The Sir Jack Hayward Training Ground is the

training ground A training ground is an area where professional association football teams prepare for matches, with activities primarily concentrating on skills and fitness. They also sometimes form part of a club's youth system, as clubs consider it important ...

and

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

base of English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club, Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club. It is located in the Compton area of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

. The modern two-storey building stands approximately one mile to the west of the club's home stadium Molineux. It features five high-quality under-soil heated training pitches, eleven changing rooms, a fully equipped gymnasium, and a

hydrotherapy pool Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and Physical therapy, physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and ...

– one of only a handful of English clubs to own such equipment. The training ground's medical and physiotherapy facilities made it the first British sports club to establish a fully accredited professional sports laboratory, based on AC Milan's Milanello model. The development opened in November 2005 at a cost of £4.6 million and is named in honour of the club's Life President and former owner,

Sir Jack Hayward Sir Jack Arnold Hayward (14 June 1923 – 13 January 2015) was an English businessman, property developer, philanthropist, and president of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Biography Early life The only son of Charles William ...

. It became the club's first owned training facility since they were forced to sell their training ground in the Castlecroft area of the city in the late 1980s due to financial difficulties. The plan was initiated by then-manager

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln ...

in the mid-1990s but construction was not begun for some years. In July 2011, plans were announced for a redevelopment of the Compton Park area where the training ground is currently located, that will enable Wolves to build a new indoor pitch and improve facilities to create a 'Category 1' Premier League football academy. The £50 million project involves the football club, the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

, St Edmund's Catholic Academy, the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and Redrow, the construction company founded by former Wolves owner Steve Morgan.

References

External links

Architects design of training ground redevelopment
{{Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Jack Hayward Wolverhampton 2005 establishments in England Sports venues completed in 2005