Scott Parker delighted to get back-to-back victories
Significant improvements at Turf Moor will only happen if Burnley are able to re-establish themselves back in the Premier League.
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Scott Parker's verdict on Burnley's gap to the bottom three won't surprise you](https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/scott-parkers-verdict-on-burnleys-gap-to-the-bottom-three-wont-surprise-you-5376147 "Scott Parker's verdict on Burnley's gap to the bottom three won't surprise you")
That’s according to chairman Alan Pace, who has admitted it’s always been the club’s “ambition” to replace the Cricket Field Stand.
But if the Clarets are to suffer another relegation back to the Championship, as they have done on their last two occasions at this level, the finances just won’t add up.
He told supporters at the recent fan forum: “There’s no plan to move to a purpose-built stadium, the costs of that would be prohibitive to what we would see as being do-able in the current environment and what needs to be invested into the team on a regular basis.
“As far as the Cricket Stand, we have always had the ambition to replace that, but the difficult part of that is that we have to establish ourselves in the top league in a way that doesn’t require rebuilding every year or reinvesting every year.
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“If you see both times we’ve gone into the Premier League, we’ve had to spend over £100m to make it possible for what we’re looking for in terms of the outcome.
The Cricket Field stand pictured during last season's Championship fixture against Watford (Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)placeholder image
The Cricket Field stand pictured during last season's Championship fixture against Watford (Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
“If we can settle that down then yes, we can start talking about infrastructure projects that get into the tens of millions.
“If you were to try and build the Espanyol stadium now, just to be fair, that would probably be close to £200m and it doesn’t make any sense when you look at the revenue numbers versus that, so we really have to be in the Premier League.
“The only reason they [Espanyol] did it the way they did it is they sold the old ground, so if you guys would like me to sell Turf Moor and build something purpose-built, that’s a different conversation but the reality is I don’t see that happening. Nor is anybody going to spend that kind of money to buy the stadium from us in Burnley to do something like that.”
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