Landmark Great Yarmouth sports ground receives £1m funding
Landmark Great Yarmouth sports ground receives £1m funding: A Great Yarmouth historic location that has served as the host venue for many of the city’s most important sporting events will soon receive an investment of almost one million pounds.
The Football Foundation, the Premier League, and the Great Yarmouth Borough Council are contributing £972,078 to the Wellesley Recreation Ground in order to improve the grassroots facilities there. The Wellesley Recreation Ground is home to what is thought to be the oldest football stand that is still in use in Britain.
Yarmouth
The Great Yarmouth Football Club, which calls this location its “home ground,” is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary, and this news comes at the same time.
The Wellesley is also utilized by the Great Yarmouth Athletics Club and the larger community. For instance, Wellesley hosted the Football Against Dementia match that took place a year ago, which pitted retired players from Norwich City against employees from the NHS.
The arena has also been utilized in the past as the setting for celebrity summer athletic appearances, such as a cricket match with national comedy stars Morecambe and Wise. In the past, the ground has been used both indoors and outdoors.
With this financing, a floodlit 9v9 3G artificial grass football pitch will be constructed, as well as rehabilitation works to the Grade II listed tennis pavilion structure, which will put the facility back into use by providing changing and meeting facilities to complement the new pitch.
The construction is scheduled to get underway in September, and it is projected that it will be completed at the beginning of 2023.
Statements
“This is another fantastic milestone in our plan to improve the leisure and sports facilities at the Wellesley for our residents, community groups, and visitors,” said Emma Flaxman-Taylor, chair of the housing and neighborhood committee of the borough council. “Our plan is to improve the leisure and sports facilities at the Wellesley for our residents, community groups, and visitors.”
The Football Foundation’s chief executive, Robert Sullivan, made the following statement: “The announcement that Wellesley Recreation Ground will receive funding to create a new 3G field and make modifications to the changing pavilion is fantastic news for the community in the surrounding area.
“It will assist people’s capacity to play our national game locally and, as a result, help unlock the numerous benefits that football has to offer in terms of both physical and mental welfare. Because of this, we are dedicated to changing the appearance of football facilities at the grassroots level across this country.
“The Football Foundation is working closely with our partners, the Premier League, The FA, government, and Sport England, to support facility development projects like this across the country over the next decade to transform our grassroots game and unlock the power of pitches,” the Football Foundation said in a statement. “The Football Foundation is working to unlock the potential of pitches.”