Publicly owned operators go the full 90 for community football clubs
From the Premier League to grassroots football, the whistle has blown for the start of the season, with thousands of supporters, players and their families using rail to cross the country in support of their team.
Publicly owned operators are supporting local football clubs in the communities they serve, to help supporters get to the game and young people to get involved with the beautiful game.
This week, Northern announced a 25% discount for fans of Scarborough Athletic Football Club, who, due to essential repairs on their home ground have had to move their home matches 17 miles down the coast to Bridlington for the full season.
This means the club will miss out on match-day income and expect attendances to be impacted. The National League North club approached local train and bus companies to see if discounts could be offered to ensure more fans would be able to travel to the match.
Kerry Peters, regional director for Northern in Yorkshire, said: “We know just how important this football club is to the local community so when they approached us and explained the situation, we were happy to help.”
Alongside Northern’s newly announced supporter discount, LNER have a sports group that meet every month to discuss sporting fixtures and whether there is scope to add extra services for fans. Most recently on 26 July, with Sunderland and Middlesborough both playing friendly games in Scotland, an extra Edinburgh – Newcastle – Durham – Darlington service was added to get fans home.
The operator regularly runs extra Newcastle to Darlington via Durham services after night games at Newcastle United and uses creative train planning to run extra services when fans of northern teams make the trip down to Wembley for cup finals.
LNER’s connection to Wembley goes back more than 100 years. Today, the train operator provides funding for LNER FC, a grassroots football club based in Wembley, North-West London. The club are based at the LNER Sports and Social Club, which was founded back in 1923 alongside the inception of LNER. The club provides a social hub for local children and the wider community and currently has more than one hundred young players in its youth teams, from U7s to U13s.
Southeastern are another operator committed to getting more young people active through football, and by working in partnership with Sports Connect are delivering a programme of free sports sessions across Kent, with the added aim of deterring anti-social behaviour and trespassing.
Meanwhile, thanks to another new partnership with Southeastern, non-league club Dartford FC have a permanent presence at Dartford station, with posters and boards signposting the club and upcoming matches in a bid to increase attendance.
South Western Railway are an official partner of Non-League Day, which was set up in 2010 by James Doe, an SWR Guard and has gone on to become a national success story. The day and campaign encourage football fans across the nation to attend their local non-League fixtures to support grassroots and community football clubs. SWR proudly promote the matches on their network and how to get there, which last year totalled 51 different fixtures across one weekend.
c2c, the latest operator to enter public ownerships supports communities in Southend through their partnership with the local club, Southend United. Last season, they hosted over 350 supporters from local schools, community groups and charities including Southend YMCA, Mind and Samaritans at Southend home fixtures. Through the partnership they have raised more than £17,000 for local mental health charities. The partnership also provides the opportunity to promote c2c’s ‘Kids for £2’ travel discount and advance travel tickets to both Southend and visiting fans, with promotional boards installed at Southend Central station and within the club’s stadium, Roots Hall.