New training facility and it’s location

Writing this on the other thread really got me thinking about barrows training and how we could do the same.

We MUST get new training facilities. And I think these must be in or around Doncaster. It’s not too far away for local lads and our youth team to get to and also not too far to lose all connection to the town. but it would be ideally placed for a very large catchment area.  This catchment area would be a game changer.

If you draw a circle round Grimsby. Half of it is in the sea.  This doesn’t make it great for recruiting players based on their location.

If we built a state of the art training facility in Doncaster, and drew the same circle around it, it would cover so many places.  Leeds down the road. Manchester is 1.30 away. Nottingham an hour. Birmingham 1.30. Players wouldn’t have to move families etc..  

These need to be top draw facilities as well. Up there with the best in the division. Proper strength and conditioning facility.  Better medical department. The works. Showing a player around these, which is far closer to their home, with the history of our club as well thrown in on top, would make recruitment a million times easier.


Fenty has driven us into the ground. We have had intercourse all of a progressive development plan for our club. The only plan we have had is to cut costs. We are miles behind most other clubs now. We have to start thinking like a modern day football club. The games moved on. How can we become an attractive place to play? What can we do to help us get back to the top of league one again?

For me it starts with a new state of the art training ground and it’s location. This trumps the new stadium. Yeah I hundred percent agree we need to move etc... but players will be more attracted to the former than the later. We need to put our money here first, and not spank it all on our move and have a great new stadium on the docks- but still struggle to attract decent players cos they would have to spend the majority of their training week in 3 portacabins. Get both if possible, if not ..... then the training ground first, stadium second.

Having said all that..... if the only way we could afford it, was if we sold a million pounds worth of shares to a convicted fraudster...... I’d rather us train on Cleethorpes beach forevermore.

Interesting.
How many other clubs have a training facility 50 miles from their stadium??

Quoted from Stadium

Interesting.
How many other clubs have a training facility 50 miles from their stadium??

Locally to me I know bury used to train in Carrington which is twenty miles and barrow even further ,

There are a lot of eye catching headlines about this, but we are looking at a decision to affect the next couple of decades, maybe more, so no knee jerk reactions please.

We might for example want to share facility with one of our feeder clubs, like Scunny who will surely be confined to non league soon.

We should also make sure we understand the extent to which this remote facility approach is used across the leagues, and does it work. Not so long ago we wanted everything on one site to allow local people to use most of the weeks.

It’s not a NOW decision, but it’s certainly an important one.

Training facilities are not just for the first team, but also for all the youth and junior teams. By putting them far out of town to accommodate players that live out of town you will make the inaccessible to the young local players. If players sign for us then they know where we train and will be able to afford a car and petrol.

Daft idea to move them for the players that live away at the expense of the local talent  

Quoted from 3610

Writing this on the other thread really got me thinking about barrows training and how we could do the same.

We MUST get new training facilities. And I think these must be in or around Doncaster. It’s not too far away for local lads and our youth team to get to and also not too far to lose all connection to the town. but it would be ideally placed for a very large catchment area.  This catchment area would be a game changer.

If you draw a circle round Grimsby. Half of it is in the sea.  This doesn’t make it great for recruiting players based on their location.

If we built a state of the art training facility in Doncaster, and drew the same circle around it, it would cover so many places.  Leeds down the road. Manchester is 1.30 away. Nottingham an hour. Birmingham 1.30. Players wouldn’t have to move families etc..  

These need to be top draw facilities as well. Up there with the best in the division. Proper strength and conditioning facility.  Better medical department. The works. Showing a player around these, which is far closer to their home, with the history of our club as well thrown in on top, would make recruitment a million times easier.


Fenty has driven us into the ground. We have had intercourse all of a progressive development plan for our club. The only plan we have had is to cut costs. We are miles behind most other clubs now. We have to start thinking like a modern day football club. The games moved on. How can we become an attractive place to play? What can we do to help us get back to the top of league one again?

For me it starts with a new state of the art training ground and it’s location. This trumps the new stadium. Yeah I hundred percent agree we need to move etc... but players will be more attracted to the former than the later. We need to put our money here first, and not spank it all on our move and have a great new stadium on the docks- but still struggle to attract decent players cos they would have to spend the majority of their training week in 3 portacabins. Get both if possible, if not ..... then the training ground first, stadium second.

Having said all that..... if the only way we could afford it, was if we sold a million pounds worth of shares to a convicted fraudster...... I’d rather us train on Cleethorpes beach forevermore.

I get your point but why would you draw a circle and include the Humber if you were looking at a catchment area ? Are you looking to hijack the passing ships for football talent ?  Liverpool , Everton , Hull , Southampton, Portsmouth, Newcastle, Sunderland , Swansea, Cardiff, Blackpool, Fleetwood etc etc are all the same in that respect , coastal towns/ cities with their backs to the water.
Time was we were the draw for the whole of Northern Lincolnshire , Humberside ......but the other local teams have surpassed us in League standings over the last 10 -15 yrs....our decline over that period saw the youth set up savaged, any ground/ infrastructure spending scythed and the penny pincher behind it all also responsible for "negotiating" player contracts.
Whilst i am not against a move for a more central training base it certainly isnt just a case of location location location....i am somewhat hopeful that any new takeover may see some of the draconian spending habits disappear and we may find that suddenly the location isnt that much of an issue.....as long as we can climb out of the current spot we find ourselves in league position wise.

Would fully agree with that. Day to day, players spend most of their working life at GTFC on the training ground - 4/5 days a week, all morning & early afternoon. Most players will only see BP about 25 times a year.

We need to be closer to the major population centres nearby - Sheffield, Doncaster, Leeds & West Yorks, even Hull. Even from Doncaster North services, you’re looking at 60-90 mins each way on a good day. Do that 5 times a week and it soon adds up in time, petrol, wear & tear on the car/body/mind.

It’s unrealistic to expect players to relocate to the area on 1 and 2 year  contracts, and on the wages we offer. Things are also a lot different to 30, 40, 50 years ago too as most households have two working adults now.  

We've got an incoming board whose central plan is to redevelop the run down areas of the docks in Grimsby and enrich what is still quite a large but neglected conurbation. So building a state of the art training facility fifty miles away in another county to save a percentage of players forty minutes off a commute while denying the club, its youth development and local townsfolk the chance to benefit from a centralised facility is never gonna happen and this nonsensical idea needs putting to bed. What a massive statement in lack of confidence of project all new GTFC that would be. Just another reason for for not wanting a fan led club is even the notion of building a training facility fifty miles away getting any traction at all on here. Talking about using a panicky short-termist sledgehammer to crack a nut. There are so many ways to make our club a more attractive proposition for prospective players, which I'm sure in time Shutes & Co with the help of PH will address. The aim should be eventually to have a good proportion of a successful squad staying at the club beyond a year or two, continuity breeds success, we haven't had that for so long due to brinkmanship, lack of foresight and penny pinching, while other clubs have flourished. A training facility in South Yorkshire isn't at the bottom of the list, it shouldn't even be on the list..

Quoted from Stadium

Interesting.
How many other clubs have a training facility 50 miles from their stadium??

Other than Barrow.. none.
The idea's not radical, it's knee-jerk, short-sighted and barmy..

Quoted from Bigdog

Other than Barrow.. none.
The idea's not radical, it's knee-jerk, short-sighted and barmy..

Exactly
No knee jerk reaction please