By Phil Baker, Project Manager
I've been here for five and a half years working on the development and infrastructure side of the stadium site and training ground. My first project was the indoor training dome, getting that up and running as a commercial business. I worked on that for about two years, and that's when we purchased the land from the Ministry of Defence for the training ground at Arborfield.

Projects like our training ground are the bigger ones, and it took a lot of planning. Our old facility was at Sonning Hockey & Cricket club and we assessed what we had and what we wanted moving moving forward. So I got involved with Ray to work on the development, which was an 18 month project initially. And over the last few years I've been the project manager there - we've spent £3.5 million from start to finish so far with all the refurbishment and new buildings.

There's been a lot of work done at Arborfield over the last two years. Starting out we had very limited physiotherapy facilities for example. Jon Fearn had a tiny Portakabin that could only fit two people in at a time. Jon asked for a bigger space to fit a few beds in there for players massage and treatments. We didn't have a gym at the training ground beforehand either and now we have a fully equipped gym. Originally the players used Cannons at Green Park or Nirvana. It wasn't ideal and now they can train on site in a private gym after their football training.

A new dining area was also needed as the original facilities were only a short term fix, not meant to serve that many people. We now have a fully functional commercial kitchen which can serve up to 80 people a day. And we have purpose built facilities for our performance analyst to show videos to players and a refurbished dressing room for the professional players.

One of the most recent developments is the new building at the South West corner of Madejski Stadium, which houses new media facilities and staff offices. It's been built over the course of the last year at a cost of £1.9 million.

The extension has taken about 10 months since we started last July, which is pretty much on schedule. There was a great deal of designing and planning involved which meant we had a long lead in time on it, agreeing the layouts, gaining the necessary planning permission etc.

Originally the new block was only going to be a two-storey development for new media facilities. But it was then decided that we needed more office space at the stadium. Beforehand all the offices were scattered all over the place, here and there - maybe communication wasn't always what it could be. But now all the staff are located in the same block and it's easy to go and see a colleague without running halfway around the building.

So from the old plans of a two-floor building we went all the way to four floors and changed the layout completely. From the point when we originally started planning through to how it finished, it ended up very differently.

The office moves for all the staff have meant that, although the season has finished, things have been very busy lately. We had a two-week programme of office relocations and it was quite tight in terms of having the new building ready for staff to move in. Once we had the offices cabled for data and phone lines we had staff in there and then got them up and running. Looking around it now I think it has been done well, everyone seems happy with it compared with the space we had before. There is more daylight in the new offices and we have comfort cooling everywhere, it's a nice working environment for the staff.

The summer is often a busy time for stadium development, as it gives us an opportunity to do work over a period which isn't possible when games are being played. Last summer we refurbished the whole of level one of the West Stand facilities, including the conferencing halls, hospitality lounges, executive boxes and the new Premier Lounge, which was formerly office space - that was a busy summer.

This year is no different and we have a few projects moving forward between now and the start of next season. Many will have seen the ongoing refurbishment of the Cilantro Restaurant, and we'll also be working on the Atrium Bar and Le Cafe. That work commenced at the end of March, and is quite a big project.

Supporters will also notice that there is some work to begin shortly on extending the Megastore to give more floor space. It will almost double in size and should be ready in time for the launch of the new kit.

And the players' lounge is undergoing a complete refurbishment this summer as well. The lounge which the players used in the Championship was used as a media conference room and journalist working room for the last two years, but has reverted back now we have our new purpose built facility in the new block. The players used one of the conference rooms on level one for their lounge over the last two seasons, and now that will go back to being used as hospitality, which is what it was designed for initially.

In their new lounge the players and their guests will have a comfortable area with seating, TVs, a bar and their food will be served there with their seating a short distance away in the Lower West Stand. All the friends and family will come into the new reception area and then after the game the players will be closer to their family.

Beyond that, the long term projects are the stadium expansion and further development of the training ground. We would like to expand on the site and develop a permanent building at some point in the future. The project at Arborfield would be in the region of £4-5 million - so not something that is likely to happen while we are in the Championship. If and when we get back into the Premier League there will be big development at the training ground.