Tuesday 11th April, 2017 at 12:17pm
Partick Thistle FC announced today that the Club is to have a dedicated training ground for the first time in its 140 year history.
It has entered in to an agreement with Three Black Cats, a company set up by the Weir family as a vehicle for long term investments, to build the new £4m state-of-the-art facility at a location yet to be decided. Three Black Cats was seeking a new investment project and has agreed to work with Thistle to design and build a new training ground to the Club’s specification. It will then be leased to Thistle on a full commercial repairing and insuring long term lease while the assets will remain in the ownership of Three Black Cats.
Across the first team, development, academy and ladies squads, Thistle currently uses different training facilities at locations right across the city. The location selected depends on a variety of factors including; what facilities are required, the surfaces available and the weather. The new training ground will be designed to accommodate all of the club’s year-long needs at one location.
A spokesman for Three Black Cats said:
“We have been looking for a new long term investment opportunity and believe that this new project will work for us and Partick Thistle. Thistle’s ongoing stability – through the Club management’s financial prudence and through the Board’s strong leadership – persuaded us that this development is a worthwhile investment. It will be an exciting project and we are keen to get on with securing land as soon as possible. It is our intention to have the facility completed and operational within two years and will work closely with Thistle to ensure that it is fit for purpose.”
David Beattie, Chairman of Partick Thistle, said:
“It has been a long-held ambition of this Club to have its own training ground. The Board is ecstatic that we will now have that facility. Most importantly, it won’t just be for first team use but for our youth academy, women’s team and everyone else who is part of our football club.
“We are grateful to Three Black Cats for their vote of confidence in us. Ian Maxwell will lead for the Thistle side in this project to ensure that this training ground will for work us in the years ahead. The money we currently spend on facilities around Glasgow will be used to service our lease and costs at the new ground.
“I can’t emphasise enough the significance of this new facility. It reinforces that we are an established Premiership club, with a level of professionalism and ambition that these new facilities will reflect.”
