Leveling it 5 times is essentially going to get you the same end result as if it were to begin at level 5(for example) but at a higher cost/longer build time.

The academy is probably one of the better buildings to burn speed-up scrolls on when you're throwin down a new town.


Other buildings like barracks, use them to produce warriors, scouts, pikes as they are leveling up. If you had to wait say 10 hours for a lvl9 barracks to be build from an empty lot that's 10 hours of troop production you could have used. Hypothetically speaking, using your idea.