The 10,000-seat arena would sit alongside the stadium on Horsea Island, and the club hope it will help attract big-name acts to the city.

In recent years Portsmouth has looked on with envy as stars turn out in Southampton.

The football club hope by including the arena in their plans, along with a large new shopping development, it will keep the money rolling in all year round, not just on matchdays.

Although the city council favours a plan with a focus on housing as part of the development, fearing that shops at the site could threaten Gunwharf Quays and the proposed Northern Quarter development, Peter Storrie is confident the council needn't worry about that.

He said: 'We are talking about things required for the area: a couple of hotels, a supermarket. We are not talking about fashion retail stores, it's not even going to affect Gunwharf and Northern Quarter.

'It's other types of retail that will just make it profitable for us, and banks will loan on those types of things. They won't loan just on residential, and that's really the change.'