Relocate Torquay?

[MidDevon]

I think it would be prudent for the Torquay United board in the medium term to consider re-locating their training ground away from Torbay.

The big problem of attracting players could be somewhat met if the club were to train in Bristol, or perhaps Southampton.

This is not a new solution for clubs based in far-flung areas, Barrow have had a lot more success since relocating training sessions to just South of Preston, specifically for the reasons always raised by Torquay managers.

Thoughts?

[Dazza]

Interesting suggestion but aren't Barrow a bit of a special case? The town is really tucked away by the Lake District and by Morecombe Bay. Torquay by comparison is almost mainstream!

Our training grounds have over recent years been well out of town nearer to the A38 than to Torquay. Personally given our situation I think we should be looking at developing more Exeter and Argyle players and Seale Hayne works well from that viewpoint.

[Dave]

While the clubs remains a full time professional football, I would say out of the question, holding training sessions elsewhere is something that part-time clubs do dependant on where the majority of their players are based, in bid to get training sessions held whereby their players can attend regularly.

While we're full time, I, as fan want to see the club attract the bets players they can to the club, the area, and so why not train here. If our club went part-time in the future and had, say alot South-East based players, then of course train up there.

[Glostergull]

and there was me thinking this thread was an attempt to take the town Franchise like to replace Acrrington.. now that would be an improvement on the skyline lol

[wodger of awabia]

l aggre and posted a similar suggestion a few months ago . My favoured location would be just south of Birmingham, with easy access from M5, M6, & M40. It may even be possible to share training facilities with a West Mids. club. Players would not need to re-locate to S. Devon, & loaning players from Villa. City, WBA etc. could be possible. Most overnight hotel stops would not be needed. and this area is only around 3 hours by coach from Tqy, for travel to home games. The only things needed at Plainmoor are match day facilities.

[PhilGull]

So what would be the point? May as well play the home games elsewhere too. We are Torquay United, being in Torquay is part of our lot.

[Dave]

Further to my first post, those who think this is a good idea in my humble opinion must stop and think here. Have we considered cost implication ? The club would have to rent a space, how much would it cost in other areas, the coaching staff are not going to want to drive their training equipment up to Birmingham or anywhere else, so storage would have to be paid for, as well.

Logistics. The manager and coaching staff live down here in Torquay, how many players do we have living in Torbay, would we make them travel to Birmingham, or anywhere else, say the club did move it's training base to Birmingham, could TUFC sign and keep 18 or so full time players happy that lived close enough to the training base, you'd be isolating your player recruitment to one area.

Training benefits, how many times a week could the club actually train in Birmingham or anywhere else, if there's no midweek game, are people from the club seriously going to travel to the Midlands five days a week.

This is a daft idea. As Philgull rightly says, we are Torquay United, a full time professional football club based in Torquay, if we can't run the club in Torquay, how long before we become, Bromsgrove United, based in Bromsgrove.

[wodger of awabia]

Well forever, I think you have missed some of the key words in in Middevons post, these are "medium term" & consider. It is clear that a re-location could not happen overnight & would most likely have to be phased in over say a two year programme. The management of the playing staff would not be the first management team to be told that their company was re-locating to another area, it happens all of the time in industry. Most if not all of the players are on short term contacts so they would be able to consider if they still wanted to be a part of a Torquay side where the training is based away from Torquay. A move to the West Mids would be very cost effective if a training ground & associated staff could be shared with another club. Much cheaper I suspect that continuing to fund the present "Hogworts" training facility. The point you are missing is that all aspects of training would be away from Tqy & all of the training staff & players would live in, or around the area chosen, & travel by coach to home matches in TQY.
"Isolating your player recruitment to one area" ......Within around one hour driving of a Birmingham training ground are Oxford, Milton Keynes Northampton,Coventry,Leicester,North Bristol, Gloucester,Wolverhampton Stoke on Trent, Derby,Nottingham,Worcester as well as smaller towns such as Kidderminster, Walsall Stafford, Nuneaton etc etc. This is a huge recruitment area.

[Dave]

I, 100% fully understand and appreciate where both you, and middevon are coming from. Yes, there would be some benefits, but, in my opinion the cons here far outweigh the pro's.

Whichever way we look at this, logistics would be by some way the biggest problem, yes, we would be moving in to a huge catchment area in terms of player recruitment, however we'd also be moving into a catchment area massively populated with a very good and successful football clubs not just right throughout the football league and above, but very well run and successful non-league and semi-professional football clubs, there’s no guarantees that we could get all the help via the loan market we possibly need through Midlands based clubs alone.

Let’s look at the semi-professional footballer, born and bred in the Midlands, earns £100-150 a game on top of his regular earnings, playing for a club less than 50 miles or closer to his home, is he going chuck that in, and experience a drop in overall income, leaving himself open to traveling down to Torquay for a Saturday and Tuesday home games, because we've got two at home in one week, I would suggest not, ok you could say, the player would get greater exposure playing for Torquay, well no not really, semi-professional football is scouted.

Let’s look at a Midlands based player just released from say a League 1 club, he's got the chance to sign for Northampton/Oxford as a squad player, or could sign for Torquay guaranteed first team, would he sign for us, to train in Midlands, to travel to Torquay on a Saturday, to come home to go Chester for an away game, when he could sit on the bench at Oxford for more money, we have to look at what we'd be competing with.

