football club is not able to deliver then we would consider stepping in. I think December 31 is a fair and reasonable time to gauge whether progress is being made,” Berman commented to media.