Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Good news on Dens, but I’m wary of wilderness
THAT Dens Park could soon be back in the hands of Dundee FC is very good news.
However, I am still left with plenty of doubts over the club’s plans for the future.
Or rather the plans Dundee’s American owners have for the club.
To help fund part of the development at Camperdown Park, Tim Keyes and John
Nelms are planning to buy back Dens and then sell it off for profit.
It’s a plan that sounds good in principle, as long as you have someone willing to pay more than you paid for it.
My big, big worry is Dens is sold and the new stadium plans continue like they have for years now – stuck in the mud and not going anywhere.
Ground-sharing is all right when you can see the end point, with building work already started on the new place.
But if Dens is gone and the Dark Blues are playing at McDiarmid Park or wherever with only a promise of construction beginning at Camperdown, that worries me greatly.
There’s a huge risk of the club turning into a kind of footballing nomad.
Because the only real reason the “New Campy” plans have been gathering dust for so many years is the finance isn’t in place yet.
The money isn’t there as it stands. A chunk of that will, hopefully, come from selling Dens.
But will it be enough to get the diggers and cement mixers heading out to Camperdown? I have my doubts.
After one season playing in Perth, they could still be in the same position as they were at the start of the process.
And that would be a disaster.
However, as I said at the start of this column, the news is still really positive for Dundee.
Over nearly eight years in charge, questions have continued to be raised over the commitment of Keyes and Nelms long-term.
But the manner in which Nelms is pressing on with the development of Camperdown means the Americans have no intention of stepping away.
And considering the club’s history over the past 20 years, continued financial stability is very much a good thing.
It’s also only right that the ancestral home of the Dark Blues is owned by the club.
Saying that, however,
John Bennett – the man who currently owns the stadium – deserves huge credit for what he has done for the club. Both clubs in the city, in fact.
Yes, he has made a lot of money from renting the venue back to the club.
However, a less benevolent businessman could have easily sold the place off, taken the money and ran.
But he’s adamant he’ll only sell it back to Dundee FC.
That means the current custodians of the club can decide what happens to their home.
That is only right.
However, there really has to be some sort of assurance that any ground-sharing begins with the knowledge it is a short-term necessity.
If it isn’t, there could be years in the wilderness ahead for Dundee.