We are delighted to announce that the Club have been awarded funds via the Premier League Club Development Fund which will enable us to deliver some exciting projects in the coming months.
The Club Development Fund was established to help Clubs within the pyramid become more sustainable organisations – both on and off the pitch. We were one of over 600 Clubs who expressed an interest in applying for funding via this scheme and were selected to submit our proposals. We were then selected to submit a formal funding application.
After many months work scoping our target projects, obtaining detailed costs and building business plans we were given the amazing news that we had been successful in our application. Our application focused on how we can improve our facilities to make it a better supporter experience and enable us to grow our revenue streams. Our ethos as a Club is to be self-sustainable and this funding helps us develop those foundations further.
We will be delivering three projects in the coming months with this funding:
(1) Hospitality room refurbishment – refurbishment of our upstairs hospitality space. This will enable us to launch new hospitality packages on match days and will also enable us to offer a modern and functional meeting/function space on non match days. We are excited to confirm this project is now under way!
(2) Bar refurbishment – refurbishment of our bar. This will involve increasing the size of the bar itself so that we can accommodate more pumps, more fridges and improve the lay out to make it more functional. We expect this to result in significant improvements to the efficiency of the bar on match days – reducing queues and allowing you to get that half time pint much more quickly! The modern and practical new ServaClean system which will be installed will also ensure our volunteers are working in a clean, safe and happy environment!
(3) The wheelchair/media viewing pod – we will be replacing the old BBQ area at the end of the terrace with a new weather proof viewing pod, with panoramic windows. This will be for the use of wheelchair supporters and our media guests, enabling them to have a clear view of the action on the field. As it stands, we have no covered area where wheelchair supporters can see the pitch unimpeded. Being an inclusive Club is a big part of our mission and this is another step to ensuring we are providing all the facilities our supporters need. The pod will also double up as a media room where external media guests can be accommodated without their equipment getting wet!
As a Club, continual development is in our fibre and the Directors are constantly working on development plans to improve what we can offer everyone. This is just one tranche of funding which enables us to improve some of our facilities – we have further plans in the pipeline to ensure other parts of our facilities are also improved and will share more information about this in due course.
We greatly appreciate the support of the Premier League Club Development Fund and the Football Foundation through the application and award process – this is a great example of support trickling down from the top of the pyramid to the lower levels!