Delivering the highest specification training facility in Europe.
An exciting new chapter for the Premier League’s high-flyers has just begun, as Leicester City FC have relocated to their new home at Seagrave. The team trained here for the first time on Christmas Eve 2020.
Under construction since Spring 2019, the new LCFC Training Ground was a huge redevelopment project on a massive 185-acre site, formerly a golf course. The facilities built by McLaren include:
- 21 playing surfaces – including 14 full-size pitches
- 499-seater floodlit main pitch
- The Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Building – the site’s primary training, medical, and administrative hub for the first team and academy
- The King Power Centre – the site’s central point, housing an indoor pitch and media centre
- Elite sports science and medical facilities including cryotherapy chambers
- Bespoke gymnasium and hydrotherapy facilities
- Sports Turf Academy for the education and development of industry-leading grounds staff
- Private nine-hole golf course
The construction process
The unrelenting progress of this project from day one was a testament to McLaren’s partnership with key customers, working constantly to overcome delivery challenges on this high-profile scheme.
From the beginning, we knew that this programme would be exacting due to the complexity of the project, its size, completion date and the procurement route chosen.
We had to overcome some of the most difficult weather in recorded history and of course restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet despite all this, we have delivered what the club set out in their vision, part of an important and emotional legacy since the sad passing of owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, back in 2018.
The club now have one of the world’s most advanced training facilities to rival anyone in the Premier League and outside of the UK.
EDM drone surveying
The built environment is being redefined at an unprecedented pace using digital technology that enables us to streamline many aspects of the construction process and enhance the finish product.
Large-scale sites such as this project for Leicester City FC are where McLaren excel, delivering extraordinary benefits for the client by harnessing on-site digital solutions as well as using BIM and other cloud-based solutions off-site. We particularly focused on the use of drones for LiDAR surveying and photogrammetry across the 185-acre site. mapping the topology and creating highly accurate 3D models.
On this project, this technology was used to scan the entire site to create a digital Pointcloud survey map. Point Cloud Surveys are used to map places and buildings that already exist to create accurate, digital models. In this case, there was a landscape of over 30,000 trees and plants, numerous lakes and various structures to be demolished.
Other key challenges
Key challenges include managing the curvature of the building, complex MEP systems needed for premiership footballers, specialist hydrotherapy pool areas, gymnasiums, dining facilities and executive suites. In addition to the primary structures, there were ancillary buildings including the Show Pitch Stand, Sports Turf Academy and Machine Store.
The extent of the external areas was vast and included not only the pitches but also a refurbished golf course, fishing lake, £2m planting scheme, planting irrigation, players garden, a web of underground services and access roads.
The golf course is now complete, and all the pitches are match ready.
