Following our 3 - 3 draw at home to Reading on Saturday, a large number of the clubs supporters gathered in the Players Lounge to discuss potential plans for a brand new, purpose built training ground, with the purchase being funded entirely by the clubs fans.
The meeting, held by the Crystal Palace Supporters Trust, succeeded in getting a positive majority decision regarding the potential construction of the new training facility amongst the Trust members.
The proposals came into being following meetings with CPFC2010 in the very early stages of their ownership of the football club, with the purpose of finding a way the fans could help to secure the long-term stability and improvement of the club from its foundations.
Following a huge amount of research, the trust settled on plans which would see them needing to raise up to £4 million for a state of the art facility that would be built on a completely new site from where the team currently trains, with the three most feasible locations currently looking to be:
- Purley Way Playing Fields
- Ashburton Playing Fields
- The former Natwest Sports Club on Turle Road
The overall premise of the scheme centres on the fact that as a club we currently do not own our training ground, which, like the stadium, was sold off during the Simon Jordan era for short term finance and as a result, the club now pays what CPFC2010 considers to be a substantial amount of rent for the privilege.
The new proposals would see an end to that, with supporters donating their own money via a loan note scheme to finance the entire project with the club continuing to pay a rental fee for the training ground (albeit at a lower price than the current arrangement) and investors eventually seeing a return on their money.
The detailed plans, which can be seen in full here aim to provide a facility with the following incorporated into the build;
- 6 full-sized pitches
- Gym
- Offices
- Classrooms
- Restaurant/Canteen
- Rest areas
- Treatment rooms
- Laundry
- Press conference facility
The plans have received a huge amount of backing from Steve Parish, who attended the meeting and gave a speech which can be seen here, in which he outlined the numerous benefits having a new training ground would offer the club, from the ability to nurture more youngsters to presenting a far more professional view of the football club to potential new players.
Another man throwing his weight behind the proposals is Dougie Freedman, who, due to his long term affiliation with the club, is already a paid up member of the Trust himself, he said, "They've come up with a great design, I'm not trying to design it or anything like that, but I am looking to one or two touches to the inside of the training ground in terms of what the layout should be and why it should be that way."
With the club seemingly right behind the plans, and the Trust having unanimously voted in favour of pressing ahead with the scheme, the next step comes in the form of attempting to secure planning permission for one of the aforementioned sites.
This coupled with the fact that in the latest edition of SE25 magazine, the academy manager, Gary Issott was discussing the potential for a school facility in the mould of Barcelona's La Masia, (discussed here) which would allow all of the clubs young players to integrate whilst also being available to train as a group for up to three times as long as they are currently able to, demonstrates just how fast things are moving behind the scenes at the football club to ensure its long-term growth and stability.
I struggle to put into perspective the sprawling overhaul the club seems to have been subject to in the last nine months, whether it be the fresh new ownership team, the young, hungry manager or the secure financial footing we now find ourselves on, things have dramatically changed for the better since the dark days of the 2009-10 season and with these latest plans for a new training ground looking as though they could become a reality, the good times just appear to keep on coming.
Bring on Burnley...
PS I will be away for the next three weeks as I am travelling across America on a well earned holiday, sadly, due to my lack of proper planning this also means I will be missing some huge Palace games, not least the mouth watering trip to Loftus Road in nine days time. Feel free to slate me for my shocking lack of foresight and make sure that you cheer the boys on just the little bit more in my absence, cheers!
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