CITY PLAN MAY GIVE CLUBS A 600-MILE GAME DAY
NATIONAL LEAGUE North clubs could face a lengthy trip to the south west next season if Gloucester City’s Meadow Park home is not ready for the start of next season.
The Tigers were due to mark the 2020-21 with an emotional homecoming having not played in their home city for 13 years after severe flooding forced them to leave with their ground unplayable.
Construction on their new 3,208-capacity ground, with 4G pitch, has been taking place this year with the club due to move in over the summer.
But with progress on the project hindered by the coronavirus crisis, concerns have been raised as to whether the completion date will have to be put back, leaving the club still homeless for the start of the 2020-21 campaign.
This week, co-chairman Alex Petherham admitted that primary discussions have already taken place for the Tigers to play home games temporarily at Bath’s Twerton Park stadium, 46 miles away, until work is complete.
He said: “With the season still on pause and we’ve no idea what or even when anything will happen on that front, we’re very much in uncharted waters. We don’t know when we’ll be back to full speed ahead at MP and we don’t know if we’ll have to revert to our plan B.
“We have spoken to Bath City as an option if we’re delayed, but as we don’t even know when this season will end and how long we’ll be in ‘lockdown’, looking forward to next season would just be guessing.”
Since leaving Meadow Park in 2007, the club have played at Forest Green Rovers’ The New Lawn, Cirencester’s Corinium Stadium, Cheltenham’s Whaddon Road and Evesham’s Jubilee Stadium.
Twerton Park, home of the National League South Romans, is a whopping 640-mile round trip for Blyth Spartans and 570 miles to Spennymoor Town.