SWINDON’s plans to redevelop the County Ground are unlikely to be affected by the club’s relegation to League Two but the project is on hold for the time being, the Advertiser can exclusively reveal.

The club announced ambitious plans for a £20million redevelopment of their home ground towards the end of last year, which would see the stadium gain a roof akin to that of Bolton Wanderers’ Reebok Stadium, as well an increased capacity to 25,000.

In January, Town’s Annual General Meeting revealed major changes to those plans, however, with stadium capacity instead increased to 19,000, although there was still scope for further expansion to 25,000 if needed in the future.

Since then all stadium talk went quiet as the club fought to stave off the threat of relegation, but that battle was lost following the 3-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday last week.

With the club now certain to be in League Two next season and the financial concerns that playing at such a level brings, there were some fears over how the redevelopment of the County Ground would be affected, or whether plans had been scrapped entirely.

But chief executive Nick Watkins has explained to the Advertiser that redevelopment plans are still very much in place, but the club are waiting to see whether a couple of interested parties still want to be a part of the process before pressing ahead.

“People have said the redevelopment discussions have gone quiet. They have gone quiet to the outside world because we are trying to pursue one or two entities that have expressed some interest in being part of a redevelopment scheme,” he said.

“Until we can secure that interest or otherwise, there has been little purpose in investing further in the project, because those parties who may be interested will have their own thoughts and ideas as to what is possible, and may have a different slant on the way they want to see things, because they are professional property companies.

“So rather than us go out and spend a quarter of a million of the club’s money, given our current situation, and for that possibly to be laid to waste I am waiting for the responses from the companies that are being spoken to.”

The club’s original redevelopment plans were drawn up with playing Championship football in mind.

It will now be a few years at the very least before that can be the case, and while Watkins was keen to stress relegation should not affect the club’s redevelopment plans as a whole, he did suggest that thoughts on the stadium’s capacity may need to be reassessed.

He added: “Relegation should not have an impact on our plans to redevelop because whatever we do with regards to that is all designed to move us closer to that point of financial self-sustainability.

“If we had conferencing clients, office clients, retail clients, housing or whatever it is, all of that is not in any way impacted by what league you are in. The only thing you would take into consideration is do you build a 19,000 seater stadium or a 9,000 seater stadium.

“If you are in the Championship you need 19,000 if you are in League One you probably need between eight and 12,000 and if you are in League Two, then who knows. However history shows that the last time Swindon were in that league they were riding high throughout the season and became serious contenders for promotion, so gate receipts and match-day attendance increased dramatically.”