" WORLD CLASS TRAINING FACILITIES "

"WORLD CLASS" is how the training facilities at Vale were described when it was officially opened on December 15th 2008.

Yes I would like us to have our own training ground that is owned by the club but why is there a need to spend £10million on something when we currently have "state of the art training facilities which are second to none".

It is one of the items on the agenda of Vincent Tan as part of the re-branding which baffles me, if we were still training on "dog shit park" then I could understand it better but do we need to do this right now ?

At a later date, when we are an established Premier League club and certainly a club with a better balance sheet than we currently have, I would be more for it but at this present time I don't understand the need to add £10million to our debt when we have facilities which are more than suitable.

" CARDIFF CITY OFFICIAL SITE "
" VALE COMPLEX OFFICIALLY OPENED "
Posted on: Thu 18 Dec 2008

A new world-class training centre for the Cardiff Blues and Cardiff City football club was officially launched on Monday 15th December 2008 at the Vale Resort, Hensol nr Cardiff.

The new training home for the two clubs is part of a £10million investment into sport facilities at the hotel resort to support the development of elite sport. It is part of a 40-acre sporting site at the Vale which includes six international standard training pitches for football and rugby including a 3G artificial pitch built to FIFA and IRB specifications.

The Blues and Cardiff City's training headquarters is based at the new 1800 sq m (18,000 sq ft) three-storey Vale Pavilion which houses state-of-the-art facilities, including fitness zones and conditioning areas, medical and physio rooms, office and boardroom facilities, players lounges, meeting rooms, refectories and changing areas.

The Cardiff Blues will have a dedicated training pitch and skills zone; Cardiff City will have the use of two football pitches plus two training zones that also serve the FAW.

Stephen Leeke, Managing Director of the Vale Resort said: "The ambition at the Vale has been to create a centre of sporting excellence with some of the best leisure and sporting facilities available in Europe.

"We have been working closely over the past three years with the Blues and Cardiff City to design an environment which suits the needs of modern sports professionals and coaching staff and that will assist them with their very focused year-round training schedules.

"We are delighted to working in close partnership with two of Wales' most successful sports clubs in the pursuit of their ambitions to perform at the very top of their game. We wish them all the very best in the new Vale Pavilion."

Peter Ridsdale, Chairman of Cardiff City Football Club said:"We are delighted that Cardiff City Football Club has been able to work with the Vale Resort and the Leeke family in securing state of the art training facilities which are second to none. Our new training base combined with our new stadium due to open in August 2009, means that we now have facilities in keeping with our ambition to become a Premier League Football Club."

Robert Norster, Cardiff Blues Chief Executive:"The opening of this new facility provides another very important step forward for the Cardiff Blues. The new training centre is world-class facility suitable for any team playing at the highest level of professional sport. We have already seen the team make significant progress over the past few seasons and I have no doubt that this centre will prove to be a vital component in the ongoing development of David Young, his coaching staff and the wider team.

"The move sees us advance from a good training facility to a great one and our thanks must go to Gerald and Stephen Leeke and the Vale Hotel for their continued support and commitment to our cause and indeed that of our national sport.

For the long term perhaps?

Instead of paying what? £200,000 a year? We could just build our own Facilities.

For the long term perhaps?

Instead of paying what? £200,000 a year? We could just build our own Facilities.

Pay £250k this year Elliott and keep £9.75million in the bank (or better still settle some more of the debt).

I guess we would also eventually take an income from them with teams coming to us rather than the Vale.

Craig Bellamy did describe the current training facilities as average I believe?

Trust me having seen many training facilities from across the world the Vale is very far from world-class

For the long term perhaps?

Instead of paying what? £200,000 a year? We could just build our own Facilities.

Pay £250k this year Elliott and keep £9.75million in the bank (or better still settle some more of the debt).

Hmm I suppose so. As I said, our main priority SHOULD be clearing the debt before improving facilities and going for promotion but hey ho, it's their choice I suppose.

One pitch is unacceptable for a club with our ambitions

For the long term perhaps?

Instead of paying what? £200,000 a year? We could just build our own Facilities.

Pay £250k this year Elliott and keep £9.75million in the bank (or better still settle some more of the debt).

Hmm I suppose so. As I said, our main priority SHOULD be clearing the debt before improving facilities and going for promotion but hey ho, it's their choice I suppose.

Clear the debt, that of Langston, PMG, Ranson and the Malaysians should definitely be the priority.

No Carl.....I like tans intention, he said why wait till we get there for new facility's including the stadium improvements,
he knows where we are going....I believe it's only a matter of time and we'll be flying high.

Believe.

