Carlisle United owner drops training ground hint

Carlisle United owner Tom Piatak has dropped a strong hint over the site of the Blues' proposed new training ground.

The American businessman says he "thinks the majority of fans know where the site is".

While Piatak did not name the site, his remarks appear to reinforce growing speculation over the Sheepmount as the potential venue for the major Blues development.

United's owner, meanwhile, admitted to a degree of frustration that things were not "progressing faster".

In an interview with the club's official channels, Piatak said: "I think fans know where the site is.

“I’m not going to say it, but every fan I talk to asks me if it’s going to be in a certain place, and I just say no comment.

"I can’t confirm or deny, but I think the majority know where it is, and I think it’s the right spot.

"We wanted it to be in the city, I’m not going to say it will be a tourist attraction but it’s another thing people can walk to in the city and see what it’s like."

United want to build a state-of-the-art training facility as part of their major plans to grow under the Piataks' ownership.

"The training ground is progressing but I wish it was progressing faster,” he added.

“I’m not going to shy away from that. We’re pushing, and we believe the training facility can be a beacon of light for the community."

Piatak did not comment on reasons why the project may not be moving as quickly as he would like.

Carlisle, said Piatak, want to "secure the land" to they can have a pitch on the site ready for first-team training in pre-season.

The longer-term vision is for more grass pitches, a floodlit 4G artificial pitch and a dome to aid all-weather training, plus some 60x40 pitches.

"It’s going to be a phenomenal facility and we think it will make a significant impact on the community," added Piatak.

He said there would be some "shared use space" for the community as one of the benefits to the training ground being close to the city.

"I wish it was going faster, but that’s just our nature. It is progressing, but anything we can do to make that go a little bit quicker would be greatly appreciated," added the businessman.

He pointed out that the "distraction" of having to train elsewhere, such as at Gretna regularly, is something the Blues want to avoid next season.

Manager Paul Simpson, speaking after last weekend's home defeat to Blackpool, also said he wanted talk to convert into action when it came to the big off-field plan.

"We need to see these changes come to fruition because at the moment they're just being talked about," he said.

"We're in a position where we still haven’t got a training ground confirmed, and we've had about 40-odd days where we've had to drive to Gretna to train on artificial surfaces.

"A lot of things have got to come to fruition and not just be talked abut, and hopefully that will happen over the summer."