Bankers looking to finance the £100m scheme have told the club that there must be a significant retail element alongside the 36,000-seater ground and housing, or the necessary cash will not be available.

With the credit crunch biting the club have gone back to the drawing board and changed their plan to include shops, a hotel and supermarket.

But the city council thinks such major changes would almost certainly spark a full-blown public inquiry amid fears a new shopping development could drain the life from the city centre.

Peter Storrie, the club's executive chairman, has now pleaded for city council support.

Mr Storrie told The News: 'We have obviously changed plans, the credit crunch has created that. At the moment we are in discussions with the city council about the fact that we have to have retail on the site.

'Without that it's just simply not going to happen. We need the council to get behind us and support us on this. If they want to have the club and for us to maintain it we need a state-of-the-art stadium.

Mr Storrie still hopes that a planning application will be ready to go before the council early in the new year after talks between the club and planning officials.

'Obviously there is work to be done yet with the council in terms of exactly what it is and why we need it,' he said.

'They aren't being unhelpful but it's a change in policy for them and they need to understand fully the economic reasons why we have to have retail.'

The city council would welcome a plan which focused on housing alongside the stadium, and fears shops at the site could threaten Gunwharf Quays and the proposed Northern Quarter city centre development.



Mr Storrie dismissed those fears as groundless because hotels and a supermarket would not compete with Gunwharf Quays 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,' he said.

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth City Council, told The News that with such a major retail develoment being proposed the ultimate decision will probably be taken out of the council's hands.

'Ministers will be unhappy about out of town shopping because of the effect on city centres. It will be a public inquiry and ministers will make the decision.

'From nobody else would we look at an out-of-town shopping centre, but because it's the football club we will work with them on it.

'Because we all want a new stadium, that is why we are working as closely as possible with the football club, as we all want the same thing.'

Also see: Our section on the New Pompey Stadium
The press conference announcing the new stadium at Horsea Island
The development plan for the new stadium and Fratton Park
Stadium saga headline by headline