No Carl.....I like tans intention, he said why wait till we get there for new facility's including the stadium improvements,
he knows where we are going....I believe it's only a matter of time and we'll be flying high.

Believe.

I understand where you're coming from, but the debt is a little bit of a problem don't you think?

No Carl.....I like tans intention, he said why wait till we get there for new facility's including the stadium improvements,
he knows where we are going....I believe it's only a matter of time and we'll be flying high.

Believe.

I understand where you're coming from, but the debt is a little bit of a problem don't you think?

Elliot,the debt is our main problem if everyone is to be honest and look back at their previous posts.

improve the clubs value too carl

i do worry that we could end up owing them 100 mil plus and then they suddenly want it back and then we are fucked.. i will not trust them 100 percent untill the debt is equity i thank them for the things they are doing but they are building the debt up for us! also what if they will not pay langstone off because they do not want to turn it into equity? and this is their way of stalling because everything mony wise is next may.. what if it is prem or bust? thats why we have a big budget... im worried

Sorry to disagree but the vale is not world a class as a training facility, and our academy players and below train in a different location, So how can Malky check himself on how emerging talent is progressing on a daily basis.
If we develop our own training facility everyone will train on the same facility, surely that will be beneficial for the academy players to train alongside the professionally players. I believe owning a truly first class set up will help persuade players that CCFC really is going places as club, and they will choose us over the likes of Wolves.

Debt should be priority... Get this out of the way...

I don't see how it makes a difference what the priority is, money is set aside for Langston and the training facilities.

i do worry that we could end up owing them 100 mil plus and then they suddenly want it back and then we are fucked.. i will not trust them 100 percent untill the debt is equity i thank them for the things they are doing but they are building the debt up for us! also what if they will not pay langstone off because they do not want to turn it into equity? and this is their way of stalling because everything mony wise is next may.. what if it is prem or bust? thats why we have a big budget... im worried

The only thing Tan can do to claw back his investment is sell the players off, there is nothing else to sell off, they don't even own the land the stadium is built on, he can call time on his investment, but he would walk away with nothing, there is nothing to liquidate, nothing to sell, as long as the tax man is paid we will be fine.

I can see the benefit of building he training facility. I do like the idea that the club is getting ready for promotion at some point. Why wait until you are up and then look to build premiership fàcilities. Have them ready to attract players and more fans as soon as. Gives you a better chance of pressing on straight away.

Pending turning loans into equity mind.

i do worry that we could end up owing them 100 mil plus and then they suddenly want it back and then we are fucked.. i will not trust them 100 percent untill the debt is equity i thank them for the things they are doing but they are building the debt up for us! also what if they will not pay langstone off because they do not want to turn it into equity? and this is their way of stalling because everything mony wise is next may.. what if it is prem or bust? thats why we have a big budget... im worried

The only thing Tan can do to claw back his investment is sell the players off, there is nothing else to sell off, they don't even own the land the stadium is built on, he can call time on his investment, but he would walk away with nothing, there is nothing to liquidate, nothing to sell, as long as the tax man is paid we will be fine.

so if they decided to leave would we have to give them their money back? thats what i thought would happen?

Why has this topic about training facilities turned into a debate about Vincent Tan's and Wether he will pull the plug on his investment, every topic seems to turn back onto the same subject regardless. This board needs a get back to being informative and funny as we are all taking ourselves way to seriously.

i do worry that we could end up owing them 100 mil plus and then they suddenly want it back and then we are fucked.. i will not trust them 100 percent untill the debt is equity i thank them for the things they are doing but they are building the debt up for us! also what if they will not pay langstone off because they do not want to turn it into equity? and this is their way of stalling because everything mony wise is next may.. what if it is prem or bust? thats why we have a big budget... im worried

The only thing Tan can do to claw back his investment is sell the players off, there is nothing else to sell off, they don't even own the land the stadium is built on, he can call time on his investment, but he would walk away with nothing, there is nothing to liquidate, nothing to sell, as long as the tax man is paid we will be fine.

so if they decided to leave would we have to give them their money back? thats what i thought would happen?

A lesson in basic finance "you can't have what I haven't got" that's why people with no assets have there debt's wiped clean.

I don't see how it makes a difference what the priority is, money is set aside for Langston and the training facilities.

Luke it makes a huge difference, if the club settle with Langston then Tan has promised to convert his debt to equity.

If the club don't settle Langston then all money spent will be a debt to the club accruing interest of 7% ( if the interest rate previously applied is indeed the same).

So there is a huge difference.

I don't see how it makes a difference what the priority is, money is set aside for Langston and the training facilities.

Luke it makes a huge difference, if the club settle with Langston then Tan has promised to convert his debt to equity.

