Town CEO and chairman Mark Ashton says the club’s rebuild of their Playford Road training facility is on time and on budget.

Planning permission for the major refurbishment of the training ground, which is understood to be costing up to £30 million, was granted in March with work starting soon afterwards.

Ashton, speaking while giving a lengthy tour of Playford Road outlining the plans and progress to TownTV, says the club needed to improve the level of its training facilities.

“The building that the first team, women and academy are currently situated in simply isn’t fit for purpose,” he said.

“It’s not elite and it’s not going to be able to help us deliver sustainable success in attracting players to the club, the development of players, the physical development of players. We need world class and elite facilities.”

He says the work is on schedule to be finished in June next year: “A lot of planning, a lot of process, but I think, as ever, the team’s been really good and thus far, we’re on time and I’d like to say we're on budget.”

Ashton believes Playford Road held the club back following promotion to the Premier League last year.

“This club has gone on an incredible journey in the last three or four years, but we have so, so much to do by June next year, the training ground will be complete,” he continued.

“I’m sure we're going to have a walk over to Bent Lane shortly and look at the four or five pitches that have now gone on to there and have all been fully stitched for the academy cat one status.

“There's only one way this football club going. The one thing I can’t buy is time, and we need to build infrastructure.

“Ideally, all of this would have been built and completed prior to us getting into the Premier League. That would have given us a far better chance of staying in the Premier League.

“We had, bar none, the worst training facilities in the Premier League and I’d say bar only a few we have the worst training facilities in the Championship.

“[Manager] Kieran [McKenna], [director of performance] Andy Rolls, [head of athletic performance] Matt Allen, the team, they’ve done an incredible job with the facilities we’ve got, but now after the planning we’ve put in and the finance we’ve put in, come June next year, they are going to have elite facilities.”

He added: “I genuinely believe this will deliver generational change and generational success for Ipswich the football club, the town and the county.”

Speaking about the new first-team building, he added: “This will be the centrepiece, tens of millions of pounds worth of investment into the first-team elite home.

“From changing rooms to offices, to gymnasium, to medical centre, to swimming pool, cold pools, plunge pools, hydrotherapy, cryotherapy, you name it, it’s in here.

“And we spent a lot of time doing a lot of research on clubs around the world to make sure that we haven’t missed anything.”

Ashton says the club’s owners have backed the plans, citing the expertise provided by a number of those who are part of Bright Path Sports Partners, the US-based private equity firm who took a stake of around 40 per cent in the club just over a year ago.

“These plans can’t be delivered without our shareholders and our investors and our board,” he said.

“And it’s been great because I’ve got the likes of Sam Simon and Peter Simon, who built training facilities at the [Halifax] Mooseheads for their ice hockey team

“And I’ve got the same interest Travis Viola, who’s done the same at back-to-back [Stanley Cup] title winners, the [Florida] Panthers.

“So they’ve built these of type facilities, so it’s been great to tap into them and they’ve stood behind the funding plan for it.

“If I said these things were expensive, that’s probably an understatement. What I thought we would spend on this when I joined and what we’ve actually spent on it is probably double by the time we’ve done all the work and got everything in that we needed.

"The one thing that the board has been really encouraging on is, ‘Mark, don’t go cut corners, do it well, do it once and do it right’.”

Photo: TownTV

Bazza8564 added 11:22 - Nov 14 Really good interview and very interesting to listen to the 365 days per year perspective from MA. It's a long watch but worth it
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BeachBlue added 11:29 - Nov 14 Its going to look brilliant next June.
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Ipswichbusiness added 11:44 - Nov 14 They are addressing the underinvestment of the Evan’s years and delivering on time and budget; what’s not to like about that? Quality new facilities ought make it easier for us to sign players.
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Karlosfandangal added 11:57 - Nov 14 With all this going on It about time some on here back the club and look at the bigger picture
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virginblue added 14:31 - Nov 14 And yet many on here say the owners aren’t interested….
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ChestnutSe added 15:57 - Nov 14 An amazing amount of work and a huge investment in the club. It’s amazing what the new owners have achieved and are still planning to achieve both on and off the pitch. We are extremely lucky to have the ownership group and the management team that we currently have. It’s all a far far cry from the previous owners. With our brilliant fans as well we really do have all the ingredients for a successful club that we can all be proud of.

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Bert added 16:05 - Nov 14 Not a bad achievement for someone whose credentials have been called into question by some. Well done Ashton and owners.
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armchaircritic59 added 19:35 - Nov 14 I've got to say that was all a bit of an eye opener. Some of the worst facilities in the Championship? Not for much longer one way or another! Buried in that conversation is a small statement that won't capture a lot of attention, but it's very important, especially if like me, you are one of the older posters on here, but it's true for everyone. He said " you can't buy time " I would go further than that, what's more important? Time or money? As someone said to me a while ago, it's a no contest. " Money comes and goes, time just goes....." Enough said!

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Dissboyitfc added 20:27 - Nov 14 absolutely Brilliant, well done Ashton and co. Yes Karlos its amazing that the self proclaimed super supporters wont comment on this story!
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BurleysGloryDays added 21:00 - Nov 14 A super watch on TownTV - so inspiring and exciting Wish there was much more content like this being made - remarkable being the scenes content - looking forward to the Portman Road part two. Truly fantastic ownership, ceo, and manager we have - extraordinary lineup that are writing their own chapters in our special club
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RegencyBlue added 09:03 - Nov 15 The contrast between the last four years and the wasted fourteen years under Evans could not be more stark!
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flykickingbybgunn added 11:57 - Nov 15 That was really interesting.
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tetchris added 13:35 - Nov 15 Now the stadium just needs to be brought up to PL standards. Although the club has bought land around the stadium and the building of an aquatics centre and multi storey car park could free up further land for stadium improvements, you have to wonder whether moving to a new purpose built stadium out of town would be more cost effective in the long run. Any redevelopment of PR will likely be a compromise and potentially very expensive. G tech stadium was built in 2020 for a cost of £71million. Land prices, materials, and labour costs will have increased since then so you are probably looking at £100million minimum. MA says the cost of redevelopment of Playford Road has cost double to what he expected, and I suspect the cost of redeveloping PR is going to be north of £50million, I’m not sure that offers value for money?

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armchaircritic59 added 19:32 - Nov 15 Tetchris, interesting points and I'm certainly not going to question your figures, as quite honestly, I don't have a clue. However I think there's one element that might be being overlooked. The football club remaining at the heart of the community, ( almost literally ) where many people walk past it every day. Moving it out of town would likely change that dramatically. Would it be a financial wise move? Perhaps, I honestly don't know, but I do know the town itself would lose it's hearbeat.

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Westy added 22:09 - Nov 15 Well done Mark Ashton and all concerned. When complete in June attention will move to Portman Road for further investment and upgrades. Particularly like Marks Ashton's comment that the owners don't want him to cut corners but to do things properly to the highest standard.
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