Oldham celebrates grand opening of Netpar Training Centre

The Mayor of Oldham has officially opened the new-look Netpar Training Centre, with exciting plans for future expansion revealed along with a new leader for the club's pathway system.

Councillor Eddie Moores joined the leader of Oldham Council Arooj Shah, Roughyeds managing director Mike Ford, chief executive of the Oldham RLFC 1876 Foundation Chris Chamberlain and major sponsors of Oldham RLFC to officially open the club's regenerated Melrose training base at Chadderton.
The complex harbours ambitious plans to expand to a Super-League standard multi-sport hub for the community in years to come.

The official opening also saw the announcement of a new Pathways Technical Advisor Callum Irving, who will oversee a major project to build the club's youth set-up as well as imminent news on a future Roughyeds women's team.

Roughyeds managing director Mike Ford said:

"When we took over the number one thing that myself and chairman Bill Quinn wanted to do was our pathway and get it up and running again. We want the kids who are playing here today to be playing for Oldham in future and this place will help us realise that dream.

This is going to be our legacy, but we want to make it even better. Our plans are for a new state-of-the-art training facility here in Chadderton, a community hub that can host different sports. We want to build a community hub for education, a function room and a facility for multi-sports including astro-turf, 5-aside pitches and tennis courts. We aren't there yet but these are our plans for the future. We want to give Oldham something that will be here forever.

This could be the best rugby league facility in the country and will enhance our desire to reach Super League."

Oldham's new training base is now an impressive hub for the club's first team and pathway set-up after stunning work done in the winter by construction partner Connolly Ltd under the guidance of chairman Quinn, that saw new floodlights installed, the pitch regenerated and wrapped, along with new offices, kitchens and physio rooms.

For years the facility survived thanks to the hard work of local volunteers to whom the club remains hugely grateful.

And now the new partnership with Oldham-based IT Solutions Provider Netpar provides a significant boost to allow even further improvement and expansion of a facility that has already undergone a dramatic transformation.

The Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Eddie Moores said:

"This is a wonderful facility - I have been here before and it looked nothing like this! I would like to thank the team who have put this together and do so much hard work to bring this club to where it is now.

I cannot believe how much the facility has changed and if we can succeed in delivering the plans for the future it would make such a difference to this area and I look forward to seeing it come to fruition."

Council Leader Arooj Shah said:

"Our relationship is borne out of a shared ambition to really talk Oldham up. I am truly proud of the sense of community in Oldham. Sport is about people coming together naturally and it gives people important life skills like respect, team-building, discipline and focus. These are the true values that help our borough to prosper. We can help bring the vision of this club and its Foundation to life.

Having a first-class facility like this in the heart of this community is what the community deserves. There are still discussions that we have to have but Oldham Council are a huge supporter of this and we will work together to find ways to help deliver this."

Chief executive of the Oldham RLFC 1876 Foundation Chris Chamberlain said:

"We have a fantastic facility with a lot of work, investment, sponsorship and support that has gone into this place. We are now officially opening it and recognising that we do have a rugby league centre of excellence in Oldham for the community, first team, pathways and our programmes.

We have summer rugby camps coming up here in Chadderton. We have partnered with Oldham Council who have been really helpful. It is going to be fantastic to have people coming down to those here too."

New Pathway Technical Advisor Callum Irving said:

"Mine is a big role and full credit to Mike and to Bill for taking this on. This town has always produced fantastic rugby league players, often for other people. So it is great to try and bring it all together to try and start producing players and good human beings for this club."

Full coverage of Oldham's exciting plans for the Netpar Training Centre was revealed in a brand new episode of The Boundary Line on Roughyeds TV this week, available now below.