Durham Women eye 'unique' elite sports centre

Durham Women were shortlisted for a major national award last month and narrowly lost to former WSL champions Manchester City.

And after the recognition at the Women’s Professional Games Awards held in London last month, club officials are currently planning to create a new stadium and elite sports complex in County Durham, which will further enhance fans’ and players’ experiences – and compete with the game’s leading clubs.

Big-spending Manchester City hold their matches at The Joie Stadium, on the vast UAE-backed Etihad complex in east Manchester, and last season hosted European champions Barcelona, marking a record 5508 attendance for their Champions League clash.

By contrast, Durham Women have been based at Durham University’s Maiden Castle grounds for the last three seasons and attract an average of 1200 for their home matches – mainly young supporters and players from the vast number of clubs across the city and county of Durham.

The Women’s Super League 2 club, who finished fourth last season to maintain their place as the highest ranked of the North East women’s clubs, are one of only two independent teams left in the women’s game that are not affiliated to a professional men’s team.

And now, Durham Women have set out plans to move their operations next door to Durham Cricket’s Banks Homes Riverside stadium and build their own all-encompassing sports complex. 

In March, Durham Women and Durham Cricket announced plans, with support from Durham County Council, to create a women’s football ground and a high-performance sports and rehabilitation centre, which will attract male and female players from elite and grassroots clubs in a number of sports and offer leisure and training facilities to the public.

The plan is to make the place a training and match-day centre for Durham Women Football Club players and supporters, as well as a base for the newly-formed Durham Cricket Tier 1 women’s team, which started performing in the ECB’s professional league for the first time this summer.

There are also proposals to create a 150-room hotel on the wider site, which will create more opportunities for residential sports events, as well as benefiting the region’s economy.

The plans and the funding for the new elite sports centre are starting to take shape, says Durham Women FC director Lee Sanders.

He told Bdaily: “It's not going to be a traditional football ground, because anybody can do that. 

“We’ve got an opportunity to do something absolutely unique and offer something completely different where people say, ‘that’s my space, that's where I feel safe and comfortable, and where I can be me and watch a game of football’. 

“We're trying to think outside the box. 

“If you look at the next generation of fans, who perhaps don’t traditionally come and sit in their seat and just watch every second of the game, it's regarded as a social space for them. 

“The business planning is going on now and we have a fair idea of what it's going to look like – with the pitch, the stands, the high-performance centre, the 3G training pitch, connection to the indoor nets, car parks, outside broadcast area, everything.

“And then we’re looking at the potential additional revenue streams, which could be anything from padel, softplay, indoor golf, bowling; we’re looking at all sorts of diversification.

“It also has to be a high-performance environment so we can attract men’s and women’s teams when they are playing in the North East – and one of the events we’re looking at is the World Cup Finals if they’re held here in 2035, and we can expect Newcastle and Sunderland to bid to host matches. This could be the perfect place for nations to stay and train.

“Ultimately, it'll be a football ground, and may look traditional from the outside, but we've also got an opportunity to design the inside differently and make the experiences really different.” 

Since the announcement of new investment into the club in February, Durham have been seeking and talking to new investors – and Lee believes there has never been a better time to support the women’s game and support one of the last remaining independent teams.

And it comes as the WSL plans to expand the league and offer more opportunities to the North East’s big three – Newcastle United, Sunderland and Durham.

Lee adds: “We want local companies to tender for everything, we want to use North East firms to develop and build this and for local brands to get involved in the food and beverage venue so that encourages local produce.

“This is the biggest growth sport in the UK, and if you look at trends in men's football, where the investment's coming from, it's not surprising that those same sort of companies see there is real growth in women's football. 

“For local brands, this is a huge opportunity to get involved while things aren't as expensive as they will be further down the line. 

“It’s going to create jobs in the area, bring new leisure facilities to an area that actually has a distinct lack of them, and we could be looking at £40 to £50 million pound worth of investment in one project.

“We've got some really big, high-level decisions to make over the coming months, but it's not just about buying shares and investment in the business, it’s about investment in the area. It's about investing into the club and the ethos and what our values are. 

“Strategically, it will not just be an investment in this project, but an investment in the club, to get us promoted into the Super League, to have the best female players in the world coming to County Durham.

“We're open to conversations with anybody and everybody.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →