David Storch reveals Sheffield Wednesday training ground upgrade as he makes squad vow
David Storch is keen to oversee improvements across the board at Sheffield Wednesday.
Sheffield Wednesday chairman David Storch has confirmed a new gymnasium facility will be installed at the club’s Middlewood Road training ground ahead of the upcoming League One campaign.
Storch’s US consortium, Arise Capital Partners, completed its takeover of the Owls last month and is keen to make a range of improvements across the board, both on and off the pitch.
Arise wasted no time in appointing Wednesday’s first chief executive in more than seven years last month, recruiting David Bruce from Sunderland, and Simon Wilson is on the cusp of officially joining him at Hillsborough as the club’s new sporting director. Further hires are in the pipeline, such as Oscar Chamberlain, who is poised to fill a newly-created role at S6, and a finance director.
As well as strengthening the club’s off-field team, Arise are also overseeing some work at Hillsborough and at Middlewood Road. It is no secret both locations are tired and in desperate need of modernisation, but, of course, not everything can be done in one summer.
Wednesday’s leading priority this summer is rebuilding the squad - a mission that can now advance following the opening of the transfer window - but Storch is still keen to make infrastructural improvements at the same time. With that in mind, he has confirmed a portable building, featuring a new gym, will be installed at the training ground within “the next 30 days”.
“We’re building infrastructure around Hillsborough and Middlewood Road,” said Storch, speaking at the unveiling of a new headstone for former Owls captain Ambrose Langley at Burngreave Cemetery on Sunday. “Middlewood needs a lot of work.
“There’s not a proper gym for the players to work out [in]. I own a gym back in South Florida and we understand the equipment that’s needed to train professional athletes, so we’ve gone ahead and purchased a portable building because there’s no place at the practice ground to build a proper training facility.
“That will be in place in the next 30 days. Again, what we’re trying to do is build around the entire infrastructure, and we’re going to do the best we can to recruit people like this young man [point to Ambrose Langley’s headstone] that can represent us.
“We’re going to make the team competitive again and we’re going to give them all the support they need.”