New Training Ground Proposal for Portmouth Football Club
| Published: 23rd April 2008 10:10 |
Portsmouth Football Club today announced plans to submit a planning application to build a new state-of-the-art training facility on 35 acres of land in the Borough of Gosport.
The site, which is in the Alver Valley in Lee-on- the-Solent, will house 10 full size pitches, two mini soccer pitches, a three-quarter size pitch and a dedicated goalkeeping area.
The club's main building has been designed by Richard Marshall, the architect behind Arsenal's training ground London Colney.
The 18,000sq ft building will house changing rooms, medical and rehabilitation facilities, a gymnasium, administration offices, a media and presentation area and a refectory.
There will also be a three-quarter size indoor pitch for the club's Academy who will have their own separate building. Portsmouth FC will continue to use the Wellington Sports Ground.
As part of the scheme Portsmouth FC will also dedicate two full size pitches for community use and open up the indoor facility for local schools in the Gosport Borough.
In addition to the work conducted by the club a visitor facility for the Alver Valley Country Park will be built adjacent to the site by the Council. The club plans to work with Gosport Borough Council to enable development and sustainability of the Country Park.
Peter Storrie, Portsmouth FC chief executive, said:"We are very excited about the new site which fits all the criteria for us to build a training facility any Premier League club would be proud of.
"I'd like to pay tribute to Gosport Borough Council who have been extremely supportive of our need to build such a facility and helping us find the site. The next stage is public consultation and we hope the community are as enthusiastic about the scheme as we are. The club feels we can make a real contribution to the borough and we are looking forward to working with Gosport in the future
"Plans will be submitted within the next couple of weeks and if it meets with approval we could begin work by the late summer and complete the scheme before the start of the 2009/2010 season."
Manager Harry Redknapp said: "This is fantastic news. The club desperately needs its own training ground, if we are to continue the progress we have made on the pitch over the last couple of seasons.
"The plans for the pitches and the overall facilities look very impressive and it will make a great deal of difference to the players and our ability to keep attracting the very best to the club."
The map shows Cherque Way, the main road on the left of the map
with the roundabout
Community Comment:
Add your comment:
You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.
