SOUTHEND United is to invest more than £2million in indoor training pitches to help the club push up the leagues.

Ron Martin has spent £500,000 on the former London Soccerdome to allow academy players and footballers from other local clubs and schools to train in Southend in any weather conditions, the Echo can reveal.

The Blues chairman claims to have identified a site for the structure, formerly in Greenwich, London, which can cover two full-size pitches.

Martin, who insisted plans for a new 22,000-seater stadium at Fossetts Farm, Southend, will still go ahead, said the dome would cost about £2million to erect.

He told the Echo: “It will put us in the position of being one of the strongest academies outside the Premier League.

“That’s where I have always said the future of the club lies – we must bring young talent through.

“We have a massive catchment area and we can build a facility that will put Southend on the academy map.”

The dome could improve the club’s training facility rating from category three to category two, for which Martin plans to apply at the end of the season.

Most Premier League clubs have category one facilities.

The Echo understands two London-based Premier League clubs had also expressed interest in the dome, and Martin said it would help the club attract talented youngsters from across south Essex as there are no comparative training facilities for 40 or 50 miles.

The Blues chairman said: “It’s an investment into the football club, it’s not about revenue generation.

“Southend United already has a strong reputation under the direction of Ricky Duncan for bringing youths through the ranks – I want to build on that and Phil Brown is like-minded.

“It’s the only way we can really compete.”

Martin refused to be drawn on the exact location of the new facility, but the Echo understands it will be on Blues’ Boots & Laces training ground.

Meanwhile, Martin insisted the Fossetts Farm stadium was going ahead, despite speculation Lidl was buying Prospects College’s old building in Fairfax Drive, which is key to Roots Hall’s redevelopment.

He added the new soccerdome would “go hand-in-hand with the stadium plans”.

WHAT IS THE LONDON SOCCERDOME?

THE London Soccerdome, which is heading the way of Southend United, was Europe’s biggest indoor football arena before it was taken down last month.

Built in Greenwich in 2005, it originally operated as the David Beckham academy before the former England and Manchester United star and his management company decided to pull out of the operation just four years later.

Since then it had been known as the London Soccerdome and had been the venue for Premier League academy tournaments, as well as providing a purpose-built location for charity events and corporate training.

It had also been used by coaches taking their FA badges and the facility boasted two full-sized artificial pitches, which were kept in good conditions having been shielded from the elements by two huge domes.

Millwall and Crystal Palace were among the clubs to have used the facility and Southend’s first team also trained there when freezing conditions had left them short of training facilities.

But the Soccerdome started to be taken down last month and is now closed for business as part of the planned redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula.