WORCESTER City chairman Dave Boddy has stressed how important it was for the club to take their time over the new stadium.

Years of waiting were finally ended this week when the club unveiled plans to move from their St George's Lane home to an £8million ground at Nunnery Way.

A planning application will be submitted early next year and the team could kick the first ball in August 2009.

Fans had become increasingly frustrated by the lack of information after being told on several occasions that an announcement was on the horizon.

But, because of the scale of the project with St Modwen Properties, Boddy says it was vital the club was patient.

He said: "I am absolutely delighted. I am pleased for the supporters as well because I know it's been a frustrating period for them.

"I know I have been on record saying we are going to make an announcement soon and that's been delayed over a long period of time. I am delighted we have reached the day when we have got positive news to deliver to people.

"The last two years has really been about legalities and negotiations, there has been a lot of intricate detail we have had to go through.

"We sat down with St Modwen just over a month ago and felt we could have signed the document the following day and something else crop-ped up beyond that, and it's been like that all the way down the line.

"There has been so many twists and turns.

"The whole project including the sale of St George's Lane and the cost of building the new stadium is £15-16million worth of project so it's a massive development."

The Lane will now be sold for housing and the chairman said: "We've got half-a-dozen concrete offers on the table for the current St George's Lane site and we will be sitting down next week to move the sale along.

"We were concerned in the first instance to get the exit strategy in place because you can't move out before you've got somewhere to go.

"We've got the exit strategy firmly in place and now we can deal with the sale of St George's Lane."