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The New York Red Bulls nomadic existence will soon be a thing of the past. After 10 years of training at numerous colleges throughout New Jersey, sometimes in the same week, the club Monday announced plans to build a permanent training center in Hanover, N.J.
The training grounds will include six soccer fields, a 50,000 square-foot two-story building and a one-story fieldhouse. Construction is slated to begin this fall and to be completed by December 2008.
Since its inception, the New York-based MLS club has trained at numerous grass and artificial fields throughout the state because the New York Giants are given priority to use Giants Stadium and its training bubble. This year the Red Bulls have trained at three different fields at Montclair State University and had a fieldhouse built.
"Since we bought this team last March, we wanted to provide an infrastructure that will improve our team in the future," said Red Bull New York managing director Marc de Grandpre. "There's been frustrations over the years over not knowing where to go to train. Montclair is a good stop gap for now, but it's not the ideal solution."
Located in Hanover Township off Melanie Lane, the centerpiece of the complex will be the training center that will house the sporting and business sides of the organization. Amenities for the Red Bulls first team and academy teams, including multiple locker rooms, players lounge, weight room and trainer's room will be located on the first floor. The second floor will be the front office's headquarters.
"Having the proper infrastructure around a team is vital in turning a club and an organization into a winner," Red Bulls sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena said in a statement. "This team has never had a permanent home in its existence. Our facility in Hanover will provide us with a first-class venue that will house this team for years to come."
The six fields will be a mix of artificial and natural surfaces and one will be covered by a Tension Fabric Frame Structure that can be used during periods of inclement weather or at night.
"We looked at facilities throughout Europe to get the best model possible, including the one at Austria," de Grandpre said, referring to the Red Bulls' sister club in Salzburg. "In terms of MLS, we think this will be a unique training facility and the best in North America."
And de Grandpre said the New Jersey training facility will be even better than the one in Salzburg because it will be home to all of the New York Red Bulls operations.
"It's much bigger, but all the inside amenities will be similar," he said. "In Salzburg, we don't have the front office, first team and the academy under one roof. Hopefully it gives the academy players an incentive to make a right [into the first team locker room] instead of a left [into the academy teams locker rooms]."
Hanover was one of several sites the Red Bulls looked into, but its proximity to major highways as well as Harrison, which will be the home to Red Bull Park, is the major reason it was chosen.
"At the end of the day we felt Hanover was the right place to be," he said. "It's easily accessible to highways, there's 74 soccer clubs in Morris County and Harrison is just a 20-minute drive away."
As for Red Bull Park, the expected opening has been pushed back to April 2009 because six feet of concrete has been found at the foundation of the site. The 25,000-seater, which will be the seventh soccer-specific stadium in Major League Soccer, was originally scheduled to be ready for the summer of 2008. But the industrial cleanup of the site has been delayed, as de Grandpre pointed out in an e-mail to season-ticket holders.
"We're preparing for it to be built by 2009," de Grandpre said. "We'll hopefully be ready by then, but I don't want to put a firm date on it."
De Grandpre said the delay has nothing to do with the rumors that Red Bull is negotiating with Anschutz Entertainment Group, which was the former owner of the MetroStars, to be the sole owner of the stadium, which reportedly will cost $100 million. The Austrian energy drink company bought the MetroStars from AEG for $100 million in March 2006 and renamed the team.
"We're moving on as planned with AEG," de Grandpre said. "Just like we've done since Day One."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
