As reported, the ground will grow by 1,500 seats in the summer, subject to planning permission, but only the bottom tier of the south stand will be in place for the start of the campaign.
The remainder of the stand will be constructed through the 2026/27 campaign, while the south east and north west corners will be infilled.
The other two corners plus extensions to the north and east stands will be completed in the close season in summer 2026.
Frevola spoke to the Daily Echo to explain the factors behind this.
“At the end of the day, it’s a process, right?” he said.
“Redeveloping a stadium, it’s got a lot of stakeholders involved. It’s not just the football club, it’s not just the supporters, it’s not just the council, it’s the residents, it’s UEFA, it’s the Premier League, it’s our contractors and our architects and designers.
“So a lot of factors went into it. Initially, we talked about building a modular south stand. We decided to change that for a variety of reasons.
“One of them was just compliance, some of the changing rules from a safety perspective with UEFA. So, if we’re ever going to have UEFA competitions here one day, they may or may not have granted approval of the modular south stand.
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“We didn’t want to take that chance. That was part of the delay.
“It wasn’t the only reason for the delay. Getting through planning has been a longer process, not necessarily unexpected, because I think we always expected it to be a challenge, but we’ve had certain hurdles along the way.
“I don’t know the exact vernacular, but I’ll give you one example. We have to clear the land behind the south stand, or where the south stand with the pilings will go, for potential undetonated World War II bombs.
Jim Frevola (Image: AFC Bournemouth)
“So that’s just things that you don’t expect.
“The initial ground reports that we had weren’t good enough, and didn’t come to us until late. So that’s another reason that delayed it.”
The club were also hoping to have planning permission in place at an earlier stage, but that will likely come at the start of May.
Frevola said there was no fault from the council or the club for the delay, and the Cherries are keen to ensure that the stadium work is completed safely and efficiently.
He expects more hurdles along the way, particularly having spoken with counterparts in the Premier League, but they are excited at the progress they have made and the work to come.
With the news, supporters have queried whether there will be a roof over the half-completed south stand, and whether this news will have any impact on the planned move from a points system to memberships, as well as if there will be more season tickets on sale.
Frevola said there would be a roof, and that the membership scheme will be pushed back by a year, to when the stadium is more complete.
On the roof, Frevola explained it was a decision that would cost more but was one that they wanted to make: “Right now, the intent is to have some sort of a temporary roof structure as part of it.
“There may be a scenario on timing, it depends on the schedule.
“We’ve asked for the first week of the season to be away, which is pretty normal for anybody that’s building a ground.
“There’s going to be a time where— I’ve got a long list of folks trying to build the ground— but there’s going to be a time where we’re all trying to get the first week away because we’re building or renovating or whatever the case may be.
Bill Foley with Jim Frevola (Image: Richard Crease)
“But full intent is to have some sort of a temporary structure. It may not look temporary.
“What our guys have designed and what they’ve come up with, it’s going to look more traditional, but it’ll be a temporary structure that, that will eventually go away.”
He admitted timing may be tight for the start of the season for the roof, as the final part of that phase of work, but they are hoping for some good weather in August and September.
Frevola said the plan was always to introduce memberships once the stadium was finished.
“Our full intention is to expand our season ticket base,” he said.
“The most logical first step on that is our max points holders. So that evolution will absolutely happen. Could that happen this offseason? Possibly, very possibly.
“We’re pretty close to figuring out those plans. But I want people to know that new season tickets are coming.
“Max point holders will be absolutely prioritized at the top of the list of that. We’ve had good consultation with our fan advisory board on how to do new season tickets, how to introduce it.
“The universal opinion of that group and our group was max point holders have to be first. And we agreed. It wasn’t even a tough conversation, it was like, yeah, of course.
“And then how do you expand it from there? We’re still working through whether that’s existing season ticket holders adding on, the next level of points holders, away points holders, family members of those individual groups.
“We’re sorting through those details. But yeah, fully expect new season tickets. That has always been our intention and possibly this offseason. It’s not out of the realm because we’ve got these new seats coming.”
Plans continue to evolve, with owner Bill Foley keen to ensure that no expense is spared if they can improve the stadium for the better.
“Bill actually just recently went to Everton and coming off of that trip, he said, hey, let’s look at these types of considerations,” he said.
“Let’s maybe think about that. So even though we had a budget going in, not that it’s an unlimited budget, but we want to make this the best ground we possibly can for this group of supporters, for the new groups of supporters that we’re bringing in.
“So we’re not as mindful of every penny, right? We want to do it the most efficient way with fiscal responsibility, but we also want supporter engagement and experience to be at the top of our consideration.
“So it’s not being done on the cheap. It certainly is not cheap, but the funding’s there and Bill’s prepared to spend it.”
Frevola added Foley is delivering on their planned evolution of the club since their takeover in 2022.
He expressed his pride at the steps they had made: “These are important things for people to remember as we’re going through challenging times, that this has always been part of the plan.
“Stay up. Develop the standing ground. Develop the squad. Buy the stadium. Build or redevelop the stadium. And commit to the community as best we can, help out in the community as best we can.
“That’s absolutely important to us. It’s exciting. And we hope that everybody gets excited with us. I know people are.”