HARTLEPOOL ROVERS LEGACY PROJECT

Aim

To build on the legacy of Birmingham Commonwealth Games to improve our changing and social facilities for the benefit of the local community

Who are we?

Hartlepool Rovers FC provides a base for our local community for social and fitness activities in the Tees Valley area.  We have rugby teams from the Little Monkeys through to Junior Boys and Girls and then onto senior Mens and Ladies teams..    
 

Community impact

How our project will be United by Birmingham 2022

We wish to offer more facilities to the local community and build on the legacy of the Commonwealth Games and the feelgood factor of the success of England’s Lionesses in the Women's Euros.

Our club acts as  a focal point and hub for a range of organisations ranging from the Local and national charities include Cancer Research, Help for Heroes, Teenage Cancer Trust and the RVI hospital as well as the RNLI.  We also host our local brass band for their weekly practice.  Here they are giving a splendid rendition of  Jingle Bells !

Why are we crowdfunding?

We have identified the following areas that we would like to target to provide better facilities for our community.   

Firstly we want to carry out improvements to our current, and old, changing facilities to provide extra changing room space with integrated showering capacity and increase the number of toilets.   For our girls and junior teams particularly having to go along a corridor to a communal shower is off putting for many.  By providing en-suite showering we hope to get yet more people active and serve the needs of the community better.  

Here are some photos of our current changing, showering and communal toilet facilities.  

Showers

We try to keep our changing rooms clean but they are small and lack modern facilities like integrated showers and toilets.  We also only have 3 changing rooms which is insufficient when we have more than 2 teams at home; which is fairly frequent. 

 This passageway leads to our toilets.  There are only two toilets and this is inadequate when we can get up to 100 participants at a Festival. 

While we try to keep these facilities as clean as possible they are over 50 years old and do not match current standards.  Certainly there is  insufficient changing room space and  toilets to cater for our needs and inadequate showers.   And we wish to have these toilets and showers within updated changing rooms.  We also have issues when we have referees of the opposite sex to the teams that are playing.  There is nowhere for these referees to shower.  

Secondly we want to improve the social facilities of the clubhouse yet further to provide a welcoming environment and to serve the local community better.  We have carried out some recent improvements by volunteers in part of the clubhouse but would like to take this even further.

Adding the finishing touches

Outside improvements

And everyone mucks in to help.

The last crowdfunding campaign...

We had a very successful crowdfunding campaign in 2020, which was kindly supported by the Sport England Return to Play: Active Together funding scheme. With that money we:

• Made improvements to our clubhouse with upgrades to some toilets, redecorated our bar area and installed new flooring..
• Provided a new oven and ice machine 
• Provided outdoor picnic tables together with gazebos and umbrellas.
• Renovated the outside of the building and replaced the old signage.
• We sourced a portacabin to provide additional, temporary, changing room capacity.  This was cleaned out, painted and had power connected to it.  Unfortunately before we could install water for showering and toilets we encountered major problems with the floor and roof.  Fixing these issues was not considered cost effective given the expected life of the portacabin.

Storm Bertha..

Whilst we have had the success of the previous crowdfunding campaign, we also had another setback with an old steel stand suffering from significant storm damage at the end of 2021. The strong winds resulted in the roof being removed and the full structure being demolished on safety grounds.  This was not covered by insurance and we had to spend nearly £12,000 on demolition.  , 

Places and Spaces fund.

We have applied again to Sport England for additional funding;  this time under the Places and Spaces fund.  In particular we would wish to link to the legacy of the Commonwealth Games 2022 to get more people active, bring them together and connect with each other more.

Our proposed development is inspired by the legacy being left by the Commonwealth Games  As a club at the heart of our community, we believe in providing quality opportunities for people from all walks of life to engage in sports and physical activity. 

We believe this closely aligns with the ethos of the Commonwealth Games and we feel as if we can be a part of this to support the games and its legacy

How we’ll spend the money raised

Every penny raised will be used to improve our facilities to benefit our local community, get more people active & healthy and create a meaningful legacy from the Commonwealth Games.

Specifically we will firstly  improve our changing room facilities radically to bring them up to date and fit for purpose.  We will name the changing rooms to reflect where the inspiration has come from e.g. the Commonwealth Change Room, the Legacy Changing room etc  Secondly we will further update our social facilities to make them more attractive and welcoming to the local community.  

• we estimate the cost of the changing room improvements to be around £300,000
• We also expect to spend another £50,000 improving our clubhouse. This will be from the following list based on need and our prevailing financial circumstances 
  • New roof £35,000
  • Improvements to bar toilets - £10,000
  • Rewiring £18,000
  • New Heating system £10,600

How you can play your part

There are three 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!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made