"We're up against teams with state-of-the-art training grounds" — Phil Parkinson said it plainly, and he's right. Wrexham have been punching above their infrastructure for years. That's about to change.
The club's new Training Pavilion at Colliers Park is expected to be complete when the squad returns from their preseason tour of America early next month, just in time for the start of their first-ever EFL Championship campaign. Until now, Wrexham have been training at Colliers Park — a facility they don't own — then driving back to the Racecourse Ground to access the locker rooms, gym, medical department, and canteen. Every single day. In a promotion season, that was manageable. At Championship level, against clubs with purpose-built complexes, it was becoming a liability.
Why This Matters More Than It Sounds
The new pavilion brings all of those amenities on-site. No more commute between training and recovery. Players can treat injuries, eat, debrief, and prepare in the same place they work. It sounds basic — because at this level, it should be.
Parkinson put it bluntly: "Even in League One, a lot of teams have got really top-class facilities and we need that to attract players." He's not wrong. Signing Championship-calibre talent is hard enough. Asking them to train at a facility that requires a cross-town trip for an ice bath makes it harder.
The history here adds some context. Wrexham built Colliers Park in 1997 for around $1 million — considered among the best setups outside the Premier League at the time, good enough that Barcelona used it during European trips to England. Financial trouble forced a sale to Wrexham University in 2011, and the club has been operating under a lease arrangement ever since, losing full first-team access in 2016. The Hollywood takeover brought ambition. The infrastructure is only now catching up.
A Temporary Fix With Long-Term Implications
This isn't the endgame. Wrexham still want a permanent training ground they actually own, and officials acknowledge Colliers Park will likely remain the base for another three to five years while a suitable site is found. That search matters — Championship clubs eyeing Wrexham's longer-term trajectory will be watching whether the ownership can back the ambition with bricks and mortar.
For now, though, a squad preparing for the biggest season in the club's recent history will finally have a proper base to work from. Anyone pricing up Wrexham's survival odds this summer should factor in that the operational gaps are — slowly, genuinely — being closed.
"When we come back from America, that should be ready to go into," Parkinson said. First preseason friendly is this weekend. The clock is running.
