ADELAIDE United chairman Greg Griffin says the city needs a new stadium to give Reds and SA soccer the best chance of long-term success.

Griffin suggested building a stadium near the Adelaide Oval precinct, claiming the Reds had outgrown the 16,500-capacity Hindmarsh Stadium which was revamped in 1997.

“I have had a talk to (State) Government and there is clearly a demand for modernised stadium which better meets the needs of the soccer public,’’ said Griffin, who last week was a guest of the Leaders The Future Stadium Summit in London.

“Whereas for the past five or six years our position has been we really had to show that there was a significant demand for an enhanced or increased stadium.

“We’ve now shown the day has come — we now need to be working towards a refurbished stadium (at Hindmarsh) or, to be quite blunt, a new stadium in the proximity of Adelaide Oval and the footbridge.”

Griffin said he met six different groups at the summit to see how the market was developing in terms of building stadiums.

Griffin said many US Major League Soccer clubs based much of their long-term success on building, owning and operating stadiums.

Griffin believes a 25,000-to-30,000 capacity stadium should be funded by a combination of government and private investors, suggesting Adelaide should create a huge sports precinct like Melbourne’s, surrounded by an effective public transport system.

“Every successful sporting club in England the US runs and operates their own stadium,’’ Griffin said.

Minister for Sport Leon Bignell said the Government estimated it would need $80 million to refurbish Coopers Stadium and poured cold water on the idea of a new stadium.

“We don’t have a budget for that (Hindmarsh refurbishment) at the moment, but it is something we could look at in the future,’’ said Bignell.

“For blockbuster games such as Adelaide United against Liverpool and the A-League finals we have Adelaide Oval with a capacity of 53,000 fans.”

Originally published as Griffin says Adelaide needs new stadium