Union Saint-Gilloise is organizing an information session about the stadium project on the Bempt site in Vorst next Monday, although the football club has not yet agreed on the purchase of the site. Remarkable: the municipality of Vorst was not involved in the information session and that caused some annoyance.
The search for a new stadium for Union has been going on for a while. The football club turned its attention to the Bempt site in Low-Vorst, but has not yet reached an agreement with the municipality to purchase the site. Agree or not: an information session is planned for next week.
“Supporters and local residents of the old and new stadium are welcome there,” says Maarten Verdoodt, spokesman for Union Saint-Gilloise. “We will tell you where the stadium will be, how we will implement it and what our mobility plan looks like.” Residents will have the opportunity to ask questions there.
In November, a residents’ collective opposed the construction of the stadium on the Bempt site. Their main concern was that the stadium would be in the park and that trees would have to be cut down for that, but Verdoodt assures that that is not on the table. “The stadium will not be in the park.” Verdoodt could not say anything about the mobility plan yet, but the extent of the nuisance and how the club wants to contain it will be discussed during the information session.
No Offer, no Deal
To the annoyance of the municipality of Vorst, it was not involved in the information session. “We ask ourselves why this information session is held if there has not yet been an agreement on the purchase of the site,” says the spokesperson for Mayor Mariam El Hamidine (Ecolo).
Vorst has asked the club several times to make an offer and to explain their concrete plans, but Union has yet to answer those questions. Verdoodt only confirms that the negotiations are still ongoing, and that Vorst was indeed informed of the information moment.
The first division team is now at home in the Joseph Marien stadium in the Dudenpark in Vorst, but that stadium is outdated and does not meet the standards of the European football association Uefa. With its 8,000 seats, the stadium is also too small. Therefore, the team is now forced to play the matches elsewhere. After a study by the government agency perspective.brussels, the Bempt site emerged as the best location for a new stadium. An expansion of the Joseph Marien Stadium proved unrealistic according to that study and the Bertelson site, behind Vorst Nationaal, turned out to be less suitable due to its location in a densely populated neighbourhood.
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
