Bacup Cricket Club
Helping a traditional cricket facility develop into a year-round community sports asset through football partnerships, pitch investment and new grounds-maintenance machinery.
Turning a seasonal cricket facility into a year-round community sports asset
Bacup Cricket Club had traditionally used its site for cricket. That meant much of the facility’s activity and income was concentrated around the cricket season, despite the wider potential of the site.
Open Goal Consulting identified an opportunity to introduce grassroots football, create additional community use and develop a new income stream outside the cricket season.
Alongside that wider vision, the club also needed investment in its playing surfaces and machinery so the site could cope with increased use and be maintained sustainably over the long term.
From identifying the opportunity to creating a funded long-term plan
The support combined partnership development, technical project work, funding applications and ongoing advice as the project moved into delivery.
£36,750 secured across pitch improvements and machinery
Six-year pitch improvement programme
Funding secured for a structured long-term programme to improve and maintain the football pitches across the site.
Pitch-maintenance machinery
Capital funding secured for new machinery to help the club maintain the improved playing surfaces and support increased year-round use.
A stronger year-round facility model
Bacup now has a formal partnership supporting football use of the site, a funded six-year pathway for improving the pitches and new machinery to help maintain the facility for both sports.
The project shows how looking beyond a club’s traditional use can create new participation, additional income and a stronger year-round facility model.
Rather than leading with a funding application, the work started by developing the project itself: identifying the opportunity, creating the partnership, building the evidence and then securing investment around a clear long-term plan.
“Martin helped us see how the club could make much more use of the site outside the cricket season. He brought the football partnership together and has supported us through the pitch planning, PitchPower process, funding applications and new machinery, while continuing to advise us as the project develops.”
Neal Wilkinson | Chairman, Bacup Cricket Club
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