Time to Reno-vate #NoDrainNoGame

We’ve launched a Crowdfunding campaign to raise £15,000 to renovate the pitch this summer. Here’s why….

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/no-drain-no-game

Aside from our supporters the main pitch at Broadhurst Park is the club’s most valuable asset. It’s the stage on which the men’s and women’s teams entertain us almost every week from August through to May. It’s their place of work. And our home.

Therefore we need it to be pitch perfect to enable the teams to play the expansive, attractive style of football that both Neil Reynolds and Kamran Hussain and their management teams demand from their players and which we, the supporters, crave.

Away from our own teams the main pitch at Broadhurst Park may also be called on to host finals and is a regular venue for filming work that earns the club up to £25,000 per year so maintaining the pitch is crucial – it needs tender loving care to help it withstand the high usage over the winter period when ice and rain do their worst and there’s little sunlight to stimulate growth.

Fortunately we’ve got a fantastic groundsman in Graham Byrne who, along with his staff, has worked wonders over several seasons to provide a playing surface of which we should be rightly proud, but due to financial constraints the pitch has received minimal investment since Broadhurst Park was opened five years ago and this has undoubtedly had an impact on the quality of the playing surface that Graham and Jimmy are able to provide. So this summer we were planning to undertake some much needed pitch maintenance.

Put simply, we need new drains. Problems with drainage, particularly at the St Mary’s Road End, led to the postponement of the Atherton Collieries match in February and Graham reckons that we were “very fortunate” not to lose more than one match to the weather last season. He explained that “the gravel channels that drain water from the pitch readily become silted up over time” and added that “it is imperative that new drains are installed this summer”. It’s very much a case of #NoDrainNoGame.

The benefits are significant:
• It allows the men’s and women’s first teams to play the attractive football we love to watch
• The pitch can support both the men’s team and women’s team playing on the surface, unlike last season when many of the women’s matches had to be moved away from the stadium
• It reduces the number of games lost to waterlogging and frost too. A postponed Saturday afternoon men’s first team match typically costs the club around £8,000 if it ends up being played on a midweek night.
• And it also supports the increased usage of the pitch for revenue generating activities such as the film shoots we mentioned earlier

But how will we pay for this?

Well, in normal circumstances, the cost of pitch maintenance would be paid by the club and we were intending to set aside £30,000 for improvements to the main stadium pitch this summer, however, the fall-out from the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the club hard. We now estimate that we will lose over £220,000 in revenue which is partially offset by much needed – and much appreciated – grants and other support from Manchester City Council and HMRC as well as the fantastic fund-raising efforts of FC United supporters.

But while the club is actively seeking additional financial support from outside of our fanbase we don’t currently have sufficient revenue to fund these vital works and we need to be renovating the pitch now.

So we’ve set up a crowdfunding appeal at crowdfunder.co.uk/no-drain-no-game to help us raise £15,000 to install new drains and ensure that the pitch looks immaculate when we begin playing football again next season. And we’re asking supporters and co-owners and others to pitch in to help the pitch.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/no-drain-no-game
Quite simply: #NoDrainNoGame

As with all crowdfunding campaigns there will be rewards for donors

Full details of all the rewards are available on our crowdfunding page but will include some really special items such as signed shirts and photos, travel on the first team coach to an away match, the once in a life time chance to be FC United’s Assistant Manager at a pre-season match or even hire the Broadhurst Park pitch out for a match. There are some belting rewards up for grabs.

This is a big, big ask. We’ve done it before, of course – in 2014, when Broadhurst Park was still under construction, we raised more than £50,000 in 56 days to kit out the function room. So we know it’s possible.

But we also realise that we’re in the midst of a global health crisis with many of us worried about our own health and the health of loved ones, concerned about our jobs and uncertain as to when and where our next pay packet is coming from. And there are plenty of other organisations out there crying out for financial assistance at this difficult time. There’s more to life than football. Much more.

But this football club is more than a football club. Broadhurst Park has played a crucial role in supporting its local community in Moston and across North Manchester over the last five years and the donation of the ground to be used as a hub to distribute much needed food parcels to some of the most vulnerable people in our community during this health crisis is merely the latest example of that. What we do on the pitch drives the success of the rest of the football club – aside from our supporters the pitch really is our most valuable asset – and it’s vital that we look after it.

So, please, if you can spare £10 or £50 or £500 or possibly more to pitch in to help the pitch (and get your hands on one of the many rewards up for grabs) then we really would be very grateful. And if you know someone else who isn’t an FC United supporter who might be interested in supporting this campaign then please direct them to our crowdfunding page at

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/no-drain-no-game

Thank you very much for your continued and fantastic support.

#NoDrainNoGame