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25
Oct 2024
Harrogate Town ‘close’ to agreeing training ground site, says chief executive
Harrogate Town are close to agreeing a deal for a training ground site, says the club’s chief executive.
Sarah Barry told a fans' forum last night club officials were due to attend further meetings over a potential site in the coming days.
The players currently train at Rothwell in Leeds and have no dedicated training facility.
Ms Barry told fans at the forum, which was held at the hospitality suite at the Exercise Stadium, that the club was also in the early stages of submitting a planning application to the council — though she did not specify which authority.
She said:
We’re having meetings once or twice a week with different stakeholders connected to the site we have identified. We have a document ready to sign, we are literally just about there with it. We are just tweaking one or two bits.
Ms Barry added:
The only reason we are not announcing this publicly is because we have not signed the legal agreement. As soon as it is signed, it will be out there in the public domain. It would be unprofessional of us to do anything.
Irving Weaver, chairman of Harrogate Town, added that it will take at least two to three years before the project is completed, including the planning process and construction.
Meanwhile, Simon Weaver, Town manager, said a dedicated training facility would help in areas such as player recruitment.
He said:
It would give us another good thing to say to a player, to say ‘meet us at our training ground’. At the minute, we are the guests of Rothwell Juniors Football Club who are great people.
Future investment?
Irving Weaver, chairman of Harrogate Town, addressed a question over future investment at the club.
Following reports of a takeover at Tranmere Rovers by an American investment group, which includes rapper A$AP Rocky, Mr Weaver was asked whether any potential investors have looked at Harrogate.
Mr Weaver said it was “inevitable” that Town would need a new chairman at some stage.
He said:
Until somebody knocks on the door and says ‘there’s three of us here and we’re good lads’ — and they need to be good lads — then it’s plod on.
There will be a day, inevitably, when we need a new chairman. Whether I have dropped off the edge of a cliff or the brain’s gone or whatever happens. I’m very aware that this league is a tough, tough league and we are doing our best with it.
As you say, we see the takeovers. We see the Americans everywhere and it’s getting tougher. But that’s not to say we are not resilient and it isn’t to say we’re taking our bat home. It means we’re digging in, as usual.
Finishing better than last season
Simon Weaver told supporters that he would like his players to believe they can finish better than last season.
Harrogate finished 13th in EFL League Two last season — seven points off the play-offs.
Asked what the aim was for this season, Weaver said:
To be realistic for the players so that I don’t fill them up with ‘we must go up now, this is what I want or you’re gone’ kind of language which is negative, I’d like us all to believe that we can beat last season’s position in the league.
Success means something different for each and every club. That’s a realistic look at success for this level.
Meanwhile, Weaver also dismissed claims that players “don’t care” because they walk out instead of jog after the half-time interval.
Following a question on the matter, he said:
The last bit is just not accurate at all. We have 15 lads on a one-year contract. Quite a few have kids at home, two or three kids, got a mortgage, a car and they have got partners. I would be amazed if they didn’t care.
I think it often gets misconstrued when you lose a game for a lack of passion and care.
He added:
We have had independent people come in [to watch training] and say ‘I'll tell you what, that is intense’. Darren Moore and his staff all came in the other night and said: ‘don’t your boys work their socks off for you and the club?’
I’ll take that opinion rather than someone watching someone come out for half time saying they don’t care.
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