Man City move helped us win fans and sign players - now we need change
As well as building a training ground from scratch in 2014, Manchester City also decided to launch a women's team.
The Blues went big, convincing some of the best players in the English game to take the plunge and join a brand new side - and the training ground was a big pull. Steph Houghton and others were shown around a construction site and sold on the promise that it would become a home that nobody else could offer them.
Opened a decade ago in December 2014, the City Football Academy became an enormous recruitment tool for the women's team - significantly more than the men's teams - because it offered resources that some top clubs still do not. Being a few tram stops away from the city centre also helps, with most players choosing to live there and give themselves a short commute for training and games.
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Occupying the same campus has allowed for the kind of knowledge sharing between sides that has meant further progress. Whether it is Pep Guardiola's assistant Carlos Vicens running through set-piece drills or academy staff Gareth Taylor and Charlotte O'Neill moving over permanently to be manager and managing director respectively, the women's team have benefitted from how busy the training ground can be
"There's a huge crossover. For me, even just me moving to the women's team I've been in that building with them for eight years so I had a feel for the programme, how it worked," O'Neill tells the Manchester Evening News. "I knew lots of people already so there was definitely that bit and we had staff move between the different teams from boys and men's academy and first teams.
"It helps from a relationship point of view and means that Txiki [Begiristain, sporting director] has been a huge help for me when I transitioned into this role and all people on the same campus can foster a relationship. It's easier for me to ask him for advice.
"It definitely helps. Everyone is here, you bump into each other and often it's those informal conversations in the corridors that can be super powerful.
"I love the fact that our academy kids, boys or girls, see what they're aspiring to be every day. They see the level and it's something pretty special about being able to see in the flesh the level of professionalism, what it takes. I'm sure being on-site really enhances that rather than being elsewhere and having to imagine what they do.
"I don't know many places in Europe where you can live in an amazing city with a really short commute to train and play that is the same place as the men's team and academy. It is a huge advantage for us."
Having enjoyed the benefits of sharing facilities, City Women have also looked to stand out on their own. In 2023 they announced a partnership with Joie that saw the baby-gear brand take the name of the 7,000-capacity academy stadium at the training ground.
A number of Women's Super League teams are having big successes in drawing crowds but City are the only ones who can offer a permanent home for their side as well as a sponsorship deal just for them. The club are working with Joie to make the most family-friendly ground in the country.
"We are the only WSL team with a bespoke women's stadium and we're really proud of that. It allows us not just to service our players in a bespoke way but service our fans in a bespoke way," O'Neill said. "With Joie, they are a family brand and working with us to help make it the most family-friendly stadium in the country.
"What it gives us is a chance to tailor everything we do in the Joie Stadium to our female-first fans, which might be things that you can't necessarily do in other stadiums when you have different users - things like buggy parks and breastfeeding spaces. When we're talking to new signing, we shout about this.
"We're really proud not only to have a dedicated women's stadium but to have a partner that genuinely does impact our fanbase and staff and players. We know our fans come for different things and we're trying to service all of them.
"When we look at the feedback from fans, lots of them talk about an amazing atmosphere that is inclusive and friendly and fun but they still know they are coming to see top footballers and elite sport. That's where we're super fortunate that we've got Ballon d'or nominees playing really amazing football in a space where you feel really welcomed and you can have a great time."
While City Women are staying at their home for matches, they are on the move at the CFA. A new £10m facility will house the women's teams when it opens next year that should also make things easier for everyone.
"It gives us a dedicated space. Within the building we're in at the moment, we as a first team do get priority in the main but if you think of the staff that are working in there it makes their life harder when you're having to juggle schedules; the catering team for examples, so the chefs are catering for nine-year-old boys and 27-year-old women who have different tastes.
"Our academy boys and girls are British, our women's first team are super diverse and want a huge variety of cuisines so what having our own building does is gives us absolute flexibility on schedule so we can change things at the drop of a hat and not have an impact on us.
"It also means people like catering can be super bespoke in everything they deliver. What we're trying to do is give our female first team players a professional elite space of their own. When you've got loads of other users in another building that is diluted to a certain degree.
"Our team have had the privilege of training in this facility for ten years so it shows how far ahead the club were thinking even then. It's been a huge recruitment tool in the same way that the new building we're opening next season is a fantastic recruitment tool and retention tool.
"Although we've got these magnificent facilities, we're not standing still. We're looking at the future and what does the future athlete need and making sure that that will be in place in time."
