Delay over new stand means Hearts play on at Tynecastle

"We're definitely playing out of here next year," Campbell Ogilvie, Hearts managing director, said yesterday. Asked when work would start, Ogilvie said he could not give an exact date – but insisted the £51 million project would go ahead.

"I can't give you an answer, but it certainly won't be the end of this season," he stated.

"It could be a year down the line. What is clear is that we will be playing our matches at Tynecastle next year."

After announcing details of the plan, Hearts consulted their supporters and found the preferred option was for the team to play their home games at Tynecastle even with only three stands rather than move to an alternative ground. To do so, however, would require permission from the health-and-safety authorities, so under the original timetable there was no guarantee that the club would be able to stay at home during construction work.

The SPL deadline by which clubs must designate their home ground for next season falls at the end of March. Mindful of that date, and having been given no indication of an imminent decision from the council, Hearts have accepted that they must stay at Tynecastle as it presently stands next season.

Just as significantly, Ukio Bankas Investment Group (UBIG), the club's parent company, has yet to announce how and by whom the project will be funded. The downturn in the global economy since the plan for a new stand was first mooted has led many outsiders to conclude that the scheme will never take place, but Ogilvie remains convinced it is a matter of when, not if, work begins.

"We know these things do take time," he continued. "I'm more concerned about the long term.

"Once it takes place, and people can see it's taking place, that will be okay. It has taken longer than maybe was envisaged at the outset. I believe the scheme will go ahead. They (UBIG] are working on funding – that is not being done by us here. I've never assumed it won't go ahead. It's a timing issue as far as I'm concerned. And apart from anything, there is no doubt that the main stand will have to be reconstructed."

Designed by Archibald Leitch, the current main stand was built in 1914, and as Ogilvie stated it is in imminent need of replacement. It remains to be seen, however, whether it gives way to the proposed 10,000-seater development, or whether UBIG decides that something more modest will have to take its place, at least in the short term.

Taken from the Scotsman