Ground Development Plans At Alsager
Wed 29th October 2014 | Alsager Town | By Ian Templeman
Alsager Town are looking at options for developing facilities at their current Wood Park ground, while at the same time exploring the possibility of moving to a new location.
It's the latest chapter in a story surrounding the ground, which first began in July 2011 when most of the club house, office and part of the newly refurbished away team changing rooms were destroyed in a fire.
With support from the town’s largest employer, BAe Systems and a number of their contractors, a group of volunteers, headed up by Chairman Terry Greer, and known as “Terry’s Gang” worked seven days a week to get the clubhouse rebuilt and the facilities back up to standard within a few months, and work has continued since then.
Now, Terry believes that it's time for the club to look at moving up to the next level as far as facilities are concerned.
"We've spent two or three years getting the facilities up to standard, which are reasonable now, but we are not where we want to be as a club", he said.
"We have a meeting with planning inspectors next month, and if we get the go ahead, we would then move to submitting a planning application to build a new ground in another area of Alsager.
"We can become more of a community club if we move to a new ground, because at the moment we just have the one pitch. If we move to a new stadium then we would look to have a full size 3G pitch as well as the main pitch, and if it was left to me that would be a 3G surface as well.
"I'd rather have two full size 3G pitches than a grass one and a 3G, because that would mean we'd have two pitches that could be used all the time, and we could hire a 3G pitch out and it would mean the income streams would be better".
The issue of increasing current levels of income is one that Terry believes is integral to the ongoing development of the club, on and off the field.
"It's difficult to compete with the income coming in as it is at the moment", said Terry. "We haven't quite got the depth of squad we'd like.
"The teams at the top of the table have the bigger budgets and can go and get players, but where we are, there are five or six Evo-Stik League clubs fairly close to us, so to compete with them we need more to attract players (from higher levels) than we can offer at the moment.
"At the moment we have to pay to go and train somewhere else, our youth teams have to play elsewhere, and we'd wouldn't have to do that if we had a 3G pitch to use that was ours. If we had that, it would be a massive plus for us as a club.
"If it goes through (the planning application) we reckon we would have a new home by 2017. However, if it doesn't go through we'll work on getting the freehold on our existing ground and look to develop the facilities there.
"We need an additional new pitch to develop as a club, and for now we will look at both options available to us".
Ground Development Plans At Alsager
Wed 29th October 2014 | Alsager Town
By Ian Templeman
Alsager Town are looking at options for developing facilities at their current Wood Park ground, while at the same time exploring the possibility of moving to a new location.
It's the latest chapter in a story surrounding the ground, which first began in July 2011 when most of the club house, office and part of the newly refurbished away team changing rooms were destroyed in a fire.
With support from the town’s largest employer, BAe Systems and a number of their contractors, a group of volunteers, headed up by Chairman Terry Greer, and known as “Terry’s Gang” worked seven days a week to get the clubhouse rebuilt and the facilities back up to standard within a few months, and work has continued since then.
Now, Terry believes that it's time for the club to look at moving up to the next level as far as facilities are concerned.
"We've spent two or three years getting the facilities up to standard, which are reasonable now, but we are not where we want to be as a club", he said.
"We have a meeting with planning inspectors next month, and if we get the go ahead, we would then move to submitting a planning application to build a new ground in another area of Alsager.
"We can become more of a community club if we move to a new ground, because at the moment we just have the one pitch. If we move to a new stadium then we would look to have a full size 3G pitch as well as the main pitch, and if it was left to me that would be a 3G surface as well.
"I'd rather have two full size 3G pitches than a grass one and a 3G, because that would mean we'd have two pitches that could be used all the time, and we could hire a 3G pitch out and it would mean the income streams would be better".
The issue of increasing current levels of income is one that Terry believes is integral to the ongoing development of the club, on and off the field.
"It's difficult to compete with the income coming in as it is at the moment", said Terry. "We haven't quite got the depth of squad we'd like.
"The teams at the top of the table have the bigger budgets and can go and get players, but where we are, there are five or six Evo-Stik League clubs fairly close to us, so to compete with them we need more to attract players (from higher levels) than we can offer at the moment.
"At the moment we have to pay to go and train somewhere else, our youth teams have to play elsewhere, and we'd wouldn't have to do that if we had a 3G pitch to use that was ours. If we had that, it would be a massive plus for us as a club.
"If it goes through (the planning application) we reckon we would have a new home by 2017. However, if it doesn't go through we'll work on getting the freehold on our existing ground and look to develop the facilities there.
"We need an additional new pitch to develop as a club, and for now we will look at both options available to us".
