Bournemouth's new futuristic training center

Three matchdays before the end of the 2008/09 season, Bournemouth was in 21st place in the League Two standings. With only one point above the relegation zone, the club was at risk of disappearing from English professional football. Sixteen years have passed, and after one of the most incredible runs in English football history, Bournemouth is now a beautiful reality in the Premier League. A team that, through smart market choices and forward-thinking club management, now aims not only to avoid relegation but also has legitimate European ambitions. The inauguration of a new futuristic training center is a testament to the club's new dimension. The facility cost around 32 million pounds and has become the home of the first team, coached by Andoni Iraola, as well as the women's team and the youth teams. 

The complex also includes all medical facilities, a press room, and, of course, offices for employees located in a semi-circular building overlooking a fountain in the center of an artificial lake. However, the facility is still incomplete, and the impressive result desired by the club will be achieved once every detail is perfected. While some aerial shots show this — including several playing fields that will serve all Bournemouth teams for training — on the AFL Architects website, you can discover the rendering of what the structure will look like once completed, and it is truly impressive.

The Size of the New Facility

The training center spans 57 acres (23 hectares) in an area previously occupied by a golf club, Canford Magna. Bournemouth completed the purchase of this land in 2017, and approval for the construction came in 2019 when the team was in the Premier League. The Covid-19 pandemic and the club's subsequent relegation paused the works in 2020, but they resumed in the summer of 2022 when the Cherries were promoted back to the Premier League, thus gaining access to the substantial revenues generated by the world's most famous football league. At the end of March, the first team moved permanently to this cutting-edge facility, which features 16 playing fields, including 4 with regulation-sized dimensions, as well as an indoor training pitch — a necessary step to access the Category Two Academy of The Elite Player Performance Plan, the system created by the Premier League for the distribution of funds aimed at financing youth sector activities.

And to think that in 2001, Bournemouth didn’t even have a youth sector. When it was reactivated, the youth teams trained at Brockenhurst College, and matches were played at Bournemouth Sports Club on a pitch also used for rugby and cricket. Today, Bournemouth is climbing the ranks even in the youth sector to become an absolute elite club in all areas, both on and off the pitch. The next step will be the construction of a new stadium, as confirmed by club owner Bill Foley, an American businessman who, in 2016, succeeded in bringing professional sports to Las Vegas with an NHL franchise, the Las Vegas Knights, who won the Stanley Cup in 2023. There are two options for Bournemouth's new stadium: on one hand, the club is considering the option of renovating and modernizing the Vitality Stadium, which is currently used for home matches but with a seating capacity of just 11,307, making it the second smallest stadium in Premier League history. If this option is not feasible, the club will build a new stadium and may use the grounds of Kings Park, the former training center for Bournemouth.