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6,000 more seats as plans leaked to take Ibrox pitch under the Clyde

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That old Ibrox favourite of plans for an expanded stadium has been refreshed today with The Athletic outlining plans to add 6,000 underground seats.

For decades Dave Murray looked into ways to expand the stadium. After the construction of the Club Deck the corners were partially filled in but the construction of the three stands during the eighties presents the club from creating a bowl.

With the River Clyde nearby there is no scope to reduce the pitch any lower with the soil type needing substantial reinforcement if the club is to build upwards.

After Celtic created a 60,000 seater stadium Murray was forever leaking details of redevelopment plans. The classic moonbeam was released in 2008 which included a hover pitch, six star hotel including heliports with a Super Casino across the road to fund the club’s Champions League ambitions. Capacity would be raised to 70,000.

In May 2011 the Edinburgh based businessman accepted a pound coin from Craig Whyte, in June 2012 after failing to get support for a CVA the club was put into liquidation with no-one prepared to take on the debts and running costs of challenging Celtic.

Picking up on the exclusive news in The Athletic about a newly laid pitch The Sun reports:

They say chief groundsman, David Roxburgh, has created a ‘masterplan’ for the next pitch revamp which will be ‘the first of its kind’.

The pitch at Ibrox is currently only semi-hybrid unlike Celtic Park and Tynecastle which are full hybrid pitches.

Reports claim the new work could see several thousand more seats added in the lower tiers as well as revamp work to the hospitality suites.

The Ibrox surface came under scrutiny last season after a match was called off against Livingston due to heavy rain and was criticised during a Europa League match.

Speaking last summer, managing director Stewart Robertson admitted they were working with an outside consultancy firm to see if dropping the pitch in a bid to accommodate up to 6,000 extra seats at Ibrox was possible.

He said: “It’s something we’re looking at just now. We won’t see anything as grand as another tier built on top of one of the existing stands.

“However, we are exploring ways we can add additional seating into the stadium. I don’t see it being another 10,000, it would maybe be low thousands.

“There are feasibility works going on at this moment and we’re probably two or three months away from knowing whether it will be possible or not.”

Recently part of the iconic Albion Car Park was used in a planning application for a residential development. In 2016 Celtic introduced a standing section, since then the Ibrox board have been studying a feasibility study to introduce the same facility for the Union Bears at Ibrox.

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