JIM SPENCE: I'm worried for future of Dundee FC as stadium exasperation grows

The Courier

12 hours ago

I'm worried for the future of Dundee FC.
The owners, and perhaps the city council, could be doing much more to allay concerns that the club's safety is guaranteed, irrespective of what happens with the proposed new stadium at Camperdown Park.
If the American owners called time and pulled the plug on their ownership of the club, who could or would step into the breach to save it?
Managing Director John Nelms is exasperated with road planning authorities and the council over the hold ups to the project, and the war of words is becoming increasingly tetchy.
But hoping to pressure planners in any public spat is inevitably doomed to failure.
Nelms and the US-based Tim Keyes have owned the Dens Park club for 12 years and feel that its future can best be secured with the Camperdown project which will bring steady revenues in.
Some critics have asked how much of the income will actually go directly to the football club as opposed to Dark Blue Property Holdings, the company behind the projects, which is owned by Keyes and Nelms.
I'd ask a different question – if the Americans walked away from their long-term investment in Dundee FC who, if anyone, would step in to rescue the club?
Six Scottish Premiership clubs are now American-owned.
I suspect that's because owning a club is now too rich for the kind of local business folk who once did.
I know of no one locally who would invest at Dens or probably any other Scottish club.
Other than the ego trip and the fact that most owners have spare wealth, it's difficult to see why anyone would want to put hard earned cash into football.
Previous owners at Dundee FC like Peter and Jimmy Marr found that their grand ambitions came at a heavy personal cost.
I had a coffee with Peter last year and the money he told me he and his brother lost in their attempt to restore the dark blue glory years made my eyes water.
Dens Park could undoubtedly be refurbished allowing the team to continue there.
It would however require substantial investment in bringing the tired main stand and the Dens Road enclosure up to levels acceptable in the modern game.
And it doesn't address the issue of how Dundee – in administration twice, in 2003 and 2010 – increase the revenue which the owners feel is needed to operate a top-flight football club.
The way they reckon they can do that is by going ahead with a new stadium at Camperdown, where their plans for a crematorium, hotel and residential development will assist in generating revenue to help with the development of the football operation.
As The Courier has previously revealed, the club looked at five other potential new stadium sites before choosing Camperdown.
Those included the former gasworks earmarked for the Eden Project, two sites at Caird Park including where the Regional Performance Centre now stands, and at Drumgeith and also the land next to St John's High School.
None met the criteria the club felt was required to incorporate all the desired elements.
But what happens if the development doesn't get the go ahead?
What is the future for Dundee FC?
Before they bought the stadium from previous owner John Bennett, Dundee were paying almost half a million pounds a year in rental and energy costs.
They may now be saving on the rent, but any money spent on maintaining Dens in its current dilapidated state is throwing good money after bad in trying to meet present day building standards.
There doesn't appear to be any quick resolution in the pipeline on the stadium.
But an affirmation from those involved that the club is safe, come what may, would help quell any understandable lingering fears for the future of a hugely important city institution.