The cost of building a new facility is of course one of the most imprtant factors that influence when and even if, you proceed with it. We would all choose to have a functional and good looking diamond, if cost was not an option, but of course that is not the case. Funding such a construction is of prime importannce, and there are many avenues that can be taken to acheieve this. But even before that starts, there is a requirement to answer the “How Much?” question.
You will probably hear many different numbers passed on by other clubs/organisations, but of course each development is specific to that scenario. So they can only be a guide at best. Obviously all costs stated here, are for our particular need, and are the costs early-mid 2022, which is when most of the funds were spent. It is necessary to produce an estimate so that you have at least a ballpark idea of what you are looking at. But even this estimate can be some way out. We had the spiralling costs resulting from the Covid Lockdown, which meant quotes from 2019, were often 30 less than they were in 2022 (and don’t even mention lead times on delivery). But you will also find you just miss some things out altogether, simply because most of us lack knowledge and/or experience in this construction (Although that is what this whole article is trying to help others avoid).
Costs
It’s probably easiest to list all the items we had to pay for and approx what they cost us in 2022. This not only provides a list of what you may wish to take into account, but a ballpark figure (pun intended), as to how much you may need to raise
Fencework – £17,500
Baseball Mix (35 ton) – £4,000
Clay Bricks (400) – £550
Foundation MOT1 (18 ton) – £1,050
Hire Eqpt (differ, tipper, compactors) – £700
Disposal Grab/Skip hires – £550
Hose + Cart (100m) – £190
Bases/Pitching Rubber – £500
Outfield fence – £100
Line Marker/Paint – £350
Home Plate Tarp – £450
Mound Tarp – £250
Other tools – £200
Signage – £350
Racking for storage – £200
We also incurred costs for removal of an artificial cricket wicket and re-seeding it, putting down weedkiller on the old cricket sqaure and fertiziling all of it, which added another £170, plus £540 for 10 tonnes of topsoil (although to be fair it is now much better quality than the rest of the school field!!)
Funding
Fortunately the school we were working with, had a very good business development manager, who was keen to get us on board, and help to start deriving revenue from the multiple assets that the school had, and that typcially schools (being academic bodies and not business focused), don’t typcially take advanatage of. Not only was he supportive of the whole venture, and helped get the school onside with any obstacles, he was also experienced in funding applications. As such we were able to obtain a Sport England grant for £12,500, which was half the original estimate, and which we had to match in equal amounts to receive all of it i.e. if the whole cost was only £20k, then we would only have recieved £10k from Sport England. In the end we were £5k over budget, as we ended up spending just shy of £30,000 for the whole project
So that provided a fair amount of the income, but the club itself had to provide most of the rest, although additional funding from BSUK facilties fund (£3,000), was very timely, as were some donations from external organisations, and also the work the club carried out raising funds by means of coaching / softball evenings / internal fundraising etc. We were also in the fotunate position, that having lost a ground a few years back, we had save almost a years costs which we had saved with the intention of one day using it for developing a new ground. But it also makes sense to set annual fees to a level that is just a bit more than budget, so that you can gradually increase the amount in the bank
