Football's coming home

Rotherham MBC's Cabinet today agreed to loan the football club £5 million towards the cost of the £17.3 million stadium. The club itself has been working to raise over £12 million from other sources.

The new 12,000 seater stadium planned for the former Guest and Chrimes site is a major part of the regeneration of Rotherham and will provide state-of the art facilities both for football fans on matchdays and for schools, community groups and businesses to use at other times throughout the year.

Rotherham United FC Chairman Tony Stewart said: "From day one of my tenure at Rotherham United Football Club, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council have been as determined as I to make this happen, not just for the Football Club but for our Town.

"The final building blocks are now in place thanks to the support of a number of partners particularly the Local Authority and Yorkshire Forward.

"By continuing to work as a team, in partnership, we've managed to overcome all the trip wires and hurdles throughout the long journey that this project has presented and now we can all look forward to witnessing the stadium being constructed."

Councillor Roger Stone, Leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, said: "The new community stadium is a key to the regeneration of Rotherham town centre and we have always supported the club and the wish to have Rotherham United back playing in the town. It's fantastic that a local entrepreneur and the club are prepared to invest so much in the town and leave such a positive legacy.

"The terms of the agreement mean that there will be no cost to Rotherham's council taxpayers, but our residents, schools, businesses and voluntary and community groups will reap the benefits for years to come - by using the facilities or by the stadium generating more town centre visitors on matchdays.

"It is vitally important that as a council we should use the powers available to us to raise money to help projects and initiatives that can bring about significant regeneration and income generation for our Borough.  On that basis we have been happy to work in partnership with the club to ensure the project can move forward and bring our team back home."

Work to prepare the site has begun and work on the stadium itself is due to start soon. The Stadium is due to open at the start of the 2012/13 season.