Caley Thistle ground could be ‘a hotbed for events, activities, entertainment and leisure’
One of the big questions that people have asked is how the deal will benefit the club: What will the new investors bring to the table? The answer on the face of it is a hugely ambitious plan to redevelop the land around Caledonian Stadium.
Taking as a cue the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - among others - the ground and the area around it will be brought under total club control for the first time, allowing for a major redevelopment that could impact more than just the club.
Looking at the economic context of the green freeport as well as burgeoning tourism in the region, Seven7 Ventures’ Ketan Makwana wants to create “a hotbed for events, activities, entertainment and leisure”.
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That will be “not just for the people of Inverness to enjoy but also for people who come and visit and give people a reason to come and visit Inverness” so as to “bring people into the environment and let people fall in love with football”.
Attractive as that ambition is, one thing lays behind it according to Mr Makwana: “The club, as I have said, is paramount - it is the first thing.
“But the irony of this is that the club is actually situated in the centre of land that sits around it and for the last 18 years that land has been separated from the club.
“Well, we are about to make history because we are going to put that land back under the club’s ownership and that is the first line of rehabilitation to stabilisation and what goes on that land will have a financial impact and reward to the club that can be reinvested back in.
“The other side is our background is in entertainment, leisure and sport. We have a phenomenal amount of expertise in building these types of eco-systems.
“So if you look at a lot of the football clubs in the UK right now some of the bigger clubs are now transitioning to have leisure and entertainment attached to sports - it is becoming a common theme.
“The reason they are doing that is because it creates a multi-purpose use of the space which also allows for tourism: sports tourism and leisure tourism.
“So what we are trying to do is build the area around the stadium to become a hotbed for events, activities, entertainment and leisure, not just for the people of Inverness to enjoy but also for people who come and visit and give people a reason to come and visit Inverness.
“Bring people into the environment and let people fall in love with football - that is the way we want to build this, it allows us to produce multiple revenue streams that then allows us to reinvest that into the club, reinvigorate it and be able to put the right amount of money into the right place.
“Furthermore, it future proofs the club so if one line of income happens to fall or fail you have still got another three or four, which allows the businesses to continue while we remedy the one that has failed.”
