Club House Refurbishment

Aim: To fully refurbish the club house making the club house a more welcoming environment so we can achieve our goal of making sport free for all

Who are we?

Seaham Park Cricket and Rugby Club is a local community sports club located in Seaham, a small town in County Durham. Seaham is a former coal mining town and the club was founded by the local Colliery over 100 years ago. We are a family-oriented club ran purely by volunteers. We have over 100 senior members and 80 junior members with multiple teams at all age groups, including 2 girl's teams (an area we are actively growing) . We also run a very successful ECB All-Stars Programme aimed at getting U9s interested in cricket along with their families. 

Recent History

In 2012, we had a catastrophic fire that destroyed our club house and left us without a club house for over two years. This was a very difficult time for the club as without a club house we lost most of our players and ended up with no junior section due to lack of facilities. When the new club house was finally built the insurance payout would only cover a small social room, with no bar area or furniture, it literally was an empty room. As the bar was our main source of funding to help run the club, we raised funds to install a very basic bar area.

In the community  

In addition to the three different Sports we provide, the club is also used by the wider community and has hosted a number of local charity events. This is an area we would also like to grow and this project will be a significant help. We also support the local foodbank with regular donations. 

Why are we doing this?

• With the current levels of inflation and cost of living crisis the club has made the decision to not charge senior or junior members any Subs for the next 12 months.
•  This includes all indoor winter training and coaching sessions being made free of charge.
•  It is our goal to continue this policy year on year and make sport free for all forever but without impacting on the quality of facilities we provide. 
• We have a mission to ensure nobody ever misses out on playing sport due to financial reasons. 
• To ensure this financially sustainability we need to maximize revenue from our main source of income which is the bar area. 
•  The current bar area is not the most welcoming and does not utilise  the space very well which restricts revenue.
•  This was confirmed when we carried out a survey of members with the common theme being that the area was very poor and put people off using it more especially the girls. 
• A new fully refurbished bar area will help us increase revenues and ensure we can make sport free for all for the long term.
•  This really is a legacy project that will continue to benefit the community for years to come. 

How we’ll spend the money raised

• Replace the bar area with a modern fit for purpose bar area.
• Install all new fixed seating making better use of space. 
• Replace all tables and chairs. 
• Upgrade all lighting within in the bar area. 
• New Carpets  
• Decorate bar area 

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022

Birmingham 2022 not only saw T20 Cricket make its Commonwealth Games debut, but also marked the first appearance for the women’s game, too. With our growing membership and a good, regular turnout of junior girls to our practice sessions, we now have wider plans to develop women's cricket for 2023. This will then also benefit and boost all other areas of our club, and in turn the wider community

We are aiming to received matched funding from the Sport England - Places and Spaces campaign to help us create and maintain this legacy

PLEASE HELP US MAKE SPORT FREE FOR ALL!

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.       Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started.   Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any  bank details. Just a fun idea!

We are working hard to raise as much as possible and your help would really be appreciated to give us that extra push to transform our Club House.

Please donate as much as you can and help us deliver this project as soon as possible. This crowdfunding campaign will hopefully provide us with the opportunity to really support the local community in these difficult times. If we can reach our target of £10,000 then Sport England can match it giving us our £20,000 target 

Thank You!