In these difficult times, you may think the chance of getting funding for your sports projects would be less than zero. That’s not the case though. In fact, some of sports leading bodies and governments around the world are actually making more money available to help clubs and organisations be ready for when we all return to ‘normal’.
Some funds are being earmarked to help facilities futureproof themselves against other possible pandemics with things like improved hygiene and signage measures.
Other funds, grants, and awards – especially those that have been in existence for some years – are being given to venues for capital projects. This includes projects such as floodlighting, so clubs can come out of these times ‘fitter and healthier’ than before.
In this short article, I’m going to focus on the types of funding available to help improve football floodlighting. I’ll be looking at UK’s Football Association (FA) and Football Stadium Improvement Fund (FSIF) grants in particular.
Firstly, one of the main points I want to get across is you don’t have to face the arduous task of sourcing funding yourself. We’re experts at doing it and are here to help. We’ve done it for lots of our clients around the world. We can do it for you too.
So, what funding do the FA and the FSIF offer?
The FA, along with its funding partners the Premier League and Sport England, has invested substantial sums into football through the Football Foundation. A charity dedicated to improving the facilities infrastructure across grassroots football, it’s delivered over £780m of facility improvements across 1,600 projects over the last 20 years.
The FSIF on the other hand awards capital grants to clubs from the Football League down to the lower levels of the National League system. FSIF grants provide assistance towards a wide range of stadium projects including the construction of stands, installation of floodlights, turnstiles or even relocating to an entirely new ground.
Other types of funding are available. For example, if your project as a whole – including your lighting upgrade or new build – can be shown to have a significant positive impact on your community, local and national government grants can be awarded. The secret, or rather skill, is knowing where and where not to apply.
Another way some clubs have raised money for their projects is crowdsourcing. Whilst you may not be able to fund your whole improvement schemes this way, some bodies look very favourably on applications that have local community input and matched contributions.
Obviously, FA and FSIF grants are only available for football clubs to apply for. Similar schemes are available for other sports from organisations like the Lawn Tennis Association, the Rugby Football Union, and from Sports England as a whole. Local and national government grants can apply to almost any sport too as long as there’s a compelling reason for them being awarded.
Once you’ve decided what grants you’ll be applying for comes the task of making the application itself. As you’d expect, you can’t just go to a funding body and ask for money. You need to put together a solid business case to show why your project should be given an award. The easiest way of going about this is to talk to us.
Our Design and Engineering teams will carry out an assessment of your current lighting – if you have any. They’ll produce a free lighting design that will achieve your objectives. Together with this, we’ll help complete your whole application to include, where needed:
- Payback times.
- Local environmental impact information.
- Help to identify which planning applications you’ll need to gain.
- Case studies that can help your business case.
- Details of how our 10-Year Sports Lighting Warranty will protect their investment for years to come.
- We can also give you information about how you can part-fund your project with our financing plans.
- Plus more…
Or you could choose to do it all yourself.
Find out how we’ve helped other clubs get funding.
Finally, why should you even consider LED floodlighting for your venue?
Upgrading your club’s lighting to a Midstream LED solution doesn’t just give you much better lighting. It’s been proven, time and time again, to improve performance on the pitch too. That’s not all.
- LED floodlighting can save you upwards of 70% on your energy bills.
- Our products are UK manufactured for the best quality – saving you money on maintenance costs and downtime as well.
- We even offer a 10-Year Warranty to cover your club against the unlikely event of something going wrong.
- You’ll be guaranteed world-class lighting for years to come. How? Our LED football floodlighting designs and solutions always factor in the need for any changes that may occur – such as being promoted to a new league with extra lighting regulations. So there’s never a need to ‘scrap’ everything and start all over. Our lighting solutions will also help make sure you comply with any governing body’s regulations.
- With virtually zero light spill, you’ll be doing your bit for your environment and neighbours as well.
- The list goes on.
Interested? Get in touch today and we’ll kick things off with a no-obligation chat.
