CONFIRMED HSBC Sports Ground - New first team training centre

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Headline news on Look North…

“Grass roots football in South Yorkshire under threat after training ground bought by Sheffield United”.

🫣
 

JohnDenver said:
Headline news on Look North…

“Grass roots football in South Yorkshire under threat after training ground bought by Sheffield United”.

🫣
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Yup, been the on RS, big bad SUFC.
They did say though that the club will try and help teams displaced to find new playing locations.

For years SUFC have been after HSBC
 
There's other places to play nearby as the Look North article said. Yes, it's muddy at the moment but most places are.
 
Bladesman said:
They can literally play over the road from the HSBC for a start.
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I’m not getting back into this debate on this thread.

I’m happy that the club has got the HSBC sports ground, it should make a big difference.

I also hope that the Look North article highlights the lack of available, affordable and well maintained football pitches throughout the region and that the FA and Football Foundation act as a result. This is from someone, who prior to leaving the UK, spent 2 or 3 hours a week bringing a grassroots pitch up to scratch because the local authorities couldn’t be arsed!
 
Abbeydale Boys Grammar (Grange) school's old playing pitches at the top of Springfield Road are still there but have been made into something called Carterknowle Park. It looks as though it is only used by dog walkers.

There's space up there for 4 pitches. Only need some white line paint, sets of goal posts & nets and a portakabin for changing rooms (old pavilion's gone).

Jobs done. People on Look North whinging in order to get there 15 minutes worth of fame.
 
bornablade said:
Abbeydale Boys Grammar (Grange) school's old playing pitches at the top of Springfield Road are still there but have been made into something called Carterknowle Park. It looks as though it is only used by dog walkers.

There's space up there for 4 pitches. Only need some white line paint, sets of goal posts & nets and a portakabin for changing rooms (old pavilion's gone).

Jobs done. People on Look North whinging in order to get there 15 minutes worth of fame.
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They could go play at Shirecliffe and put their hamstrings to the test.
 
bornablade said:
Abbeydale Boys Grammar (Grange) school's old playing pitches at the top of Springfield Road are still there but have been made into something called Carterknowle Park. It looks as though it is only used by dog walkers.

There's space up there for 4 pitches. Only need some white line paint, sets of goal posts & nets and a portakabin for changing rooms (old pavilion's gone).

Jobs done. People on Look North whinging in order to get there 15 minutes worth of fame.
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Good luck united tried for a couple of years to build their training ground there in conjunction with what was abbeydale grange school pressure from the neighbours put the kibosh on that. It gets very wet up there but there were pitches there until recently. Maybe when the weather dries out.
 

Houston_Blade said:
I’m not getting back into this debate on this thread.

I’m happy that the club has got the HSBC sports ground, it should make a big difference.

I also hope that the Look North article highlights the lack of available, affordable and well maintained football pitches throughout the region and that the FA and Football Foundation act as a result. This is from someone, who prior to leaving the UK, spent 2 or 3 hours a week bringing a grassroots pitch up to scratch because the local authorities couldn’t be arsed!
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To be fair, I've been involved in grassroots football for a long time and it's clear the council just doesn't have the budget any more. There are nowhere near as many council pitches now as there were when I was a kid, as it would be impossible for the council to maintain them all. Those that are left are generally in poor condition and Sheffield was already a nightmare for pitches, due to the fact someone decided to build the city at the bottom of a mountain range.

The obvious thing would be to use some of the obscene amount of money that football itself brings in, to create quality grassroots facilities. This has happened on a small scale (the City has two FA funded "St. George's Parks", and there are grants available to football clubs/venues) but it's a drop in the ocean. Unfortunately the money is allowed to be spewed out to players and agents instead, as we all know.
 
Clearly an emotive topic…. I’ve read the arguments of there being loads of pitches (not high enough quality) and it being impossible to find pitches. I’ve equally read the unique positions of a number of teams impacted.

Ultimately, this boils down to a commercial offer and decision. The HSBC ground was available and would be sold eventually, it just so happens SUFC bought the site. Realistically, change was inevitable and on the cards.

It appears clear everyone values junior football, yet the discussion is getting confused over the SUFC purchase of the HSBC site. There is lots of reference to individual teams and understandably what they want and need.

Maybe I’m being overly simplistic but I’m applying a formula:

Pitches available (poor quality) + teams who need space = work together and collaborate to seek how you can collectively work to make use of said space (you won’t do it alone but collectively is an entirely different proposition).

