Leamington Football Club COULD be getting a new ground
We're told a deal is still far from being done
Last updated 15th Apr 2024
Leamington Football Club could be getting a new ground, with Warwick District Council saying a deal is still far from done.
Fans of the Brakes - who are challenging for promotion in England's seventh tier of football - were presented with proposals for a council-owned facility last week.
In the plans, a 4,000-capacity ground were put forward which includes a three-storey building that houses the main stand.
The new ground will be run autonomously by the club through a 150-year lease.
It would be part of a wider masterplan for land to the south-west of Leamington off Europa Way, Gallows Hill and Myton Road which includes housing, residential amenities, education provision to help cater for larger housing developments nearby, a separate relocated athletics track as well as offices and the already-built BMW car showroom on Fusiliers Way, near Warwick Technology Park.
Consultations on the plans are earmarked for August this year, with another at a later date.
There are various other stages to go through before a tentative target date of starting building work in early 2027 in order to open the stadium in July 2028.
It would be a particularly big step forward for the football club which was a major player at the sharp end of the non-league game until the 1980s.
The Brakes got denied promotion back to the Alliance Premier League – now the National League, the top tier outside the Football League – in 1983 and on-field fortunes plummeted following the news that Automotive Parts Leamington would be selling its ground at the time for housing.
The club was mothballed in 1988 and sat out until 2000 following the development of its current headquarters, The New Windmill Ground, Harbury Lane. It is some four miles south of the town centre with limited transport links.
If delivered, the council plans to use the current football club site as a gypsy traveller site, while the current athletics provision would be turned into public open space.