Albion have unveiled plans to build on their move to The Amex with a £15 million hi-tech training ground.

The project, funded by chairman Tony Bloom, will incorporate nine pitches.

The main pitch will be exactly the same size as the one at The Amex, with floodlights and undersoil heating.

Chief executive Martin Perry is heading up a team responsible for finding a suitable 30-acre site and steering the project through the planning process.

Potential venues include Waterhall, Mid-Sussex, Sheepcote Valley and Shoreham Airport.

The Seagulls have a completion target date of pre-season 2013. Once the work is done they will apply for Academy status to develop young talent.

Perry has been in charge of Albion’s switch from Withdean to the American Express Community Stadium at Falmer this summer.

With The Amex close to completion, Albion want to improve the facilities currently available to manager Gus Poyet at the nearby University of Sussex to prepare the team and identify future stars.

Bloom said: “This is the next step in our strategy to develop the club. Shortly we will be moving into the Amex and we now need state-of-the-art facilities to train and develop our players for the future.

“The board has already asked Martin Perry to spearhead a team to find a site and submit a planning application as soon as we possibly can as we want to be in our new training facility as soon as possible.

“For all of our supporters who are currently buying season tickets for The Amex this is more evidence of how we want to move this club forward.”

The site for the training complex has to be big enough to accomodate seven full-sized pitches and two smaller pitches, including an artificial pitch and indoor pitch.

There will also be space for Poyet and his staff, senior and Academy players and the possibility of residential accomodation for players and for residential courses.

Albion currently operate centres of excellence at Worthing, Eastbourne and Sussex University. The new facilities will comply with Academy regulations.

Poyet, who signed a new four-year contract last summer, said: “I am delighted the club has taken the decision to develop a new training ground.

“This is the perfect way to move forward and it would be of enormous help to me and all of the coaching staff as we build the team for the future.

“It will give the players the complete package, stadium and training ground, while an Academy will give us even more opportunity to develop young players who can step up to the first team.

“Once again it shows the ambition of the chairman, the board and the club to take the Albion forward.”

Albion share their existing training base with owners the University of Sussex.

Perry said: “The club is extremely grateful to the University for all the support it has given over the years.

“However, the intensity of use of a new facility is such that it is very difficult to make shared use workable. The club has therefore decided to look for a suitable new site.

“We are looking at some of those sites which were considered for the stadium, including Sheepcote Valley, Shoreham Airport, Waterhall, and Mid-Sussex and hope to submit an application very soon.”