Equally, as a previous poster said, there needs to be investment in grass root level football. Realistically, its unlikely an individual team will be successful in obtaining this… however, working together in an alliance/co-operative model could be very different.
 
Houston_Blade said:
I’m not getting back into this debate on this thread.

I’m happy that the club has got the HSBC sports ground, it should make a big difference.

I also hope that the Look North article highlights the lack of available, affordable and well maintained football pitches throughout the region and that the FA and Football Foundation act as a result. This is from someone, who prior to leaving the UK, spent 2 or 3 hours a week bringing a grassroots pitch up to scratch because the local authorities couldn’t be arsed!
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But but but, dog walk, waffle, loads of spare pitches, waffle, whats the issue, jumpers for goal posts, waffle, nonsense...
 
Working Class Hero said:
To be fair, I've been involved in grassroots football for a long time and it's clear the council just doesn't have the budget any more. There are nowhere near as many council pitches now as there were when I was a kid, as it would be impossible for the council to maintain them all. Those that are left are generally in poor condition and Sheffield was already a nightmare for pitches, due to the fact someone decided to build the city at the bottom of a mountain range.

The obvious thing would be to use some of the obscene amount of money that football itself brings in, to create quality grassroots facilities. This has happened on a small scale (the City has two FA funded "St. George's Parks", and there are grants available to football clubs/venues) but it's a drop in the ocean. Unfortunately the money is allowed to be spewed out to players and agents instead, as we all know.
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The SGP’s are a great idea but to get availability for training slots at times kids can train or matches on a Saturday or Sunday morning/early afternoon is a nightmare.

It now falls to clubs and The FA/Football foundation to fund the maintenance. I got some good grants but even clubs like Middlewood and Handsworth with dedicated facilities argue between themselves about pitch time!
 
Houston_Blade said:
The SGP’s are a great idea but to get availability for training slots at times kids can train or matches on a Saturday or Sunday morning/early afternoon is a nightmare.

It now falls to clubs and The FA/Football foundation to fund the maintenance. I got some good grants but even clubs like Middlewood and Handsworth with dedicated facilities argue between themselves about pitch time!
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SGP Graves is block booked on Sundays for the Junior Blades grassroots teams so even if there's space, no other grassroots team can get on. I know because we've been asking all season....
 
Jaime said:
Clearly an emotive topic…. I’ve read the arguments of there being loads of pitches (not high enough quality) and it being impossible to find pitches. I’ve equally read the unique positions of a number of teams impacted.

Ultimately, this boils down to a commercial offer and decision. The HSBC ground was available and would be sold eventually, it just so happens SUFC bought the site. Realistically, change was inevitable and on the cards.

It appears clear everyone values junior football, yet the discussion is getting confused over the SUFC purchase of the HSBC site. There is lots of reference to individual teams and understandably what they want and need.

Maybe I’m being overly simplistic but I’m applying a formula:

Pitches available (poor quality) + teams who need space = work together and collaborate to seek how you can collectively work to make use of said space (you won’t do it alone but collectively is an entirely different proposition).

Equally, as a previous poster said, there needs to be investment in grass root level football. Realistically, its unlikely an individual team will be successful in obtaining this… however, working together in an alliance/co-operative model could be very different.
Click to expand...
No one sensible is blaming SUFC for the lack of grassroots football pitches.
 
Working Class Hero said:
The obvious thing would be to use some of the obscene amount of money that football itself brings in, to create quality grassroots facilities. This has happened on a small scale (the City has two FA funded "St. George's Parks", and there are grants available to football clubs/venues) but it's a drop in the ocean. Unfortunately the money is allowed to be spewed out to players and agents instead, as we all know.
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Completely agree. I suggested some weeks ago in a thread on Rhian Brewster that a wage cap be brought into football and footballers get a salary more in line with what the top earners in the country receive rather than the obscene wages they get now with the wealth distributed and got laughed. But you’re 100% right and doing this is the only way to solve many of the issues football and the country are facing.
 
Jaime said:
Pitches available (poor quality) + teams who need space = work together and collaborate to seek how you can collectively work to make use of said space (you won’t do it alone but collectively is an entirely different proposition).
Click to expand...
Clubs are scrapping over every available bit of land, it’s boring for those not interested but the issue is that you have a window of around 4 hours Saturday and Sunday mornings to fit in a host of age groups, formats and teams.

