Full details of Town’s redevelopment of their Playford Road training centre have emerged with their planning application now available on East Suffolk Council’s website.

A fortnight ago, the Blues announced that they had submitted planning approval for the works, which are expected to take from 18 months to two years to complete and cost from £20-£30 million.

The aim is to expand the first-team and women’s facilities and to bring the academy’s up to category one level.

The planned redevelopment, which only includes the Playford Road side of the 13.5 hectare site not Bent Lane, will include a new first-team building, refurbishment of the existing building currently used by the senior side, academy and women’s teams and a new groundskeeper building.

The most significant aspect of the proposed development is the new, state of the art training building for the first team, which will be located in the north-western corner of the site where the grounds maintenance compound is currently situated next to the pitch where U21s and U18s matches were played up to recent seasons.

The new first team building will be around 3,700m2 in total across two floors, designed to maximise views over the first-team training pitches, including outside terrace space adjacent to the dining facilities.

The facilities within the new building will include:

• Gym, pool hall (with hot and cold plunge pools, sauna, steam room and cryotherapy), treatment rooms.
• Press rooms, tactics and analysis presentation rooms.
• Kitchen, servery and dining spaces.
• Office and meeting space for managers, coaches, performance team and recruitment/analysis.
• Supporting functions such as ancillary changing and sanitary facilities, including laundry etc.

There will also be minor extensions and refurbishments to the existing main building, which was originally built for the academy but has gradually been taken over by the first team over the years.

The plans are designed to be future-proofed to allow for possible expansion at a later date.

The medium to long-term plan also outlines a review of the layout of the pitches to maximise the quantity of the playing surfaces and includes a show pitch with covered seating.

The main entrance to the training ground will continue to be on Playford Road but with new access off The Street, Rushmere for large vehicles, next to the new groundskeeper building.

ITFC

Ipswichbusiness added 15:29 - Nov 26 All stuff that Marcus Evans should have done years ago, but didn’t.
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Number22 added 16:53 - Nov 26 Looks great.
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Suffolkboy added 17:05 - Nov 26 Gosh ! What energythere is at P Rd these days ; and ,at last, what vision and belief to capitalise on our tremendous potential ! Looking back , it’s easy to recognise the frustrations of both MMcC and PL ,both of whom illustrated to our owners the huge gaps in our set uo , the rewards that could be possible but were turned down . Exciting prospects abound ! COYB
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Jeff added 17:25 - Nov 26 These guys sure mean business! If we didn't already know it!
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Gforce added 17:42 - Nov 26 In other news.....according to Give me sport,Man City have a 30 million release clause,with regards to Delap,but at the moment are not interested in triggering it,in January. Chelsea however are allegedly very keen on him & could make a move. He is apparently on 20k a week until 2029.
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armchaircritic59 added 17:58 - Nov 26 Great news, looks really good. As for Gforce's other news, of course Chelsea can do with another player on their books, they're a bit short in that department! Seriously anyone who's anyone would be interested in a 21yo striker who's proving himself at the topmost level, and getting rave reviews even when he doesn't score. It's the world we are now in, better start getting used to it It's an interesting conundrum for the club and a real test of ambitions, when other clubs make their intentions formally known for certain players. Do we simply refuse to sell, no matter how many noughts are tagged on the end, or do we take the money and strengthen more than one area of the team? One thing's for sure, there's no point in taking the money and not coming out stronger at the end, not for a club that is ambitious. As everyone at the club from owners down, seem to be very ambitious, let's hope it all works out well!

