Sounds like that analysis I did a while back, where I concluded it would be M40 corridor.
Overlay the M40 junctions with rail stations that have decent access and direct services to London, Coventry and the West Midlands.
Then proximity to Henley in Arden.
If they are planning hotels and conference facilities, an International airport needs to be near(ish).
Take all of that, and J13-J15 M40 would be the approximate area. Leamington gives you the rail links. Leamington also gives you the M40/M42, but also great links up to Leicester (M69), North West up the M6 and North East up the M42/M1. It also has the housing/schools where players would like to live. Birmingham and Coventry airports are nearby (as is Wellesbourne if you are a private plane or helicopter flyer).
JLR have a massive site down the road at Gaydon (but the Gaydon junction on the M40 is pretty useless for any other access except JLR).
Then there is the problem of finding a site. Given the timescale they mention, it has to be a site that already has some form of approval for a stadium, and the only place on that M40 corridor from Oxford to Henley is in Leamington.
To which a number of trolls on social media have told me I am off my #### thinking that site could be used.
I think it was your previous analysis I was referring to above when I talked about Banbury etc. Did try and find it on the old "search" thingy, but to no avail.
Where's the site in Leam with approval?
From the Warwick District Council Local Plan (page 27) - adopted September 2017 for the period 2011 - 2029:
DS14 Allocation of Land for a Community Stadium and associated uses
Land at Myton, adjoining Warwick Technology Park (as shown on the Policies Map) is allocated as a
Community Stadium to provide a community sports complex and complementary uses.
Explanatory Text
2.59 The allocation of this land for a community stadium and associated uses will provide an opportunity to
establish a sustainable location for a new stadium and sports facility for the area. A range of
appropriate complementary uses could also be considered. Across the wider site to the west of
Europa Way (H01), other services and facilities will also be required and could be provided within the
area allocated for the Community Stadium.
The plan envisaged it for use by Leamington FC, but it isn't happening. This is a link to the plans:
https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/5228/community_stadium_project_site_master_plan.pdfLots of local grumbling and mumbling that, other than a few houses (Item #6 = profitable) and the new car showroom (Item #1 - Rybrook BMW), the rest is not progressing. The hotel, doctor's surgery and community centre, nor the SEN school, nor the primary school, nor the athletics track, nor the care home.
WDC had hoped to sell their existing SEN school in Warwick (a few yards from where I used to live decades ago), the existing athletics track in Leamington to part fund it, along with funds from building houses on the existing football pitch. But, it still needed a lot of extra funding. The NHS was unwilling to fund the medical facilities, no private care company wanted to fund the care home, no hotel group wanted the hotel site. Well, you get the picture. I can drive down Fusiliers Way, but the road has not been adopted by the council and is not on Google Streetview (the latest Streetview images taken on Gallows Hill are from early 2022 and show mud and weeds. The latest satellite images are over a year old (summer of 2021). The existing football ground cannot have houses until the junction of that road (Harbury Lane) and the Fosse Way (a notorious local accident black spot) has been fixed, and they are doing those works right now. A whole new village is being built (2000 houses, GP surgery, primary school). Curiously, this is in Stratford upon Avon District, not Warwick.
Some of those amenities might happen, many will not (no funding streams). If any of you have been down to Warwick School to watch some of the U18 matches, this site backs on to their playing fields.
That was my guess back then, and still is. Leamington FC were only ever hoping to be tenants at the stadium, and wanted WDC to pick up the cost of the build and running costs. As we know, that is not financially going to happen. The council needs someone with money to come in and take the project on, and for them to own and run the site, and for them to rent to Leamington FC. Who play in Black and Gold. The timeline for Leamington FC is urgent, as they will soon lose their ground. I think next few seasons could be their last at the current ground, but by 24/25, or 25/26, they need a new ground.
Always a Wasp
