FC United of Manchester FC United of Manchester FC United of Manchester Badge FC United of Manchester Pitch In

Broadhurst Park update, October 2014

Welcome to the October blog update.

It’s been another very busy month as we get closer to the opening for the new ground at Broadhurst Park.

The preliminary work for the erection of the St Mary’s Road end stand is now underway. Some of the steel has been delivered and the rest of the steel will be arriving on site in the coming week. That will mean that work on the erection of the steel superstructure will begin in earnest. The usual construction method for a stand would be to erect from the pitch side. That option is not open to us because the pitch is already in situ and we don’t want to damage it. We’ll be constructing our stand from the north side (park side) bay by bay through to the south side to meet the main stand at the south-east corner of the ground. As each bay is completed it will be ’loaded’ with the precast terracing units. It is our plan that once the steel erectors have reached the half-way point, the roofers, cladders, brick layers and other trades can begin at the north side and follow them out.

On completion of the superstructure we will be installing a corner section which will connect with the main stand roof. The resulting terrace will be over 20 steps high, giving a standing capacity on that St Mary’s Road terrace of 2,000-plus. The space under this new stand presents an opportunity for future development that could include space for match day bar and hospitality, community activities, toilets and other facilities yet to be determined.

In last month’s blog we had expressed the hope that this work would have commenced before the end of September. Unfortunately transport and other logistical challenges conspired against us to prevent this. We have however used that time to advance other elements of the build including ground works and tarmacking to the car park area at the St Mary’s Road end. In the main building the majority of the windows and doors are now installed along with most of the ceilings and the plaster work is being brought through.

We have experienced some difficulty with finalising agreements with our utility suppliers. This is threatening a delay to the ’commissioning’ of the building. We hope to have these particular difficulties resolved this week. All the substructure work for the artificial pitch is now in place. The playing carpet has arrived, the acoustic fence is under construction and this element of the construction is currently on track to be completed, weather permitting, by the end of November.

Our Diggers group have continued their fantastic efforts in Broadhurst Clough. The pond area is now really starting to take shape, creating an efficient drainage system and an enhanced wildlife habitat. There is more work to do and you can help out with this work by volunteering your services by emailing the Diggers at diggers@fc-utd.co.uk

As we get closer to the ground opening we’ll be advertising for catering and bar staff and also grounds maintenance staff. We have already applied for our alcohol licence. We’ve also been amassing furniture and equipment from auctions and clearance sales for the fit out of the main building. The race is now on to complete all the outstanding work to allow us to take occupation of the ground before Christmas.

Moving to the new ground will open up a range of opportunities to improve the way we do things. Our medical staff have been assessing methods at professional clubs to aid player physical recovery. Being a part-time club with no facilities makes it very difficult for the medical staff to implement such programmes. The new treatment room at the ground will be used to not only help improve the recovery of injured players but through the application of nutrition, strength and conditioning programmes we will be able to take preventative measures and give the best possible support and advice to all our players whether at first team, reserve, youth or women’s team level. It is our intention to open up these opportunities to our supporters as well as to the wider sporting community.

Away from the new ground build, the club proudly announced our accreditation as a Living Wage employer. This is something we have been planning for some time and was unanimously endorsed at the recent members’ meeting. We are the first football club in the UK to be accredited and we hope that others in the game follow our lead.

The recent announcement by Labour that they are to legislate to ensure supporter representation on football club boards is to be welcomed. FC United were represented during the consultation process along with our representative bodies Supporters Direct and the Football Supporters Federation. During that consultation process we made it clear that football fans have been let down by the unfulfilled promises of previous years. Football fans are fed up of being patronised in party manifestos during the run up to general elections and what is needed now is a concrete commitment for action.

We’ll have another update in November, when we expect to be even closer to our moving in date for the new ground.



First Posted ~ 17:57 Sun 19 Oct 2014
News ID ~ 5779
Last Updated ~ 21:49 Thu 18 Feb 2021