New training ground?
According to London Irish owner (and former Reading bidder) Daniel Loitz, Wycombe are bidding to take control of the Hazelwood training ground in Sunbury on Thames.
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According to London Irish owner (and former Reading bidder) Daniel Loitz, Wycombe are bidding to take control of the Hazelwood training ground in Sunbury on Thames.
Comments
All your training ground are belong to us.
I realized the other day watching one of the ‘everyone having a great time at training,’ videos I have no idea what our position is with the Harlington facility. We don’t own it so we? Is it a long term lease or a one year at a time deal? It would explain why there’s almost no WWFC branding anywhere.
I reckon the long game is still Bearwood.
I mused a little while back about Harlington and its long term suitability for us in regards to the expansion and 3rd Runway at Heathrow.
With that coming back onto the political agenda, I’m not wholly surprised if we are looking at the possibility of alternative sites.
Would be fantastic for me, right on my doorstep. It’s a great facility.
I can’t imagine it’s big enough, only comes with 5 pitches compared to Harlingtons 18.
Not sure it can be expanded either.
Heathrow? You mean Wycombe International, exclusively serving Air Astana. That's what the third runway is for.
It will be our second training ground for the under 5,6,7 and 8s
Never can tell what’s happening with this club now but they arranged a long-term lease on Harlington in the summer and have already spent over £1 million on improvements so moving again so soon seems very improbable indeed.
I thought we had Harlington for 5 years ?
It’s owned by Imperial College. I’m sure I read somewhere that when Chelsea had it, one of the stipulations was they had to provide some training for the College’s team
Could these be the training & playing pitches for our younger teams when the academy gets up and running. Most clubs have academies with U7's squads
Does Harlington come into the area for Heathrow’s third runway.? Hence looking at other options.
Looking at the plan, the runway would be west and on the other side of the road from the training ground, which would be directly under the flight path. Planes would be very low overhead.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8p579g5g5o
Can adapt the old Craig Faulconbridge chant
We've got three training grounds
We've got three training grounds
Why do we sing this song
We never stay for long
The original plan had the runway pushed to the east (and not covering the M25) which would put it right into the training ground.
I have always been of the mind set that Heathrow expansion would get built if a business case was made for it by the government of the day, but I would be absolutely flabbergasted if they do go with the “over the M25” design of it.
The delays and congestion it would cause on an already delayed and congested section of the busiest stretch of UK motorway for at least a decade would be horrendous. I wouldn’t be surprised if the final design is smaller, and shifted east putting the training ground in a less than favourable position.
It will be many many years before an aircraft uses the new runway if indeed it ever happens which in truth I strongly doubt. Not a factor in where to train for many years.
Construction traffic, noise and pollution may be a factor but even that will at least be a good time off.
Irrespective of the whether the third runway is the right thing to do, given current planning rules & requirements this will not be built in less than 10 years if at all. The current government may have endorsed the proposals but this is no guarantee of approval especially given the local opposition groups as well as opposition from climate groups, the Green Party etc.
It can also be argued that the business case for the expasnsion has been weakened by the governments support for the expansion of Stanstead & Luton airports
Our plans are vast by the sound of it, so the club are right to be enquiring where sites might be available.
Having separate academy and 1st team resources, or multiple for different age groups could be easier and cheaper than buying somewhere like Bearwood.
Heathrow expansion if it happens is likely to include extra support services and some reworking to replace things being moved so it's probably far too early to know if it affects Harlington but again wise to be considering other longer term options.
Aren't there some academy rules about kids having to play/train near where they live? It'd make sense to have a first team base and an academy base.