LONGTON are gearing up for the new rugby season with the help of wakes, wedding celebrations and even a spot of jazz.
For the region’s premier rugby club is rapidly diversifying to ensure its modern facilities at Trentham Fields become a 24/7 money-earner.
Its two-storey clubhouse caters for both sport and entertainment to help Longton remain self-sustaining after leasing its new home from Stoke-on-Trent City Council seven years ago.
Seven changing rooms mean Longton can host playing and training facilities for not only its own various age groups, but also for Staffordshire rugby teams and even the North Staffs section of Leicester Tigers Rugby Academy.
The upper floor of the clubhouse, meanwhile, is licensed for everything from wakes to wedding receptions, while groups making regular use of facilities include the Anglo-German Society and a Wednesday night jazz club.
Club chairman Phil Myatt says: “These revenues are crucial because without them it would make it much more difficult to break even.
“The business plan was always to maximise the use of our facilities and it is working well.
“To book the clubhouse for a Friday or a Saturday night you would probably need to give us 12-months’ notice, such is the demand, and we could use the pitches more if that didn’t mean their over-use.”
Longton’s outdoor facilities include five rugby pitches, three of which also accommodate eight football teams, while the main pitch is floodlit to broadcasting standards.
Longton Rugby Club is little more than a long pass away from the Britannia Stadium, so its coach and car park has also become a regular money-spinner whenever Stoke play at home. And links between the two clubs have seen Stoke City Ladies play their home games at Longton.
The rugby club will kick off next season in National League Three (Midlands) once again, but there remain ambitions to play a division higher in National Two alongside the likes of Otley, Preston Grasshoppers and Sheffield Tigers.
But promotion comes at a price, of course, as expenses would inevitably multiply.
“At the moment our longest trip would be Scunthorpe,” says Myatt, “but that changes if we got back into National Two.
“If we were in the northern division journeys would be as far north as Newcastle, but if we were put in the south division there would be even more travelling to do, as far south as Cornwall.”
Promotion beyond National Two for the first time in the club’s history would then leave the club leaning not just on its current income streams, but having to attract far more sponsorship to meet even greater expenses and the possible payment of players.
MARTIN SPINKS
Article source: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Rugby-Union-Eccleshall-appoint-Steve-Dolphin-new/story-21291258-detail/story.html
Rugby Union: Longton branch out to finance ambitions
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