BLACKPOOL Football Club is holding up plans for a £100million superstadium, the Citizen has been told.

If the club does not make a decision soon, the fear is that developers McAlpine could seek an alternative partner.

McAlpine is anxious to submit the planning application as soon as possible for the 42,000-seater stadium on a 140-acre site at Whyndyke Farm.

All that is stopping it, the Citizen understands, is Blackpool FC's failure so far to sign a new land deal - four months after it was presented to the club directors.

As a result, it is believed that the landowners, who include McAlpine and the Whyndyke Farm family trust, are exploring alternative partners for the magnificent stadium, which could attract major pop concerts, national conferences and sporting events.

The stumbling block is the carve-up of the valuable development land near the end of the M55.

Last year, when jailed tycoon Owen Oyston was still chairman, the club agreed to take half the 100-acre development site at a nominal sum of £25,000.

Since then the total site has increased from 100 to 170 acres and it is understood Oyston advised the club's board to demand an increased stake.

In May, McAlpine boosted its offer and project director Martin Perry confirmed three weeks ago, to chairman Vicki Oyston and her fellow directors, that 70 acres were now on the table.

It is this agreement that the club has so far failed to sign, holding up the whole project, which includes large retail stores, housing and a conference centre as well as the sliding-roofed stadium.

Blackpool FC directors did not respond to requests for a comment.

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