Carlisle United target date for stadium work to be finished

The Blues concede that they are undertaking a “colossal” project with so much work taking place.

But they continue to have the August 10 weekend of 2024/25 in their sights for the completion of the work, which includes huge renovations of the East Stand.

That remains the goal whether or not United are handed a home or away game for that first weekend of the League Two season.

United are kitting out the East Stand with new executive boxes, lounges, a boardroom and a range of other facilities.

Chief executive Nigel Clibbens, asked by the News & Star what the current target date was, said: “You always have aspirations, and I think we're all targeting the first league game of the season as the time we want to get all this ready.

“It is a colossal task to do it in that time, make no mistake about it. To go through a tender process, a procurement process, and then do the work and get it finished in the weeks that we have available is a really tough ask for everybody involved.

“We're under no illusions about that. Everybody's working flat out. But that's the aim. The aim is to be able to have an unveiling for that first game.

“We're really excited about it. The designs are still evolving as we speak. We are building and designing at the same time, which is by no means ideal, but it's the only way we're going to have any chance of getting this done.

“That's not to say that we're cutting corners or anything like that, because what is being looked at is certainly going to create a huge wow factor. I have absolutely no doubt about that whatsoever.

“It's going to be absolutely brilliant in this [East] stand and raise us to a new level. To be honest, I can't wait.

“We can see what's coming. As things get closer to fruition, and you start to see walls go up and doors being put in and things like this, it becomes real.”

United have already sold seven of the new eight East Stand boxes on long-term deals with an eighth to be available on a game-by-game basis.

New East Stand boxes are being worked on (Image: News & Star)

That, though, is only one aspect of the large scale job required to upgrade the stand which opened in 1996 but left incomplete in many internal areas.

“I couldn't underestimate the work that's had to go into this stand,” said Clibbens. “It looks like it's a completed stand, but it isn't.

“For instance, there's no insulation in this building at all, so the whole of the roof's having to be insulated. There's no fireproofing, apart from the small area of offices that we've been in, so the whole of the stand is having to be fireproofed from top to bottom.

“These costs are six-figure sums, and they're going to disappear behind walls that no one's ever going to see. But all that enabling work gives us an opportunity to do something, and the cost of this is huge.”

Clibbens said United had not considered asking the EFL for an away game on August 10 to provide an extra week to complete some of the work.

“The league fixtures, with the way they work, they try and give teams some years a start at home, some years a start away from home. Last year we were at home against Fleetwood on the first day.

“[Even if we are away this time] we're working to that August 10 weekend, and that's what the contractors are targeting.”

Other areas of Brunton Park are also subject to work which, Clibbens said, is progressing as planned.

“They're all going really well. Yes, there are glitches along the way, but they're all going on really nicely,” he said.

“You just walk round and see that the pylon's gone, the brickwork's going up in the Warwick, the land's getting flattened out. You go in the Neil Centre, that's in a decoration stage, so that's going well.

“And then you go round to the changing rooms, and that's in a demolition phase.

“So there's lots of things going on in different phases, but they're all going on quite nicely.  I hope that continues.

“The stadium is old, so if we look at something as simple as the changing rooms, and making better facilities for players, you go in there and you look about putting new drainage in – you dig a hole, and the drains are kaput. So you need to put new drains in.

“You look to put new facilities in, new lights, these sorts of things, and the wiring can't cope, so you need to rewire.

“In the East Stand, we've had to upgrade the power supply, so that means we've got to deal with an external power company to put a new distribution board in for us.

“We start to put more toilets in, and the pump that pumps the waste out isn't powerful enough, so you need a new pump.

“The ripple effects are difficult, which is why the timetable's really testing, and why it is all hands to the pump get it done. But it's really exciting, you can see it, and everything's going nicely.”

United’s stadium transformation is part of what the club owners, the Piataks, have described as a £4.5m+ project to improve Brunton Park’s facilities.

Clibbens said the changes are hugely significant for the club.

The Piataks say the stadium development is subject to £4.5m investment (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“It's positive on so many levels, really,” he said.

“We've gone through a period maybe three or four years ago where, from a commercial point of view, it was very, very, very difficult for us.

“The ownership had made it clear that they were looking for new investment and looking to move on. The fans were talking about ambition and vision, and that makes it very difficult then to grow a club and bring people in to join you on a journey when you don't know where that journey is going to.

“So that's kind of changed overnight [since the Piatak takeover last November], and we've gone from one extreme almost to the other where there's a real clear view on where we're going.

“The ambition is real, and you can see it being put into practice right in front of your very eyes in the number of projects that are going on.

“Until you start to then speak to businesses about whether they want to be involved, you don't really know what the response is going to be. So for the [East Stand] boxes to be sold all on long-term deals, all very quickly, is really reassuring that there's support out there for the club and that there's scope for the club to grow.

“The challenge that then brings for the rest of the club is to keep up with that.”