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20
Jul
‘A step forward financially’: Harrogate Town owner Irving Weaver on the club’s new training ground
Harrogate Town owner Irving Weaver has hailed the club’s proposed new training ground as “a step forward financially”.
After years of looking for a suitable location, land east of Wetherby Racecourse has been selected for development. A 70-year lease has been agreed with the venue.
The new £2.75 million training ground would include a grass and artificial pitch and a facilities building.
The Stray Ferret spoke to Mr Weaver at a public consultation on Thursday (July 17).
The 76-year-old will subsidise the cost of the facility. Harrogate Town already owe him more than £5 million. However, Mr Weaver insisted the club's financial situation was not unusual:
I think if you look at the rest of the clubs’ average losses, we’re right on the button with everybody else. Hence the independent regulator is trying the season after next to make it sustainable for clubs. The idea is that the regulator will allow clubs to break even.
Plans to set up an independent football regulator across the whole English football pyramid were passed in the House of Commons this month.
The move aims to provide stability for lower league clubs like Harrogate Town, who lose money every year.
Mr Weaver insisted that the new facility is “vital to helping that profitability possibility”.
Currently, Harrogate Town rent multiple pitches for their various teams to train on. The men’s first team share facilities with Rothwell Juniors Football Club, while the women’s and youth teams rent pitches across North Yorkshire.
The club plans to let all its teams train at the ground. Mr Weaver said that not having to rent pitches year-long would be a “step forward financially”.
Harrogate Town's proposed training ground.
Benefits of a training ground
There are many benefits to owning a training ground as a football club.
Many, if not all, of the clubs in the English Football League have training grounds separate to their stadium.
Mr Weaver told us what benefits the development would bring to the club:
It will be an attraction for players because it’s right up to date. I think when it’s yours and there’s a gymnasium, it’s on players' doorsteps and there’s catering. It becomes a much more professional entity.
For a start, we’ll all be together, and I think that’s very important. The under-18s and younger are then working within vision of the first team. It’s not us and them. On a daily basis that discipline and ethos of first team training will help them become familiar.
Mr Weaver also noted that some of the first team players don’t live in the immediate vicinity. With the new site so close to the A1(M), he continued that “it’s really well placed for them”.
Improving the academy
Another major attraction to the Wetherby site for Mr Weaver is its transport links.
Currently, the catchment area for most of Harrogate’s youth academy players is around the Wetherby and Harrogate areas, but some also come from North Leeds.
With a bus directly from Leeds to Wetherby, Mr Weaver is hopeful “we can get back to where we were 15 years ago with attracting players from north Leeds”.
The proposed facility (circled in red) will sit to the east of Wetherby Racecourse (highlighted in yellow).
Future expansions
Should Harrogate Town move up the football pyramid, would there be scope for expansion of the facilities?
Mr Weaver said:
Not at this site, no. There’s no potential for expanding in the future and I think that’s fair enough. We’re League Two, not Championship.
This facility would comfortably cover League One and Two. Anything further than that is decades down the road.
To give an idea of the difference between League Two and top-level Championship facilities, Mr Weaver told us that they once borrowed Watford’s training ground during a trip down south. They had 24 pitches.
After reviewing public comments, the club will submit a formal planning application to Leeds City Council.
You can still submit your feedback about the proposal by clicking here.
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