Link
The vision of Tony Waiters comes through well in this article. Hard to believe that 40 years on, the club still relies on these facilities and development of this crucial area of good standard training facilities has been so regularly overlooked.
The vision of Tony Waiters comes through well in this article. Hard to believe that 40 years on, the club still relies on these facilities and development of this crucial area of good standard training facilities has been so regularly overlooked.
A LANDMARK decision by city councillors in November 1974 heralded a new chapter for Plymouth Argyle.
Since his arrival as manager, Tony Waiters had quickly identified the club’s need to have its own training facilities. If they were conveniently close to Home Park, all the better.
At the time, the first team and reserve team players were training on their own ground at Ermington, but that was 15 miles from Home Park and was not regularly used.
Instead, various locations in the area were utilised.
Waiters’ dream took a step to reality when Plymouth City Council gave the go ahead for Argyle to develop seven acres of land in Central Park into a training ground.
The agreement meant that the football club would completely finance the cost of levelling the land for four full-sized football pitches. Two of those would be exclusive to Argyle, with the other two for public use.
The two-year project had an estimated cost of £30,000 – £40,000 and would, when opened, be named Harper’s Park.
Waiters openly stated that he would be neglecting his responsibility of team manager if he was to work solely for the short-term without any planning for the long-term. He believed short-term success was only sustained with long-term planning.