Well as we have been in the premier league just one season it's understandable, we didn't have money to do anything else. I am sure the fairwood common thing is a result of us being promoted, we would have just gone for the landore site if we were still in the championship.
We have 3 that are in the area that concern the Swans, but the main one is Swansea City Council as all the facilities will be built within that area.
The Swans already use the facilities at Landore and have just added a small temporary three row seating area. Not sure who for though!
Went past last night ( as you do) , I'm not sure what you saw is temporary, theres a low level stand complete with roof between the 3g pitches and the grass facing the offices which by my rough maths look to hold approx 300 seats .I've heard the club are also considering buying the bowls indoor centre to create the "barn" with indoor facilities which would be in keeping with the other Academies .All in all it's really taking shape and looking really professional .The pitches are using the same technology as at the Liberty with one pitch marked out with same dimensions and the other narrower to compensate for away games .In two years time the public viewing from the riverside path will be lost due to the planting of fast growing laurel bushes which is understandable I suppose but as someone who's been used to watching them train relatively easily (even in the first Division 1 they trained down where Amazon is now ) without too much trouble ., a sign of where we are now.
I thought the indoor part would be up in fairwood though, I really don't understand all this two facilities thing though, there is plenty of land in fairwood why have double the expenditure at two locations ? Obviously being next to the liberty is good, but its not really needed IMO as fairwood is just a just short car ride away.
I believe that Landore is for the Academy and the 1st team/squad will train at Fairwood , the kids will as part of their development will have one day a week as a"school day" which is where the building/offices on site will be utilised. All this development is for the future growth of the club , bearing in mind the amount of age groups the club manages the space at Landore would soon show signs of wear and tear .If you look at for example Aston Villa's facilities even our current development is dwarfed in comparison & there are plans there to expand even further. I was at Birmingham's training ground yesterday with our under 9, 11's and established as they are (Birmingham ) as an Academy even thats being expanded ,I wouldn't like to guess what sort of acreage is being used to train on but it must run into hundreds.
The difference is of course the money that has been spent there for decades, we are just starting out on this. We should be aiming for a category one academy, the minimum investment for that is well over £2m a year, every year. We are playing catch up, so we should be putting more into this IMO , we need for the team, a full indoor pitch as well as all weather pitches, and standard pitches. Plus gym facilities and running tracks and so on. What we need most of all are experienced trainers and scouts to make all this pay off
Actually your right it's on a bus route . Obviously the team would pay for the tickets and possibly a packed lunch say cheese and pickle/ham sandwich pkt of Crisps/quavers soft drink and maybe a wagon wheel biscuit. There that's sorted .
