Stoke City have completed a major two-year project that has transformed their Clayton Wood HQ, including installing the new club badge around site

Stoke City have completed a two-year £13m training ground upgrade that has transformed their Clayton Wood headquarters.

Stoke started major work in November 2024 on a project that involved building a state of the art two-storey complex for the first team squad on land that used to be a warm-up area at the venue, in Trent Vale.

Players and staff were able to move to move across to the new pavilion, which cost about £10 million, in February, leaving the existing building to be used solely by the academy and women’s teams.

A £3m renovation has since been underway on the older building, which was designed for an initial £4m in 2009. It then had extensions costing £1.5m and £1m to help keep up with demands.

The latest work has involved creating three large classrooms, improved offices for the women’s and girls’ operations and a large open-plan office for the academy staff including medical, performance, sports science and analysis departments.

There is more office space for academy recruitment staff, a new meeting room and a new press conference suite. All changing rooms have been refurbished and the heating and ventilation systems have been overhauled.

It brings the total spend on the Clayton Wood site to £25m since 2009, with the latest projects fully funded by owner and chairman John Coates.

Why did Stoke need this training ground work?

The requirements for youth and women’s football - and expectations at first team level - have changed considerably over the 17 years since Clayton Wood was first planned, with the number of staff and players rocketing.

There are minimum requirements for Category One academies, for instance, like classrooms, parents' rooms, a large meeting room and gymnasium. Stoke need 12 changing rooms for the Elite Player Performance Plan but only had space for eight before this work.

Vice-chairman Richard Smith explained: “I’ve been with the club now for a long time and when I first arrived we had portacabins on this site to support the first team. One of my first jobs was to develop the building we have on the property now but we’ve outgrown that facility. We need somewhere to accommodate first team, academy and women’s team operations.

“When the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan rules came into being we had to extend our existing pavilion having only finished it two years previously.

“We found that we needed to have more staff to qualify for category one academy and part of the requirement for this new building is so that we can sustain that so we’re not so overcrowded in the facility we have at the moment. It gives people space to breathe and hopefully improve their working environment so we can do better overall.”

What is in the new building?

Mark Robins said back in February: “I think it’s absolutely incredible. Richard Smith and everyone else who had a hand in that should be very proud. It’s a really, really good building. It’s going to help, certainly with all the elements that we require. It’s state of the art.

“It isn’t too dissimilar from the current building but it’s updated – and then that building will get updated as well.

“Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult if you are moving places and you’re changing where you operate from but that’s going to be brilliant. It’s like a breath of fresh air, a boost for everyone.

“There’s a pool in there, treadmills under water, a hydrotherapy centre, we’ve got our cryotherapy built in, there’s saunas, bikes that we can use in the water so injured players should be helped on the rehabilitation side of things. The gymnasium is bigger and really, really well equipped.

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“The meeting room is outstanding, the first team dressing room are a bit more individualised.

“The way it flows is really nice. We’ve got the boot room, kit room, kit storage, we haven’t got laundry over there – that will be taken from the current building. It’s incredible, absolutely incredible.”

What next?

Stoke have been exploring opportunities to purchase extra land around the city even after spending so much on their current home.

Part of the reason behind the investment from Coates has been because of the growing number of players and staff – but 12 pitches on a 35-acre site are being used more than ever too and probably aren’t enough to meet the demands.

Smith said earlier this year: “You can never predict what the future holds. We’ve got land here but we have been exploring opportunities for land because, believe it or not, we are a bit short of grass. The pitches this season have been used more heavily than they’ve ever been used and we need to find a solution to that.

“We are looking at different options. I don’t know what that looks like yet and I’m certainly not in a position to share anything but we’ve been looking at things across the city that may be able to relieve some of the pressure. We’ve solved the problem of the buildings but we haven’t yet solved the problem of the pressure on the outside area.

“It’s staggering that we’ve got 35 acres here and we are still short of grass surfaces to play football on. We’ve got nine pitches on the main site and another three on the south field on the other side of the access road.”

Stoke have poured money into infrastructure over recent years as football’s financial fair play rules have limited what they are allowed to spend in the transfer market.

There has been a new fan zone at the bet365 Stadium as well as the renovation of what became Ricardo’s bar, the installation of safe standing and moving the away end, replacing seats and transforming suites and lounges.

The next phase at a ground which turns 30 next year will involve improving concourses and what they can offer in terms of hospitality.

Smith said: “We have also started the next project, in the planning phase, at the stadium. We will be busy planning and designing those over the next few months and then looking to implement them, with any luck, towards the end of this year if not next year.”

He added: “Things come in cycles as well. There are projects that I did in 2009 or 2010 which were great when we first did them but now need doing again. Times change as well. For example, when the stadium was first built we had 50 executive boxes but football isn’t like that anymore.

“People want to be in a more social environment, a bit different environment. They don’t want to be coming to a football match suited and booted necessarily. There is a place for that but it’s not everybody’s thing and, for want of a better expression, the designer jeans brigade want a different thing. Some of the projects we will be looking at will be to try to fix that issue.

“But I think the most significant project that we’ll be doing over the next couple of years will be to try to improve the concourse facilities so that fans have a better experience. The fan zone has been a great success, Ricardo’s has been a great success and now it’s about the next stage of that metamorphosis at the stadium.”

Could this money have been spent on new signings?

No. Football’s financial rules cap spending on wages and transfer fees but spending on infrastructure, academies and women’s teams does not come under that umbrella.