Community Stadium - Unnecessary, Unpopular and Expensive

Earlier this week and to no-one's surprise Booker Air Park was confirmed as the preferred site of both Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps. Wycombe District Council, the third party in the proposed Community Stadium, are currently conducting a public consultation over the shortlisted three sites. The announcement came swiftly on the revelation by the Bucks Free Press published of the results of a financial report into the proposed stadium that suggested total costs could extend beyond £88 Million, with a substantial funding shortfall identified. Under the terms of the partnership with the Council, the two sports clubs are between them responsible for generating half of this total figure. The Council will generate the rest of the funding through public sector investment opportunities.

At a time when the Conservative-led Coalition Government is (rightly) promoting an aggressive programme of cuts to reduce the national deficit left by the previous Labour government, it is scarcely believable that a Conservative Council could dedicate so much public money to a scheme such as this. The consultancy process is clearly showing that there is significant local opposition to the proposal, which is seen as little more than an attempt to see the Clubs' owner Steve Hayes 'feather his nest' through investment in the ancillary aspects of the Community Stadium - principally the 200 bed hotel which is proposed as part of the plan.

Constituents rightly ask why public funding should be used to support a largely private sector initiative. They point to the fact that Wycombe Wanderers Football Club has an average attendance of ~5,000 and their place in League 2. They note that attendances at London Wasps are also falling with the club only managing a miserable attendance of 8,006 to a recent high profile encounter with Leicester, the biggest RFU Club in the country. Constituents are therefore entitled to ask whether it is necessary to build a 20,000 seater stadium in Wycombe, largely at public expense, when the attendances of neither club warrant such a large capacity. Friends at SMBU have composed an Open Letter to Steve Hayes asking him to outline the benefits to Wycombe Wanderers Football Club on both this and other matters, and we await a reply with interest.

In the current financial climate, this is a fight the Council doesn't need. Councils have already been told that council taxes will be frozen, meaning that there will be no additional income to support any new projects. While Wycombe District Council is rightly introducing cuts elsewhere, the dogged support for this White Elephant of a Stadium belies the overall strategy to reduce the demand on the public purse. Laudable initiatives are having to be cancelled up and down the country because the nation cannot afford it. In this background it is inconceivable that this initiative should be pushed ahead with when it is unnecessary (neither club can justify the need for such a large capacity), unpopular (as shown at the public consultation events across the district, in letters, press and on websites) and expensive (£88M and rising).

This is one cut that will be popular!