Chairman Pete Winkelman has provided an update on MK Dons’ plans to develop a new training facility at the MK Bowl.
It was announced last September that the Football Club had reached an agreement with Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP) and Milton Keynes Council (MKC) with regards to developing a new state-of-the-art training facility at the MK Bowl.
Winkelman discussed the topic during his appearance on MKFM’s Dons on Saturday show and while revealing that the project has taken positive steps forward over the past 12 months, he did also provide some context in regards to the timeframe.
“There's loads of good things happening with the training ground,” the MK Dons Chairman told MKFM.
“The deal we did with the council is actually about to get signed in the next couple of weeks, and it will be possible for us to have planning permission within the next 12 months.
“To put things into perspective, though, that's a year it has taken just to get the deal done.
"It means nothing, a planning permission doesn't mean anything. How are you going to execute that planning permission?"
"I need to have those opportunities at the Bowl to create some developments, to take the value to build the training ground.
“We have big ambition when it comes to the training ground. Like we did with the stadium, we’re only going to build something if it's great and if it's great, it's going to cost a lot of money.
“If it costs a lot of money, we need to look at doing a lot of other developments to make that money available to spend and ultimately, it will only be real when all of those deals come together.
“I can't tell you when that will be but, people will see movement on it soon and will start to see some drawings and pictures.
“We’ve got the biggest architects in the world, in Populus, looking at how we make the Bowl a fantastic place to be as well as a fantastic training ground – something that's another asset and icon to Milton Keynes."
