Brighton Baseball Club - Field of Dreams challenge

Aim: It's the 60th anniversary of Brighton Baseball at Waterhall - to celebrate, we need your help to build our Field Of Dreams!

Who are we?

Brighton Baseball Club was founded in 1962 and started playing at our Waterhall diamond in 1964. As one of the longest established baseball clubs in the UK, we've been developing the sport at adult and youth level for over 60 years! Our adult teams have competed at every level, from Single A through to winning the National Baseball League (NBL) in 2002.

(Brighton Buccaneers NBL winning team in 2002)

In 2016, Brighton Baseball was very proud to launch a brand new youth league for boys and girls aged 6-14.  The youth teams have had considerable success, including multiple national trophy wins.  Many of our young players have represented their country, playing for GB Baseball in international tournaments. Brighton Baseball youth players have been selected for the national team to compete in the most recent U12, U15, and U18 European tournaments. 

Over the last 5 years we've continued to grow, becoming a CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) to help us achieve our charitable aims to grow participation in sport. In 2024 we will have two teams in the BBF AA leagues, one team in the A League, and a growing youth programme from U11 to U18s. With Major League Baseball playing regular season games in London, baseball is growing rapidly in the UK, and we want to help encourage more people to play this fantastic, accessible sport. To quote the famous line from the movie Field Of Dreams - if we build it, they will come!

(Our Adult Single A team enjoying the sun at Waterhall in 2023)

Why are we crowdfunding?

Like all minority sports in the UK, Baseball needs great infrastructure to grow. Thanks to previous investment in the 1990s, we've got the potential to be one of the best equipped diamonds in the UK, and to create a hub to grow the sport at adult and youth level around the South East.

To celebrate our 60th Anniversary, we want to invest in our adult and youth baseball diamonds, making them a real 'Field Of Dreams' for the sport in the UK. Last year we raised a small amount of money to rebuild the foundations of our adult diamond - this year we want to do the same with our youth diamond, batting nets and home run fences. This will help us support even more players at practises and games, and provide infrastructure to host events for local schools, youth projects and the UK baseball community.

(rebuilding our adult diamond pitchers mound and home plate in 2023)

How we’ll spend the money raised

Our target is raise £10,000 to make our Field Of Dreams a reality. This funding will cover:

1 - £2000 to help us rebuild our youth diamond, including the pitchers mound and home plate, to make it a better, safer and longer lasting facility for youth baseball in the South East
2 - £1500 to repair our batting nets and bull pens so we can provide high quality training for everyone who wants to join our sport
3 - £6500 to buy and Install Grand Slam Home Run fences in both adult and youth diamonds to make it safer for outfielders going for that highlight-reel catch, or for batters hitting over the fences!

(The next generation of Brighton Baseball!)

Community impact

Our diamond is part of a growing multi-sports facility at Waterhall, together with Brighton Rugby Club and the 3G multi-sports pitch. We all share the same ambition - to make Waterhall an accessible facility for anyone wanting to play sports and improve their physical and mental health.

As part of the legacy of the MLB London Series, the the BBF and BSUK (the national bodies for baseball and softball in the UK) are launching schemes to encourage more schools to play these exciting, accessible sports in PE lessons. With your support, we'll be able to support local schools with fun  events and taster sessions on our diamonds. We're also working with the BBF and BSUK to host coaching clinics and training sessions for the wider south-east baseball community at Waterhall.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 17th June 2024