Millwall chief executive on how soon new training complex can become a reality

Millwall chief executive Steve Kavanagh has revealed their plans for a new training base in West Kingsdown will take a couple of years to be completed – with the Championship side hoping to submit a planning application at the end of next month.

The Lions published more details about their proposed state-of-the-art complex which they hope to build in Kent.

Kavanagh told the club’s official website: “This is a planning application. Hopefully that will go in at the end of June and then you’re looking at three to five months before they determine if we can get planning through.

“There is still a long period there. And even then all that says is we can do roughly what are in the plans and on the website for people to look at. We’ve then got to get those plans costed and built. You’re looking at a good couple of years to bring that site to fruition before we start kicking balls on the grass.

“This is a big one. It brings us together and gives us a modern facility. Calmont [Road] over the years has been great. But it was sold and leased back many years ago. We don’t own it. It’s Portacabins, really, and we make it work as best we can. This will be something we own, we’re proud of and we can invest in and for the long-term future. So that as a nine-year-old or 10-year-old academy player you’re on the same site moving right the way through to the first team.

“It will also help in recruiting players going forward because Calmont is difficult. You go to a site that is brand new and hopefully it will be a real attraction, especially out in the countryside in Kent.

“The training ground is where the team prepare and do all their work. It’s their office, really. The Den is a showcase. The office is the training ground. It’s been something we’ve been working on for two-and-a-half, maybe three years – it started pre-Covid, the search for sites. Covid made that very difficult to change the amount of sites with golf clubs suddenly becoming all the rave again, so they were off the charts.

“Now to get to this position where the plans are finally being launched and then hopefully going to planning very soon, it’s great. It’s an important step for the long-term future of the club.

“We’ve had to put a whole team of advisors together and there have been various surveys looking into wet corridors, the graduation and levels of the site and how it lies. There is a huge amount of work that goes in. This is a 50-acre sit with complexities around it because it is on the green belt and we have to be very sympathetic to that.

“There is a small copse of cottages and we’ve met with them three or four times now. The wider public consultation is taking place. We’ve had consultation with the members of Sevenoaks Council. Everyone has been very welcoming and engaging. We’ve engaged very heavily with Brands Hatch and the London Golf Club, who will be our neighbours.

“Everyone there can hopefully see the benefits of us being there and being good neighbours and bringing another string to the sporting bow of Sevenoaks.

“One of the earlier identifiers we have is a triangle of three different sites [at the moment]. We spends hours in cars between sites. For first-team staff and academy players it is a six-mile drive. It’s not easy or ideal. This will bring the club together, Monday to Friday. It will enable the academy staff and players to see the first team, engage and aspire to move along the corridor. But also all the other admin staff will be on the same site. It will bring even more togetherness off the field, as well as on it.”