Carlisle United set to visit potential training ground sites

The Blues have confirmed that a number of landowners have been in touch with the club offering areas where a new facility could be built.

Club chiefs have described the early progress as “encouraging” as they look to secure a site for a state-of-the-art new training ground, which is part of the long-term vision of United’s new owners, the Piatak family.

Tom snr and Patty Piatak are currently in the area with the four younger members of their family also set to return to Cumbria soon.

During the visit, they are set to inspect some of the areas which have been put to the Blues.

“We have local people who have been really generous for offering up these sites,” said manager Paul Simpson.

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“I don’t mean free of charge but they are coming forward and saying, ‘This is available if you want it’.”

Chief executive Nigel Clibbens has already visited some of the possible sites with more set to come under scrutiny soon.

Speaking at this week’s fans’ forum, Clibbens added: “Since the announcement that we wanted to push on with this quickly after the takeover, we’ve had a number of people come to us saying they’ve got sizeable chunks of land they wanted to discuss with us.

“That means sites of more than 20 acres. We might not need 20 acres on day one but we need to be able to grow into that.

“Anybody who’s been to a proper training facility of an elite club, where we want to get to, knows you need a lot of land.

“You don’t need many buildings but you need land and space.

“I’ve been to two sites and had a look, and we’ve got another two to visit. Paul, Patty and Tom are going to have some drive-arounds, and hopefully see these before the guys go back to the US, so we can narrow down the search.

Tom Piatak and Nigel Clibbens (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“It’s really encouraging and something we want to push on with really quickly.”

A new training ground has long been part of Simpson’s own aspiration for growing United.

That is in tune with the views of the new owners who want to build a better infrastructure for the club.

Simpson said a new facility would be to the benefit of the wider club as well as the community.

“With the phased planning, we want to start by getting a site for the first team and Under-18s, then we want to be able to have the area and facility to bring the Ladies team on board, then the under-9s to under-16s in the academy,” he said.

“[For the latter] we currently have Caldew School [in Dalston] which we pay a lot of money a year to use, and we have Frenchfields [in Penrith] for games – outside Carlisle, which is not ideal, where we have to pay to play games.

“We’re looking at growing a facility to accommodate what we need as a football club.

“The girls are now getting a development team too, which we think is really important for club.”

Clibbens said the potential benefits to the wider community were a key part of the scheme.

“We’re a community club, and [the Piataks] want to make it better for the community and city.

They know we’re lacking facilities generally.

“Folk who play in the Neil Centre will know it’s a bit tired, and we could do with something to improve that [for instance].

“These things all tie together – something the community, not just Carlisle United, could be proud of is top of the [owners’ agenda].”