CHELTENHAM NEWS:EDWARD GILLESPIE, managing director of Cheltenham, admits the idea of switching the Festival meeting to a weekend remains on the table. The March showpiece fixture currently runs from Tuesday to Friday but Gillespie believes the meeting could be moved after the course has been redeveloped.
Gillespie outlined plans for improvements at the track at a press conference marking the run-up to Cheltenham’s 2011/12 season, which gets under way on Saturday week.
“Our plans going forward include the potential redevelopment here,” said Gillespie. “Since May we have commissioned a team of designers to come up with what we call a feasibility study and the report is in next week.
“I have been putting together with our team the business case for this. These will go to our board before the end of this year.
“So early next year we hope to give you good news of when we might be progressing these plans, which will enable the racegoers to have better vantage points from redeveloping the oldest grandstands at Cheltenham.
“We think we have a plan which will be appropriate for the next generation. We are looking forward to having the redevelopment completed within the next three to five years. Along with that, we will be able to talk about the possibility of the Festival moving to a weekend.”
An ageing collection of racecourse buildings dating from as early as the 1920s are to be demolished and rebuilt, while the main grandstand, which was completed in 1979, is also set to receive a major facelift.
Plans for changes to the structures which directly overlook the racecourse and paddock areas have been appearing and disappearing from the agenda since the completion of the Centaur building at the track in 2004.
But a feasibility study for the redevelopment work has now been completed and the business case will now go before the JCR board. Twelve months after Gillespie mentioned having to raise “£25 million (€29m), £30 million (€35m) or £35 million (€41m)” for the project both the scale of the work to be completed – which could now include a new hotel – and the forecast costs appear to have escalated considerably.
Gillespie was unwilling to discuss the finances but said: “The Centaur cost over £20 million (€23m) and that was just one building.
“This is going to be a major redevelopment, a redevelopment that is more ambitious than what we might have been discussing 12 months ago and one that will make a big difference to racegoers at the Festival and all meetings here.
“We’re not thinking about figures, we’re aiming to create a change in the racing experience that will hold for 30, 40 years, to take that experience to a new level.”
Gillespie admitted redevelopment work could now extend for two years or more in total but said he hoped it could all be tied up in one contract and that racegoers would experience minimal disruption. It is understood work could start immediately after the 2014 Festival.
Guardian Service
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