Football Training ground gamble has paid off, says Rovers owner Al-Qadi
BRISTOL Rovers owner Wael Al-Qadi has revealed the club’s calculated gamble to build the Almondsbury Training Centre (ATC) amid the coronavirus pandemic has paid off.
The club made the surprise announcement in early June that the site will open for the first team this season, meaning the club would finally have a training base of their own after years of leasing other sites.
Ben Garner and his players are set to move to the ATC, in Hortham Lane, before the end of October after training at a temporary base since returning for pre-season.
Al-Qadi has exclusively told the Bristol Post the opportunistic move to invest in the club’s infrastructure amid the uncertainty of the pandemic has been vindicated by negotiating cheaper costs with contractors. He said: “The training ground is a key element of our strategy to getting the club to be sustainable in the future.
“Having a training ground where we can develop players, and it all fits in with our goals.
“At the time, we took a decision that this might be opportunistic in terms of costs and investment and the right time to get this thing going. We have found out, compared to the costings that were there from before, that it was the right decision.”
The ATC is seen as a crucial part of the club’s efforts to become more financially stable by developing players from within.
The owner’s right-hand man, CEO Martyn Starnes, told the Bristol Post the club acted quickly, with the lease for The Lawns at Cribbs FC expiring, to secure a good deal.
The 28-acre site, formerly known as The Colony, was purchased for use as a training ground by AlQadi’s Dwane group in 2017, but the project stalled.
However, once the owner gave the green light, the project took just a few weeks to get off the ground, according to Starnes.
“It was imperative for us to find a training ground because our lease was up at Cribbs, and it became quite clear it wasn’t going to be renewed because the area is owned by a school that wants to develop the land itself,” the CEO said.
“We needed to find another training ground, and of course training grounds do not grow on trees.
“We had the land, and it’s absolutely right that when we went out to the market after Wael had given the green light to do so, and say he would fund it, we were able to strike good deals with contractors to get it moving.”