Huddersfield Town chairman Phil Hodgkinson has explained why the club’s PPG Canalside training facility has not undergone quite the scale of redevelopment fans had expected.
The Terriers ' faithful have raised concerns that the building work had been scaled back from the plans that were presented to the public in 2018, which were then heralded as a £20m project including the construction of a swanky new three-storey main building.
Construction crews began work on the renovations last year, but supporters have been confused that new building has not materialised.
The club have now moved to show the work that has been completed, releasing a video and a press release showing the renovations and new constructions that have taken place over the last year or so.
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Speaking exclusively to the Examiner , Hodgkinson explained: “The original Canalside development, the all-signing all dancing one, the actual cost of that when it was all totted up was £12m, not £20m, so that was going to be the overall cost.
“£6m of that was all the work that we’ve done, so we’ve spent just over £6m on developing Canalside. A good chunk of that was spent last season.
“The balance of that [the other £6m] was the new building. Now, the reality was that the new building, the three-storey new building that was put out in the original videos etc, that was an amalgamation of our former CEO asking everyone on the football side what they’d like in a facility and then it was all put together. That changed many many times.
“That new building was always for if we were in the Premier League, so the intention was that that was the facility. The reality is we’ve spent over £6m on Canalside since that was announced. The only part that’s left is that building and when you look at our facilities here they are top-end Championship facilities.
“So from my perspective the new building is just a newer, nicer-looking version of the facilities we’ve already got here and it does not make good solid commercial sense to spend £6m on that until such a time as we’re in a position to do so.
“It’s one of those where you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t but we’ve invested over £6m in this facility. It’s a fantastic facility.
“There’s a few finishing touches that we couldn’t get completed because of covid when we went into lockdown, so the bits that make it look pretty that you can see from the road haven’t been done yet but they will be. We just had to pull all the workmen off the site and it’s not at the top of the priority list right now but it will get done.
“We’ve invested everything that we believe should be and if and when it becomes appropriate we’ll finish it off, but we don’t feel as a football club that it’s an appropriate investment at this moment in time. We want to sit on our cash and be sensible.”
The three-storey building seen on the original planning application for the Canalside renovations would have included accommodation for players – particularly academy scholars – plus office space to allow some staff who worked at the John Smith’s Stadium to move in to Canalside, as well as additional football facilities.
However, the club have explained that the accommodation is now being fulfilled by a new partnership with Rishworth School that was announced in August, while what was previously the public bar, snooker room and conference room have been converted into offices alongside a small area fit for press conferences and player interviews.
That has allowed media staff to move to Canalside, freeing up extra office space at the stadium for those members of staff who remain based there.
Hodgkinson said: “The office staff at the football club are going to move into the office space at the stadium that’s now been freed up by the work we’ve done at Canalside.
So in reality that £6m building is now a £3-4m building because we don’t need all of it. It was never a £20m development at any point. Even with all the bells and whistles it was £12m tops.
“But for me that is something that is a Premier League facility, and we’ll see what the future brings and we may revisit it.”
