Bristol Rovers to revamp stadium

Bristol City Council gave the green light to English League Two club Bristol Rovers to remodel Memorial Stadium into an 18,500-seat arena, according to the BBC.

Bristol plays at the Filton Avenue field that it shares with the Bristol Rugby Club.

The stadium currently seats 11,916 but that figure is reduced to 11,724 once the separation of home and away fans is taken into account.

"This is a massive step forward," said Bill Smith, Bristol's chief executive. "There's still an awful lot of work to be done, but this is the first and possibly biggest hurdle we will have to overcome."

Both clubs have to find a temporary home while the Memorial Stadium is redeveloped.

The rugby club's chief executive David White has implied that Bristol City's Ashton Gate ground could be its choice, having already played Bath there in December.

"We cannot be out of pocket but the obvious place for us is Ashton Gate."

Bristol has several ground sharing options to consider. A possible return to Bath City's Twerton Park, where it played between 1986 and 1996, may be the temporary club field.

"Ashton Gate is not far away, but let's not be emotive and say it would be putting funds into the coffers of a competitor - and there may be an unacceptably high police bill," said Smith.

"If I were a betting man, I would be inclined to bet in favour of the rugby club winding up there, which would tend to rule us out. Swindon is also a licensed Football League ground and they would love to have us."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.