Even clubs with facilities have to limit numbers of teams per age group to fit on their pitches.

You need training pitches, 5v5, 7v7, 9v9, 11v11 (3/4) and 11v11 full size, multiples of these if you have multiple teams per age group. Floodlights so you can train in winter etc.
 
Houston_Blade said:
I’m not getting back into this debate on this thread.

I’m happy that the club has got the HSBC sports ground, it should make a big difference.

I also hope that the Look North article highlights the lack of available, affordable and well maintained football pitches throughout the region and that the FA and Football Foundation act as a result. This is from someone, who prior to leaving the UK, spent 2 or 3 hours a week bringing a grassroots pitch up to scratch because the local authorities couldn’t be arsed!
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Its not that they cant be arsed it because they have had the funding cuts i know a lot of staff on the parks side and if they had the option they would love to get the pitches up to a higher standard ( drainage etc etc) you only have to look at the worrk done at parson cross with the football foundation money ( around £400K ) of work on pitches and infrastructure, theres also been the school academies that have ring fenced (and literally fenced) their pitches traditionally used by local teams to teams that will pay more money as the costs of maintaining the pitches is so expensive.
 
PageHallBlade said:
Its not that they cant be arsed it because they have had the funding cuts i know a lot of staff on the parks side and if they had the option they would love to get the pitches up to a higher standard ( drainage etc etc) you only have to look at the worrk done at parson cross with the football foundation money ( around £400K ) of work on pitches and infrastructure, theres also been the school academies that have ring fenced (and literally fenced) their pitches traditionally used by local teams to teams that will pay more money as the costs of maintaining the pitches is so expensive.
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The school where we played couldn’t be arsed, they outsourced the mowing and the company was awful.

The council parks aren’t bad near where we were, always cut and lined, just called off a lot at the slightest bad weather as well as being on a ‘dead man’s shoes’ basis to get anywhere near hiring one.
 
If the first team are to move to HSBC eventually, doesn’t that in turn create some capacity at Shirecliffe that could be rented out?

Likewise, what happened to the Academy site at Crooks? Is there not some additional capacity there?

Whilst we may be part of the solution, this isn’t an SUFC problem.

Private company sells land it owns to other private company who has plans for the land.

The fact HSBC didn’t mind it being used by other teams is great but clearly would have been a happy kicking the can down the road exercise for the Council. Clearly overuse isn’t going to work for the SUFC seniors team.

Is there no land more on the outskirts that could be explored for these teams?
 
Champagneblade said:
If the first team are to move to HSBC eventually, doesn’t that in turn create some capacity at Shirecliffe that could be rented out?

Likewise, what happened to the Academy site at Crooks? Is there not some additional capacity there?

Whilst we may be part of the solution, this isn’t an SUFC problem.

Private company sells land it owns to other private company who has plans for the land.

The fact HSBC didn’t mind it being used by other teams is great but clearly would have been a happy kicking the can down the road exercise for the Council. Clearly overuse isn’t going to work for the SUFC seniors team.

Is there no land more on the outskirts that could be explored for these teams?
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If the desire is the the academy to step up to Cat One then they’ll need the Shirecliffe site in its entirety
 
Yogi said:
If the desire is the the academy to step up to Cat One then they’ll need the Shirecliffe site in its entirety
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But do they need it 24/7?

Could there not be room at certain times?

Also what if Crooks?
 
I think one of the main issues for the local junior clubs is the 3G astro turf pitches that they currently use at HSBC becoming unavailable. You can't train kids on grass pitches in the middle of winter or at night. There aren't alternatives of that quality that have the available capacity.
 

Champagneblade said:
But do they need it 24/7?

Could there not be room at certain times?

Also what if Crooks?
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Yes it stipulates in the rules for Cat One that the facilities cannot be shared. That’s why we can’t be Cat One currently because the facilities are shared with the Women’s and Men’s teams.

We’ve already vacated the Derek Dooley site at Crookes. I think the community lads still use the pitches but we don’t use the building. I guess we could give it up entirely but you’d want someone to come in and run it and I dunno who that would be and the community lads are already doing grassroots work up there.

Also given how difficult it’s proven to get our hands on this new site for the men’s team the club might not be willing to give up a property asset. It could theoretically be a base for the women’s team in the future. Or ideally if we had more cash maybe you reopen it under the auspices of the community foundation and run it as a centre and not just pitches under their supervision.
 
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