We recently announced our future vision for Hebburn Sports Ground at the Club’s annual weekend presentation event. If you weren’t one of the 3,000 people who attended over the course of the weekend, we are pleased to share that information here.

Pitches

The Club are planning to replace both the Main grass pitch, and the Second training grass pitch with new state-of-the-art 4g pitches, leading to fewer postponements for our senior teams, but more importantly opening the facility to enable football of all formats to be played in all weathers and at any time of day. This will allow the Club to not only extend our community football sessions, but also allow other groups alongside our 93 teams to access the facility and host their own sessions and fixtures.

New South Stand

Alongside the new state-of-the-art pitches, we also plan to build a new South Stand. Sited in-between both pitches – roughly where the current media tower is situated this stand will contain state of the art operational facilities to become ancillary services to include new changing rooms, all designed to modern specifications, office facilities for club staff, a gym, a club shop and on the first floor, flexible function room area that on a match day will serve as a hospitality suite with dedicated seating, and through the week will become the home of our best in class academy as the space is transformed into classrooms for the education provision for 16-19 year old ages.

New Community Building

As we are incorporating changing facilities into our new South Stand, this will allow us to redevelop our out-dated changing facilities into a community hub. Another flexible space to host meetings and other events, but also a much-needed space for parents and members of our junior club to purchase snacks and drinks, as well as providing some shelter for parents and guardians in times of adverse weather. As a flexible space, this can be split down again in to smaller meeting rooms which will be open to other local community groups, or the space could be used for small court indoor games such as badminton or sessions like Pilates, Yoga, Karate, Toddler groups – as well as offering further sporting opportunities in the area.

The Sportsy

Also at the forefront of any plans is an extension to the Sportsy Bar, extending out below the current balcony area. This increased space will greatly increase match day capacity, incorporate a dedicated stage area for performers, and allow a more spacious and comfortable area for families to come along for a few drinks and some food, whilst watching live sporting events or enjoying a live performance.

Community Value

Hebburn Town Football Club currently has a £3.1 million Positive Social Impact Value in the community of South Tyneside – in layman's terms this means if the club was not here this is the amount of monies the local authority would need to find to be able to cover what we currently do across our Club and over thousand members across 93 teams, focusing on our Junior sessions, Autism and Inclusion Football Sessions, the female football pathway that now sees us being able to offer a direct female pathway from 3 years old right up to senior Women’s football and the other clubs and sessions that operate under the Hebburn Town name. Should these plans come to fruition, our Positive Social Impact Value is expected to double to £6 million per annum to the borough of South Tyneside.

How Can You Help?

None of these plans will be possible without external funding, The club have made representations to the local authority, and a delegation from the club recently visited Parliament and met with representatives from The Department of Housing & Communities, The Department of Culture, Media and Sport as well as really productive and supportive talks with our local MP Kate Osborne.

All meetings so far have proven very positive with some great feedback on our ambitious plans. However, as these plans will provide a positive impact to the whole community, we also want to hear your feedback by completing the following survey as our community involvement is essential to us, just as our club moto shares: ONECLUB,OURCOMMUNITY:

Have Your Say - Hebburn Town FC Community Hub Project

Entries should be submitted by Friday 23rd May to allow us to prepare the funding bid.

We thank everyone in advance for providing feedback.