Peel L&P and Fives submit plans for new football facility
Peel L&P and Fives are set to submit plans to create a new football centre in Trafford which will provide the community with eight, FA-approved size all-weather football pitches and changing rooms on a three-acre site adjacent to Beyond Ski Centre in TraffordCity.
Subject to planning approval the new centre will replace the current facility run by Fives in the Soccerdome.
Fives will continue to run the new football centre.
James Whittaker, Peel L&P group development director, said: “For some time we have been looking at ways to find a long-term sustainable solution to continue to provide a five-a-side football facility in TraffordCity.
“These proposed new pitches fit Fives’ business plan to ensure they are financially sustainable for the future.
“We have consulted with both the FA and local football groups who are in agreement that this is the best way of securing the future of grass roots football in the local area.”
Scott Penman, owner of Fives Soccer Centre, said: “We’re committed to doing all we can to provide a grass roots football facility in TraffordCity for the long-term.
“The new centre will reflect Fives Soccer Centre’s vision for the future of five-a-side football, which will not only be Manchester’s first soccer centre to meet the FA guidelines for small-sided pitch construction, but will also offer an industry-unique digital experience, two key elements in ensuring a sustainable operating model that cement its place at the centre of football in Manchester for the next 25 years and beyond.”
He added: “I have personally been involved with the Soccerdome for the last 12 years and recognise its significant contribution to the grass roots game, however, we have also faced the commercial viability challenge a large indoor proposition presents.
“To this end, I’m proud to be involved in a scheme that achieves the ultimate goal of protecting the football for the future. We’re working with Peel L&P to ensure we can keep operating until planning has been secured for the new football centre and until its completion.”
The plans submitted by Peel L&P form part of a wider application which also includes a major refurbishment of the current Soccerdome building into a new, state-of-the-art conference and event space for EventCity.
Following a public consultation this Summer at the end of July, plans are also set to be submitted which will transform the 26-acre site of the current EventCity, in Barton Dock Road, into a £175m health and wellbeing resort by Therme.
