Training facilities

More excuses, tradesmen and tools come to mind ?.

 

Come on Fordy, now's your chance !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I believe Hughes comment with regards using Valley Parade was with the players only playing there on match days he wanted to make Valley Parade a fortress hence more familiarity with the pitch and surroundings, I'd be very suprised if it become a regular thing next season time will tell.

 

Those crap training facilities didn't hinder us getting to the Premiership.

They aren't ideal but crap players blaming them is a bit rich.

 

Genuine question...what facilities do FGR, Exeter, Port Vale and Mansfield have at their disposal?

I could go one further and ask about Wycombe, Lincoln, Accrington and Cheltenham.

Like you say, seems a cop out to me for being utterly shite.

 

Most of those have new or planning to build or improve dedicated training grounds even Wycombe have spent £1.3 million on a new facility, Not sure any train at a school

 

Well Wycombe got to the Championship so probably had funds to invest. Im guessing the training facility was built AFTER they got there.

So where were they training before that?

 

If Beagrie McCall, Lawrence Windass and Wetherall coped with the pitches, this lot can.

our promotion failings are our own doing on the pitch, not down to training pitches per se.

i do get the psychological point about needing to feel familiar there and tucking away chances in training to put players’ minds at ease on a match day, but in the long list of reasons for this monumental f**k up of a season, lack of organisation, ambition, unbalanced recruitment, lack of composure in front of goal are all more important.

 

We need to stop training at a shite school.

 

What nobody has actually asked is (I don't think so anyway?)....how much annually we pay the (so called shite) school? I don't know if @Dennis can extract from the accounts or maybe we can obtain from Woodhouse Grove accounts? I'm guessing we are paying a set fee per annum. Has to be financially viable to build our own and then sustain it - in terms of all additional salary costs / NI / Pension and maintenance costs etc....all that will be covered by 'school' costs at the moment and absorbed in their costs not ours.

 

that was over 20 years ago

 

Lincon have a brand new training centre, Forest Green have been training at a state of the art training centre, not there's but miles better than ours, Accrington have the Accrington sports hub, Mansfield have a new training centre called the Radford and Hymas centre.
Only Port Vale that I can see that have a equivalent training facillity to BCAFC.
Even Cheltenhams looks more professional.

 

It's a very good school actually

 

In reality, despite what many on here assume or even make up to suit their own arguments, we are some way away from the facilities we had use of in the PL days. In those days and beyond 2009 when I joined the Board the players changed at VP and went by car, returning to VP after training for showers and lunch. The dressing rooms at the side of the main pitch were not fit for use other than talks (now redeveloped). David Baldwin extended our use, I know because I helped him with the legal documentation / Agreements.
After David the Agreements were re-drafted to significantly widen our use. Instead of exclusive use of the main pitch and training to the side of it the Agreement now covers the main pitch, plus a second further down the riverside in addition to the area adjacent the main pitch. BCFC also has use of the 3G surface which was replaced after the 2015 floods, offices for manager, coaching staff, treatment room, gym, sports hall, kitchen / recreation room for dining and relaxation, oh, and a swimming pool, good for remedials.
The Youth have their own changing and offices as EFL requirements, we have exclusive car park areas and more recently have created a specific area for GK training.

Yes we pay a fee for all this and have some repairing obligations such as decorating priodically, all as with any lease. The Scool maintain the playing areas day to day but BCFC do the end of saeson remediation to the two main pitches which is on a par with the treatment at VP.

In terms of a school, safeguarding is vital hence sgregation from pupils and senior and junior players is maintained and monitored by Club and School. There is and never has been a problem.

In my opinion this facility is superb value for money, the school have the overhead admin and absorb some of the maintemnace cost as they would need to do the work even if we weren't there. How do I know all this?. Because I did the current Agreement with James Mason. There have no doubt been some tweaks since but that is the gist of things. Time to let all this assumption and so called inside knowledge go, most of the posting is embarassingly wide of the mark.

The next complaint will no doubt be flooding but if you take a trip today you will see BAM Construction are working on site set up opposite the Council pitches across the main road. This is for a major flood prevention scheme which will run the full length of all the training ground and will start shortly.

Put this to bed guys.

 

A comparison to where we were in 1999, or 2009, isn't really relevant. What is relevant, is how our facilities compare to other clubs we're competing against.

Tbh, I've no idea what the actual standard of our facilities is, or how it compares, but our record of injuries and poor fitness levels across this season (and previous) is a firm indicator that something isn't right.

 

Some on here have banged on about the standard of Leeds' facilities yet look at their injury list, including many long term injuries. I don't hear their players talking about the facilities.