Yes we would be isolating player recruitment. so 2 years time we've moved our training base to the midlands, we still have links with Chelsea and Bournemouth, do we really think they'd be happy to put their starlets in digs in the Midlands and having them traveling down to Torquay possibly twice a week for games, again I'd suggest not, same would apply to some of the top London based Championship clubs, you'd just as well move the club to the midlands, it's a flawed idea.

For me we have to re-build our club right here, as the name Torquay United suggests, the talk in the week of taking the club right back into the heart of the community, spot on, build links with local business, especially with the link road opening soon, and the potential for new business to move into the are

[Jerry]

As for the "Hogwarts" training facility, I believe this now runs at a small profit with part of it being sub-let to Argyle.

[wodger of awabia]

Yes,but the whole point is that players will not re-locate to Tqy. they don't want to move away from their families & can't afford the high cost of housing in Devon.This is why Tqy. have to offer good wages & two year contracts to attract decent players. Would you "up sticks" for a one year contract? Most of the local players in South Devon are not good enough to play in the Birmingham Premier League, let alone Conference football with Tqy.

[Dave]

I really do get where your coming from, think we may have hit an impasse here. I get if the club relocated it's training base players would not have to move to the South West, I'm suggesting the problem could be, out of contract players in and around the Midlands have a wealth of choice when it comes to their next move, there are good clubs at all levels on every street corner 'so to speak' if they signed for TUFC they'd still have to travel possibly up to twice a week to Torquay, faced with that or signing for a football league club, or a NL north club on virtually the same money, where your training base and home ground are right there in the same area, without having to do an 8 hour round trip to play your home match's, who are the players going to sign for, possibly not TUFC.

The other problem will be the same as we currently face, not just a case of getting Southern based players to the club on-loan, but attracting players from Southern based clubs on a permanent move, let's say our club finds itself in much brighter financial position, the incumbent manager is given a massively increased player budget, his top targets, are say Woking, and some London based FL clubs, will he be able to attract them to the club if they have to move to the Midlands and still have to travel to play their home games in Torquay, moving our training base to me, will create as many problems as it solves, that's all I'm trying to say.

Edit; Just to add if we moved our training base, I personally think we'd be consigning our club to part-time football, we would be restricting the club on some fronts, as stated , like player recruitment, and it would virtually end any hopes of ever seeing our club back in the football league.

[chunkygull]

For christs sake the way people go on you would think nobody from the westcountry, south west or Devon ever kicked a football before, what would be wrong with trying a few players who are geograpically within reach. They surely cant be worse than some of those lured down here from elsewhere, some of these untried youth players we get from clubs have never played mens football even though they have come from good clubs they are still only learning. Why would some part timers from Brum be that much better than a part timer from close to home with the right training etc. We have ignored local talent for too many years already. They have either slipped through the net and been signed elsewhere or our club hasnt even bothered with them because the coaching, management, academy staff, scouting network all stem from parts elsewhere (oop north, brum, London etc). Quite a few times I have read on here that down the years other regional clubs have scouts at local games or tournaments etc and our presence is missing. Dont see why in the current financial climate that a few of the best of the best local talent couldnt be affiliated with TUFC on a part time basis and even top up the squad rather than paying a lot of money for players not that great to come here and maybe only make the bench, Mr Bateson mentioned in the interview last week something along those lines. What harm could a local part time player do coming off the bench for 10-15 minutes if needed, couldnt be any worse than some of the crap we get coming here and I reckon because of their status and possibly being from the around the area they would likely show more pride and would bust a gut and try a lot harder than most also.

[Neal]

I don't know if it would work BUT its a positive idea to try and reduce costs and get better players. We need these ideas, some will be goers some wont, but any of you who think just staying as we are is the answer are in cloud cuckoo land. You could share training facilities with maybe another club (as Argyle are doing with us actually). I would nominate Basingstoke (hahahaha cus I live here) Good distance from Southampton / Reading / Brentford etc etc.

[wodger of awabia]

For christs sake the way people go on you would think nobody from the westcountry, south west or Devon ever kicked a football before, what would be wrong with trying a few players who are geograpically within reach. They surely cant be worse than some of those lured down here from elsewhere, some of these untried youth players we get from clubs have never played mens football even though they have come from good clubs they are still only learning. Why would some part timers from Brum be that much better than a part timer from close to home with the right training etc. We have ignored local talent for too many years already. They have either slipped through the net and been signed elsewhere or our club hasnt even bothered with them because the coaching, management, academy staff, scouting network all stem from parts elsewhere (oop north, brum, London etc). Quite a few times I have read on here that down the years other regional clubs have scouts at local games or tournaments etc and our presence is missing. Dont see why in the current financial climate that a few of the best of the best local talent couldnt be affiliated with TUFC on a part time basis and even top up the squad rather than paying a lot of money for players not that great to come here and maybe only make the bench, Mr Bateson mentioned in the interview last week something along those lines. What harm could a local part time player do coming off the bench for 10-15 minutes if needed, couldnt be any worse than some of the crap we get coming here and I reckon because of their status and possibly being from the around the area they would likely show more pride and would bust a gut and try a lot harder than most also.

Is it because most of these kids have already been "bagged" at the age of 8 to 10 by Plymouth ,Exeter, Chelsea etc.?