Build to start on City Football Academy

BAM, a leader in sustainable construction and part of Royal BAM Group, will begin work on the plot, which forms part of the Etihad Campus, in the coming weeks and are due to complete the project in time for the 2014/15 Premier League season.

The building of the Academy, which will provide a centre for up to 400 young players as well as housing the first team training base and the Club’s operations functions, follows four years of extensive research and planning by City across five continents and more than 30 elite sport development centres.

The City Football Academy will include the following:

• A new Academy for up to 400 young players with classrooms for 200;
• On site accommodation for junior and senior players;
• 16.5  football pitches, 12 of them dedicated to players aged from 8 to 21;
• A state of the art first team building with changing rooms, gym, refectory and injury and rehab centre;
• A 7000 capacity stadium for youth matches;
• Staff offices and a dedicated media centre;
• A bridge linking the site to the Etihad Stadium and the rest of the Etihad Campus.

‘Today is an extremely important day for the future of Manchester City Football Club’, declared Blues CEO Ferran Soriano (pictured right). ‘The development of young and home grown players is central to our strategy of creating both a winning team and a sustainable football club - an ambition outlined by Sheikh Mansour at the outset of his ownership in September 2008.’ ... Ferran Soriano, City CEO: ‘We are now in a position, after four years of research and planning, to execute that strategy and we are delighted to join with BAM who will play a large part in helping us to do so.’

BAM Chief Executive Graham Cash (pictured left), echoed the words of the Blues boss. ‘Our customers value BAM because our people do whatever it takes to deliver our customers’ expectations’, he said. ‘We are delighted to be part of the team that will deliver the City Football Academy and we will work hard to play our part in delivering MCFC’s vision of both developing the players of the future and helping to regenerate the community of East Manchester.’

And Manchester City Council is delighted with the scheme.

‘This project lies at the heart of the ambitions we share with Manchester City Football Club to create a centre of sporting excellence that will be the envy of the world’, enthused Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council. ‘It drives forward the regeneration of the area, building on the legacy of the Commonwealth Games a decade ago.’ ... Sir Richard Leese, Manchester City Council: ‘It is as clear a demonstration you can get of the commitment of the club to our city as a whole and local people in East Manchester in particular.’

The exciting project has the overwhelming support of the local community, 98% of which - following extensive consultation last year - gave the proposals its wholehearted endorsement. The club’s neighbours recognised the positive impact of the plans on youth football development, on the economic and environmental regeneration of the local area and on the increased facilities for the local community within which the Manchester City resides. As part of its long standing commitment to the community, the Club has donated 5.5 acres of remediated land on the site for community use, and is also supporting the creation of education and leisure facilities for local residents.

Job creation and skills training for local people

The regenerative benefits for the community include job creation and skills training for local people. Remediation of the site over the past year has already created 49 jobs, all of which were recruited within the local community and 34 of which were taken up by the previously long term unemployed. A minimum of 160 further construction jobs will be available for which a minimum 70% local recruitment target has been set.

Additional employment opportunities for local people will arise with the creation of around 95 permanent positions ranging from landscaping, arboriculture and water management to administration, security and site management. Again, a minimum 70% local recruitment target rate has been set.

All such opportunities will increase the skills of those locally employed for the wider benefit of the community and every effort will be made to give those employed in temporary construction jobs at least a further year of employment and training beyond the completion of the Academy project.

Investment in local materials and service suppliers

Over the past four years, the Club has committed firmly to sourcing materials and service suppliers locally wherever possible. The building of the Club’s offices in 2009 involved 94% of supplies coming from the North West of England in the case of the recent refurbishment of the Club’s hospitality suites this figure rose to 98%.

The recent remediation of the site involved in excess of 70% local service supply and this minimum target has been set for the duration of the two-year Academy build.

Local businesses wishing to be considered as preferred suppliers should email the club at supplyenquiry@mcfc.co.uk. Alternatively they can visit during office hours, the Construction Information Centre which is located on Ashton Old Road from 14 September.

Environmental regeneration of a previously polluted site

The City Football Academy will reach the highest possible environmental standards – the gold standard under L.E.E.D guidelines - with low carbon, low water and low waste measures being employed to minimise impact on the environment and encourage local bio-diversity.

The remediation alone, of the 80 acre site by the Club has had a positive environmental impact, turning a vast tract of land, polluted by years of heavy industrial use into clean terrain. Soil, which was once purple with dye has now been cleaned, fertilised and is ready to sustain growth. No material has left the site. Instead, material has been cleaned, recycled or reworked for repeat or new use within the site.

The site will almost instantly change for the better following the planting, beginning this autumn of up to 2,000 trees. More than 1,000 trees of several varieties are already maturing at a location in the North West with a further 600 saplings to be planted shortly after.

A focus on protecting and nurturing wildlife is of paramount importance and will continue from the first date of construction to the conclusion of the build.

Wildlife and nesting birds have already been temporarily rehoused. In time they we returned to land where for the first time in more than a century, wildlife will begin to flourish.