Saturday, January 12, 2013

London Irish will stay at Madejski Stadium

London Irish chief executive Andy Martin insists the club will be playing at Madejski Stadium next season ? even if the worst happened and they were relegated from the Premiership in May.

Exiles? impressive 18-12 win at Gloucester last Saturday lifted them five points clear of bottom-of-the-table Sale Sharks, easing fears of a drop into the Championship.

Irish have been playing at Madejski Stadium since 2000, and are five years into a contract that lasts until the end of the 2025-26 season.

And Martin is adamant that the club has no intention of leaving Reading.

He said: ?Firstly, we won?t get relegated. But even if we did, we will still be at Madejski Stadium.

?You would expect when these sort of contracts are put in place long term all different eventualities are factored in.

?One of those is what league we are playing in, but there is no grey area. It is very clear, the contract works for us and we enjoy being at Madejski Stadium.

?We will be staying there regardless of what league we are playing in next year. That is covered in the contract so we are absolutely relaxed about that. It won?t happen.?

There was never any question of Irish going back to their old ground in The Avenue, Sunbury, which they currently use as a training base.

The club are selling the ground for redevelopment after fighting for five years before finally gaining planning permission on appeal last summer for 206 houses to built there.

The proceeds will be used to fund a purpose-built training complex on the site of the nearby Hazelwood golf course.

Martin insists the club have worked hard to ensure the cost of the training centre has not exceeded ?14million.

He said: ?It will be less than that. We have been working hard in the detail design to get the most efficient building we can and make sure the pitches are what we want inside that figure.?

The cost of the project, though, has affected the club?s ability to compete on the field, and the backroom staff was halved during cost-cutting measures before the start of this season.

But Martin believes that Irish can look forward to the future with confidence.

He said: ?Once we?ve built the new place and sold The Avenue site we will be much more financially secure. So the future of the business looks much more positive.

?It?s what we?ve been working towards for quite some time and why we have fought hard for it.

?The future is rosy, but we have to get these developments through.

?We are all full-steam ahead. Work will start on the new training centre over the next few months.

?That is scheduled to be completed mid-2014 and if all goes to plan we are looking to be in for the 2014-15 season.

?There will be four full-size grass pitches, one full-size 3G pitch and about 12 junior pitches for the amateurs and professionals ? good facilities for members and supporters to come in and get involved with the club.

He added: ?We are getting a lot of support from the RFU, while Sport England are also looking very kindly on the scheme.

?They will get involved with the design and use. If they like it, they will also offer support financially. If we get to the point where they can see a use for the facility for the broader sporting community or wider rugby, they will get involved financially.

?It is a small portion of what we are spending, but it is still very helpful. It also reflects on the quality of what we are doing. Once we have moved there the development will start on The Avenue.?

Martin believes the new training facility will help director of rugby Brian Smith in many ways, adding: ?People want to come to work in nice places so when Brian is attracting new talent to the club he is going to show them a shiny new building with some of the best facilities in the country.

?That is going to help with professional recruitment.

?The existing guys have made do from a training perspective, but now they can look forward to having a top professional set-up.?

Source: http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/rugby/london_irish/s/2126985_london_irish_will_stay_at_madejski_stadium

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