With the very real prospect of a visit from Hibs, Aberdeen or old rivals Dunfermline in the league next season the board of Cowdenbeath FC have confirmed that the club will not stay at Central Park beyond the summer of 2013.Pressure is mounting on the Fife club to build a new community stadium and vacate Central Park, their football home since 1917, and former PM Gordon Brown has joined a steering group of board members and fans dedicated to finding a new stadium for the club that was formed by the Pollok family in 1881. The family were settlers in Cowdenbeath from Ayrshire and were the founding force behind a club which now has ex-Rangers Vice-Chairman Donald Findlay at its head.Groundsharing will be looked at if Cowdenbeath FC fail to settle on a new site in the town for a Community Stadium by June 2013. Plans for a new base at the South End of Cowdenbeath and on land behind a well known pub in the town "The Silver Birch" have so far failed to come to fruition and there is now a very real fear amongst some Blue Brazilians that season 2012/13 could be the football club's last."We need a Lotto win or a friendly Millionaire", said one fan behind a series of events that have kept the club afloat this season. The Blue Brazil have generated cash from Sportman's Dinners and Live Music events but these events have not raised nearly enough to build a much needed new home for the First Division leaders.Ironically, the club have enjoyed more success on the field of play in the last five or six years than they have in the previous 30. Three promotions and the prospect of bouncing back to Division One at the first attempt this season have kept the Blue Brazil die-hards of around 300 happy but the spectre of recession and lack of progress on the new stadium front is now causing the Cowden support real concern.A Cowden supporter of 50 years standing said: "We are not quite at the Third Lanark stage, but there seems to be little chance of a move to a new ground at the moment despite everyone's best efforts. There just isn't the money and there are also too much politics going on behind the scenes involving Fife Council, the owners of the land that Central Park sits on (The Brewster Family) and the football club. People are not working together in the town and many fans in our small but loyal supporters base are now voicing concern. Some people say we can't exist without Stock Car Racing at Central Park but we have to leave those days behind now and become a football club that sustains itself via Community involvement".Cowdenbeath FC started life at North End Park in the town and played there when they were invited to join the Scottish League in 1905. In 1917 George Dick, a local businessman, gifted land for the club to build Central Park and the stadium often hosted crowds bigger than the town's population of 10,000 in the 1920's and 1930's. Cowden's failure to set the heather on fire in Scottish football in the 50's and 60's saw the ground fall into disrepair and even success in the early 1970's and a top league place for a season failed to bring in much needed cash to sustain Central Park in something like its former glory.The ground has been slowly deteriorating since the 1980's and suffered two fires in that decade, one destroyed half the old wooden stand which was originally built in the 1920's.Central Park is now no longer fit for purpose and the race is on to find a new home for The Blue Brazil before time finally runs out.The clock is ticking.
Source: FOOTYMAD
