Stoke City investing £12 million in new training complex

EFL Championship club Stoke City have been granted planning permission to build a new training ground.

A major £10-12 million development at Stoke City’s Clayton Wood Training Ground has been confirmed and is scheduled for completion in September 2025. The investment represents the biggest project outlay by the club since the building of the bet365 Stadium.

The new state of the art building, designed by AFL Architects, will create elite facilities for the men’s first team squad and will in turn lead to a renovated version of the existing pavilion being provided exclusively to the Club’s Category One Academy and women’s team.

Stoke City said the new building will increase the scale and quality of the performance, recovery, rehabilitation, gymnasium, nutrition and sports science facilities available to Potters’ players.

It will take the total investment in the Club’s training base since its acquisition above the £25 million mark.

Vice-Chairman Richard Smith said:

This development is massive for Stoke City, both in terms of scope and importance. Once complete, it will elevate our first team facilities to among the best in the Championship and make them fit for Premier League football.

Also, no sooner has the new facility at Clayton Wood been opened, a refurbishment of the current building will begin, making it a suitably elite home for our ambitious women’s team and Academy, meaning the benefit will be felt across our Club.

With planning permission having been granted by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, work on the development is set to commence this September following the appointment of a building contractor.

It will represent the latest in a series of consecutive developments with a momentum that the Potters’ owners have no intention of halting at the conclusion of the current cycle.

Smith added:

The predicted figure for the five-year development programme we announced in 2022 has increased from £20m to £30m since the projects started to take shape.

Improvements such as the Ricardo’s sports bar refurbishment and LED floodlight installation – as well as the forthcoming fan zone, licensed standing and work that will facilitate home supporters being behind both goals and either side of the tunnel – are about enhancing the matchday supporter experience.

This significant training ground investment is to support the on field ambitions that go hand-in-hand with that. We think of the plans announced for 2022-2026 as an instalment in a rolling programme of improvements which we intend to continue.

I hope this demonstrates our absolute ongoing commitment to Stoke City and our determination to bring the sustained success and achievement both on and off the field that our fans so richly deserve.

Source & imagery, courtesy: Stoke City

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