The news was came at a meeting of Council/Senate/Students’ Union (CSSU) on Tuesday morning at which The Vice Chancellor confirmed that the investment would be made into a 72m x 38m training pitch to be built adjacent to the current astro pitches.
The SU Bath is pleased to be able to announce that The University of Bath will be developing 3G training facilities on campus! This has been a high priority for students for some time and one of our Top Ten issue for 2017/18
The news came after a meeting of Council/Senate/Students' Union (CSSU) earlier this week at which The Vice Chancellor confirmed that the investment would be made into a 72m x 38m training pitch to be built adjacent to the current astro pitches. This comes as a result of a long-term collaborative effort between the student body and managers behind sport at the University.
This will replace the current floodlit grass training area (or cabbage patch as some teams affectionately call it) and provide training space for all grass pitch based sport clubs. It has the potential to increase training time available to sports clubs by 50 hours per week as well as free up a total of 25 hours of astro pitch time as well.
This has been a long time coming and featured on manifestos of every Sport Officer for the last 5 years. Will Galloway The SU’s current Sport Officer has said "It's amazing to finally see this happening for the students of Bath and a brilliant way to be able to sign off on my two years"
"Getting this over the line has been a team effort, thanks have to go to many previous Officers who have worked on this over the last few years, students and staff who have been involved and also the University’s Department of Sport who we have worked alongside The SU from the beginning to bring this to pass. I'd also like to say a special thank you to the Sports Exec Committee members who have supported this throughout this year"
Work will start on the planning process imminently after which construction will take several months, the facility should be available to students for use during the next academic year.
Director of Sport, Stephen Baddeley is delighted to see this investment coming into the STV:
“With more and more students active in sport and fitness this development is vital to support them, particularly given the UK weather. We know that this training area will have considerable impact for student teams and clubs at all levels but also for Bath’s reputation for elite sport - a reputation which drives local pride and inspiration for future generations
This facility will genuinely be a game changer for student sport clubs, when told about the development, current Rugby Chair Douglas Crawford had this to say:
"With the club growing in size, finding suitable training facilities is essential, the 3G will ensure that all our teams can train all year-round, improving the provision of rugby throughout the club"
Football Chair Jess Sheridan added:
"With over 400 players participating in university football each year, the decision to build a 3G pitch is an exciting time for the club! An all-weather pitch will allow members to play and train in all weathers, all year round, without the problem of frozen and water-logged grounds which is currently a huge issue. This is a massive step forward in providing more opportunities and encouraging more people to play football at Bath!."
Not only will training facilities soon be available, but in the same meeting of CSSU it was also confirmed that a presentation will be made on the draft Campus Master Plan at the May meeting of University Council. The SU’s Top Ten includes working towards the development of full sized 3G facilities, we hope to see these included in longer term planning and The SU look forward to working alongside The University to make them a reality.
This is a fantastic news story for the sporty students at Bath, The SU is can't wait to see this happen!