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Mark added 19:09 - Nov 26 It is wonderful to see this investment in infrastructure, setting the club up for decades to come and hopefully helping to provide a flow of future star players through the academy.
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Bluearmy_81 added 20:00 - Nov 26 “Could be worse, could be Bury.” Ha ha. So glad Gamechanger could see the potential in this MASSIVE club and could see beyond medicority, obscurity and failure.
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Tedray added 21:26 - Nov 26 Hi Gforce Re Delap what exactly does the release clause mean in practical terms please.Do Man City have the right to buy him at the quoted figure regardless of Towns intensions.
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howsey51 added 21:58 - Nov 26 I still don’t really understand how FFP works. If we have spent £150m on players and this is another 30.. surely that takes us over our tv rights (which seem to be around 100 for the lower clubs last year). Does infrastructure count? Someone financial help me!
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Gforce added 23:11 - Nov 26 @Tedray.......Apparently if true,City have inserted a 30 million buyback clause into the deal,when he signed for us.Meaning they can enter negotiations over personal terms if they lodge a bid which meets that figure.They also included a 20% sell on clause to ensure they profit if he moves elsewhere. Hopefully City won't make any moves,so the above will be irrelevant and if and when anyone else comes in for him,we could still demand a huge fee.

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ITFCMonk added 23:36 - Nov 26 howsey51 , pretty sure infrastructure spending doesn’t get taken into account for anything FFP related
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Ryorry added 02:51 - Nov 27 Wow - a far cry indeed from the days of Old Git’s bushes wot he could hide behind to surreptitiously watch training sessions! ;)
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bluelodgeblue added 09:42 - Nov 27 The article refers to ‘future proofed’ for expansion? Where could any expansion occur? Does anyone know??
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warwickblue added 10:03 - Nov 27 bluelodgeblue - Expansion of the buildings themselves, or the actual footprint of the training ground itself? I'm not sure.
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Bazza8564 added 10:34 - Nov 27 This project just underlines how important the capital from Brightpath Sports and the continued support fro Gamechanger actually is. Whilst we can use the Sky money within FFP rules to invest on the field, as ITFCMonk quite rightly says, investment can be covered by capital introductions to pay for the training ground, West stand expansion and the new Cobbold stand. And before anybody jumps on as usual and says the investors will want money out, no they won't because as long as the club continues to gain in overall capital value, their investment value rises well above what they have put in. The club was bought for £30m, it's probably now worth around £400m minimum so it's still making them money

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JewellintheTown added 12:47 - Nov 27 Something tells me that our Architects during Covid lockdown played a fair bit of Minecraft. Nice work!
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DinDjarin added 12:59 - Nov 27 @Gforce, absolute rubbish.
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BeattiesBackPocket added 13:18 - Nov 27 Gforce they don’t just get to say we want him back and for 30 million lol. If true regards a buy back deal it’ll be the same deal villa did with Philogene. They get first dibs but at OUR asking price same as Hull had. We bid for philiogene and as long as villa matched it or bettered it they got first dibs so same here but as I say at our asking price which right now could be way more than that come and of the season.

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Runner added 13:53 - Nov 27 Wow, there is 69 downloads to go with ITFC's application to East Suffolk. Some major work has been put in there to get that done. I would think a great deal of money has already been spent, and you don't do that & not know you will get a yes.
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SickParrot added 16:15 - Nov 27 It's hard to comprehend that we now have owners that are willing to spend upto 30 million on the training ground. Further proof that their not looking for a quick profit on their investment. The new facility will be superb. Someone at the Architect's may be in trouble though, because I can't find item 22 on the plan!
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armchaircritic59 added 18:02 - Nov 27 Oh FFP, my bete noir, if it was just up to me, I'd scrap it completely! Surely it should be up to the powers that be at football clubs to spend or not spend what they wish. Yes I know the argument goes that some clubs are now, have always been, and always will be, owned by dodgy owners who think owning a football club is a toy to impress their business buddies and friends with and to hell with it if it all goes pear shaped eventually and the money runs out. It's just the natural way of things, and yes, some clubs will inevitably go the wall because of it, though few if due diligence is applied before any change of ownership. I can't imagine such a thing existing existing in the retail world for example. I'm not sure what a major retailer would make of it, if some self appointed body told them they could only spend a particular amount of money, over a given time, though I think I could guess!

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