Yeovil Town have confirmed plans to move first team training to Bristol from the start of the 2025/26 season.
The Glovers will train at the SGS WISE Academy, part of the West of England Institute of Specialist Education (WISE), to the north of the city which the club says will give players and staff “access to top-class facilities in a high-performance environment.”
News of the move had been rumoured by former loanee and one-time permanent player Otis Khan in an interview with the I Had Trials Once podcast last month.
In a statement on the club’s website on Tuesday evening, manager Mark Cooper said: “From a football perspective, this is a really positive step for the club. The facilities at SGS Wise are first-class and will help create the kind of professional, high-performance culture we want to build here. It’s about giving the players everything they need to develop, compete, and succeed. At the same time, our heart remains in Yeovil – we’re doing this to bring success back to our fans and our town.”
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The statement from the club said that the relocation of training, which had previously taken place at the Alvington Playing Fields in Yeovil or on the artificial surface at Huish Park, would broaden its “recruitment reach.” It added: “By positioning ourselves in a more central and accessible location, we are better placed to attract a wider pool of talent – an important factor as we continue building a squad capable of pushing closer to a return to the Football League.”
Executive chairman Stuart Robins said: “This move represents a major milestone in the continued evolution of Yeovil Town Football Club. Providing our players and staff with access to elite training facilities is essential if we are to raise standards and push toward our ambition of returning to the Football League. The SGS Wise Campus offers exactly the kind of environment we need to drive progress and deliver results, while maintaining our strong identity and connection with the Yeovil community.”
The decision has raised questions from some supporters about the connection the club will maintain with the local community in Somerset by choosing to move its training base more than 70 miles away from Huish Park. Strengthening links with the community has been a centrepiece of the initial pitch made by new owner Prabhu Srinivasan who described service to the community as “equally important“ to success on the pitch in an open letter published after he completed his takeover.
The statement added: “This move represents a major milestone in the continued evolution of Yeovil Town Football Club. Providing our players and staff with access to elite training facilities is essential if we are to raise standards and push toward our ambition of returning to the Football League. The SGS Wise Campus offers exactly the kind of environment we need to drive progress and deliver results, while maintaining our strong identity and connection with the Yeovil community.“
The Football Stadium Pitch at the SGS Wise Campus in Bristol.