If the club don't settle Langston then all money spent will be a debt to the club accruing interest of 7% ( if the interest rate previously applied is indeed the same).

So there is a huge difference.

Fair play, supporting Cardiff isn't stressful at all is it?

i do worry that we could end up owing them 100 mil plus and then they suddenly want it back and then we are fucked.. i will not trust them 100 percent untill the debt is equity i thank them for the things they are doing but they are building the debt up for us! also what if they will not pay langstone off because they do not want to turn it into equity? and this is their way of stalling because everything mony wise is next may.. what if it is prem or bust? thats why we have a big budget... im worried

The only thing Tan can do to claw back his investment is sell the players off, there is nothing else to sell off, they don't even own the land the stadium is built on, he can call time on his investment, but he would walk away with nothing, there is nothing to liquidate, nothing to sell, as long as the tax man is paid we will be fine.

so if they decided to leave would we have to give them their money back? thats what i thought would happen?

A lesson in basic finance "you can't have what I haven't got" that's why people with no assets have there debt's wiped clean.

i cant see a billionaire just forgetting about 100 mil if he gets pissed off and wants out theres got to be something giving him the cheek of changing everything

Instead of building brand new facilities, buy the ones at the vale and develop it further. Saw in the paper the other day Gerald Leeke was saying he'd be happy for them to do that and already are laying more pitches.
Do it this way and we'll save money, get better facilities and can pay off debt!

This subject alone should be enough to make people stand prudent with the Malaysians ffs,The Malaysians are dragging Their feet in regards to the Langsdon settlement, Trying to settle with an offer of 30% of what the High Court ruling, Yet the malaysians want to spend 10M on a facility the Club already has at the clubs disposal? If the malaysians are true to their word, they should Pay Langsdon and get on with what they promise.end off!

For the long term perhaps?

Instead of paying what? £200,000 a year? We could just build our own Facilities.

Pay £250k this year Elliott and keep £9.75million in the bank (or better still settle some more of the debt).

Hmm I suppose so. As I said, our main priority SHOULD be clearing the debt before improving facilities and going for promotion but hey ho, it's their choice I suppose.

Clear the debt, that of Langston, PMG, Ranson and the Malaysians should definitely be the priority.

Business 101. How do you service a debt??? By reducing outgoings and generating an incomes. As someone alluded to above, by building a world classs facility we wwill be able to do both; we will no longer be paying the vale £250k per annum and we can also let/sell our services etc in order to generate funds. Further to that the Vale would not appear as an asset on our balance sheet where as the new facility would. Its simple really but why both you and Annis are now doing your up most to undermine and raise suspicion regarding VT and TG is getting tedious now. And don't give us all this 'look at how supportive i've been in my other postz' its all a sham, ploy and tactic. Carl plays good cop and Annis plays bad cop and by hook or crook you get the fans around to thinking things your wayplay playing the game of pretending to pay off each other when really you both have the same motives etc.

This subject alone should be enough to make people stand prudent with the Malaysians ffs,The Malaysians are dragging Their feet in regards to the Langsdon settlement, Trying to settle with an offer of 30% of what the High Court ruling, Yet the malaysians want to spend 10M on a facility the Club already has at the clubs disposal? If the malaysians are true to their word, they should Pay Langsdon and get on with what they promise.end off!

'The club has at its disposal' but doesn't own, big difference!!! Building tthe centre will cut costs and generate income. Say we get a tenant at similar to larger rates than what we currently pay, well we've saved our selves quarter of a mil per annum and now we're already generating the same. What about the national side? Touring teams etc, that could easily go to the £800 to £850k per year if not more. So in 10 years it pays for itself, in that time it remains out asset and balances on the books and in hopefully less than 10 years we sstart to make significant profit on it. Sound logical business sense really!

We dont need to build a new training ground of are own the one we are using is good enough for man utd and other clubs to come use so whats the problem, another bullshit stunt by the triads (gets some plans drawn up ect) yet there not even talking about moving from the vale yet about the current lease they got there how daft is that, besides what good is a world class training ground with to-bit players who will never get you there because they just dont have it to give, five steps backwards one step forward i call it. ON THE PITCH IT COUNTS, if these clowns want a return on ANY money put in which ive been saying for two seasons. I have a feeling i will be on there backs this season comming due to there innept ways of running a football club in every way bar plug some 1.36million quids worth of debt every month forever and do nothing to stop it but thats all fans think about and there only answer for there defence

It's all good saying we can invest in a world class training facilitie when wer an established pl club but is it a given that we will be?? It's a bit like this rebranding bull shit, wev changed to make the club more appealing in Asia and to get more exposure when in fact this is not going to happen till we get to the pl, if we ever get there.