Impressive progress at new Cambridge City stadium

The long-awaited replacement for their former home at Milton Road, which they left in 2013, has been hit in recent years by the COVID pandemic and sharp rises in the cost of living.

They have since been groundsharing at Bridge Road, Histon and Westwood Road, St Ives, where they will return to for the 2023/24 season.

After plans were approved in 2019, construction began in January 2021 and despite the impressive progress so far, the club are still a season away from getting home.

Recent posts on social media have showed the seats being installed in the main stand.

A club update said: “With regards to the project as a whole. It’s fair to say that the Stadium build has been hampered by several issues, not least the Global pandemic which set us back a long way in terms of availability of workers, suppliers and materials.

“As the world got back to normal the prices of everything shot up, you’ll have all felt this in your own pockets too. We’ve also had our fair share of red tape to comply with.

“Thankfully there is now light at the end of the tunnel and we can start to put a realistic timeline together that we believe will get us into the stadium and enjoy watching our teams in our own home, subject to any further external factors

“We are now working at pace to finish the elements we need to complete in order to meet planning conditions, building regulations and of course the all important FA Ground Grading.

“Our new stadium will need to be ground graded before we can start playing there and up until recently this has been down to the leagues, however this is being overhauled and will be carried out by the Football Association from this season and they will soon have a system to make the process much easier for them and all clubs going forward.

“This does mean re-visiting all 900+ clubs in the UK throughout the next season. We have pro-actively opened conversation with the FA ground grading committee to start this process before the internal fit out is even complete.

“Once we have met these requirements, we will be able to progress with the internal fit out of the two floors of the main stand.

“The ground floor will serve as a hub for all fans and players with incredible changing facilities for home and away teams, officials and also our community changing rooms,

“The all important main bar and function room and the club shop. While upstairs will feature our Hospitality suite, boardroom, executive boxes and an education room for our players and the local community. It’s a big project which is likely to take many months to fully complete

“Perfection takes time and the delays we have experienced in being able to start the internal fitout mean a conservative estimate would see us being able to hold an official opening prior to the 2024/25 season.”