BURNLEY chief executive Paul Fletcher has vowed that the development of Turf Moor’s David Fishwick Stand will still go ahead – even though there remains no timeframe for the work to take place.

The University and College of Football Business was launched on Friday ahead of its opening in September, while work has now started on an upgrade of the facilities at the Gawthorpe training ground.

The £2m university, which is the brainchild of Burnley’s operational director Brendan Flood and will be based at Turf Moor, will allow students to learn about the business side of football and is the first of its kind.

Around £2m will also be spent on Gawthorpe, with improvements made to changing rooms and the creation of an additional training area.

The Clarets had hoped to develop Turf Moor’s away end at the same time, with plans to build a ‘StadiArena’ stand to replace the Cricket Field end, built in 1969.

The innovative design would allow seating within the 2,500-capacity stand to be moved to create an exhibition hall, hosting conferences and weddings, or a 4,000-strong rock concert venue.

But the £15m development was put on hold last year because of the recession and it is no closer to being revived now, with Burnley missing out on promotion back to the Premier League last month.

Fletcher, though, became chief executive in 2008 to oversee the building of the new stand and remains committed to making it happen.

“It will happen at some point, I'm 100 per cent sure about that,” he said.

“But I don’t want to put a timeframe on it and say it will be six months, 12 months or 18 months.

“It is like a mum and dad, you have to decide whether you spend your money on a house, a family holiday or other things you need.

“It’s the same with a football club. Do you spend it on a stand, on players or maybe improving all the rooms within the stadium?

“That’s the sort of thing every club has to decide.”

Fletcher has been involved in a host of new stadium developments across the country in recent years but knows that the financial climate has made such work difficult for many clubs.

“I think there has only been one new stadium gone up recently and that’s the AMEX Stadium in Brighton,” he said.

“That stadium was 21 years in the planning and I certainly hope it won’t take 21 years for the stand here to be built.

“Tony Bloom was a fan who ended up paying £98m to build the stadium at Brighton, and if any Burnley fan has got £15m or £20m spare they will always be welcome to come down and speak to me over a coffee!

“But the university is all finished now and is something that is really exciting.”

Work on the club’s training ground at Gawthorpe is expected to be completed in time for the start of the season.

With a new office for boss Eddie Howe as well as a players’ lounge and eating area, it will allow the first-team squad and staff the flexibility to operate solely out of Gawthorpe when required rather than having to travel back and forth to Turf Moor.

“This is something the manager has been very keen to see developed so that Gawthorpe becomes a self-contained training base for the first team when needed,” said stadium manager Doug Metcalfe.

“We were the first club to establish on off-stadium training ground over 50 years ago and those facilities have needed modernisation and improvement.

“Redevelopment of Gawthorpe is something we have wanted to do and this is the start.

“The aim is to provide facilities fitting for a club for our stature to help create a suitable first-team environment for our existing players and to help to attract potential new ones.”