UWE Bristol has insisted it remains committed to developing a major sports stadium on its Frenchay Campus despite Bristol Rovers’ surprise withdrawal from the project this week.
The League One club’s owners Dwane Sports blew the whistle on the plans for a 21,700-capacity stadium at UWE saying it would “now have to go back to the drawing board” and explore other options. 
These could include building a new stadium on another site or redeveloping its current home, the Memorial Stadium in Horfield.
Club chairman Steve Hamer told the BBC: “I can’t see this position being retrieved. I just think this whole deal has been jinxed, it just never seems to have been running in the right direction.”
But UWE vice-chancellor Steve West said the university had not given up on what he described as a hugely important project.
“We have been and remain committed to delivering a new stadium and were disappointed to hear from Dwane Sports that they wish to bring negotiations over the proposed stadium at UWE Bristol to a close,” he said in a statement.
“We have always wanted the stadium project as part of our vision for the university and wider Bristol community masterplan for the Frenchay Campus. We still believe it would bring great benefits to the university, local community and the regional economy.”
He said the university had worked “diligently and patiently” with the new owners of the club. “Although we have been disappointed by the slow pace of negotiations, we are still willing and open to continue negotiations,” he said.
“This has been an initiative the university has been working on for over eight years and we still believe is deliverable. Planning consent does not expire until January 2018 and the door remains open for a deal to be struck and the university will continue to work on this project.”
Rovers reached an agreement with UWE in 2011 to build the stadium on a site formerly occupied by Hewlett Packard as part of a three-way deal that also involved supermarket giant Sainsbury’s building a store on the Memorial Stadium.
However, Sainsbury’s later pulled out of the deal following a number of delays.
