York City chief eyes Huntingdon Stadium site for new £17m arena

York Council has been overseeing the two-year project to create the 6,000-seat community stadium, which would be shared between the football club and the York City Knights rugby league team.

The Yorkshire Post revealed on Saturday that a shortlist of four potential sites had been unveiled as the project moved a major step towards becoming a reality amid hopes that the stadium could be operational by 2014. Sites which are now in the running include York City's current stadium at Bootham Crescent, as well as a location called Mill Crux to the north of the Nestle factory and land off

Hull Road near York University's new 500m Heslington East campus.

However, the football club's chairman, Jason McGill, revealed that he favoured a fourth option which would involve demolishing the existing Huntington Stadium before constructing a new purpose-built arena at a cost of up to nearly 17.5m.

All four options would involve the City of York Athletics Club moving from Huntington Stadium, which is also the current home of York City Knights, to the Hull Road Sports Village.

Mr McGill said: "We have got to make a judgement on the four options not only from a sports club's perspective, but also from the view as to which one is the most financially viable.

"I would like to see the new development on the site of Huntington Stadium – I am not saying that it should be renovated, I am saying that it should be demolished and a new stadium built.

"There are a lot of memories at Bootham Crescent, some real high points and triumphs as well as some moments of despair. But it is a stadium that dates from 1932, and it will be very difficult to generate the necessary income if we remain there."

York City are preparing for another season in the Blue Square Premier after missing out on promotion to the football league in a Wembley play-off final against Oxford United in May.

Senior councillors also stressed that the creation of the new stadium is vital to ensuring York City can once again achieve football league status after a six-year exile, as well as promoting sports for communities across the city.

York Council's executive member for city strategy, Coun Steve Galloway, said: "I believe that the rugby and football clubs are a vital part of the leisure scene in the city.

"The football club in particular has struggled within the limitations of an outdated stadium for several decades and there is hardly a club in the country that cannot now boast better facilities.

"The status quo is not an option. The football club needs additional revenue streams to survive."

A public consultation has been launched before the council's executive meets to consider the four options on the shortlist on July 6.

The council has spearheaded a partnership involving representatives from the football club, rugby league outfit and the athletics club, which has looked at other stadium projects across the country.

Coun Galloway admitted that all four options for York would require a "change in traditional planning attitudes" with more flexibility on retail and land use, green belt or public open space.

The council's director of city strategy, Bill Woolley, confirmed that cash would need to be secured from companies behind developments which may not normally have been approved by the authority to offset funding shortfalls running into millions of pounds.

But he stressed the benefits of deals with the private sector would need to outweigh the negatives before planning approval was given.

Details of the public consultation are available at www.york.gov.uk