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BBC News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Scarborough Athletic new pitch could cost more than £3m, council says
A new football pitch could cost more than £3m after serious structural problems were discovered at the ground, a council boss has said. Scarborough Athletic's artificial 3G pitch was due to be replaced after the final home game of the season on 21 April, in time for the start of the new season in a site survey revealed the pitch at the North Yorkshire Council-owned Scarborough Sports Village had major problems with its foundations and drainage chief executive Richard Flinton said the original £300,000 resurfacing project could now cost more than £3m. Scarborough Athletic was also informed the pitch would not be ready in time for the start of the season and would take a "substantial amount of time" to fix. The council said it was working with the club and wanted it to be in the "driving seat" to find a short-term solution. Flinton said: "The pitch is only in the region of eight years old, so it should have a much longer lifespan. "We are having negotiations and discussions with the developer involved in putting the foundation of the pitch down. "We're working hard with our own experts to work out what's gone wrong here with the drainage."He said there were many options on the table but they had to be realistic about the timeframe and look for solutions in the meantime. "If it involves the substantial relaying of foundations, reinstituting all of the drainage system again, relaying the pitch on top of all that work, then you are looking at a very substantial period of time," he said."That is a massive project and that's why you're talking sums of money in excess of £3m to achieve that." 'Fans worried' Alison Hume, MP for Scarborough and Whitby, attended a Scarborough Athletic home game on Monday, alongside more than 2,000 fans."What was really striking to me was that this is more than just a football club," she said."It's 100% fan-owned, people volunteer many hours in many different roles to keep it ticking over. "It brings people together, so of course people are worried and fans were pulling me aside to ask what was going to happen."Hume said a meeting would be held this week to look for a solution but authorities were still learning about the complexities of the project."We need a plan of action, so that worried fans know what's going to be happening in the season to come," she added."We are finding the best plan to minimise the impact on the club and the fans. We all want to see Scarborough Athletic playing at their ground on a brilliant pitch." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Scarborough Athletic 'in limbo' over new pitch delay
A football club which was due to have its pitch replaced before the start of the new season in August has been told it will not now be ready in Athletic's current artificial 3G pitch at the North Yorkshire Council-owned Scarborough Sports Village was supposed to be replaced after the final home game of the season on 21 the club said it had been told by the council that a site survey had revealed "serious structural issues", including problems with the drainage Trevor Bull said the club had been left "in limbo" and it remained unclear where Scarborough's home games would be played next season. "At this moment in time, we don't know what we're going to do at the start of next season because this is new to us. We're not ruling anything out," he told the a statement, the club said it had "informed the National League of this situation and are engaging with them appropriately alongside other key partners". Jo Ireland, North Yorkshire Council's assistant director for culture, leisure and libraries, said: "A site survey has identified serious structural issues including a defective drainage system installed when the facility was first constructed."The works required before the pitch can be resurfaced are therefore considerably more extensive and complex."The opening day of the 2025-26 National League North season has yet to be announced, but the regular season usually begins in the second week of club said that in the meantime it remained unclear when the pitch at Scarborough Sports Village would be ready for Athletic was formed in 2007 and the club spent its first 10 seasons groundsharing with Bridlington Town before moving to its own home in Scarborough manager Jonathan Greening said any suggestion of a potential groundshare would be "the last option". Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
