Return 2 Runcorn - Runcorn Linnets New Stadium Project

If you want to skip straight to the ways you can help, then visit the Ground Fund page.

The formation of the club in April 2006 was the first step in re-establishing the name of Runcorn Linnets within the town. The original Runcorn Football Club has a history dating back to 1918 and the fans who support our club did not want to allow this history to die. We firmly believe that the town of Runcorn can benefit from the re-birth of the club. From the very first meeting, we had the stated aim of moving back into the town. We established a working party to work towards this end. Over recent months, we have been in discussion with the Board of Governors at Riverside College with a view to leasing a plot of land at the Runcorn Campus. We have had tremendous support and encouragement from them and they have allowed us to move to drawing up a draft lease document.

We have worked closely with one of our main sponsors, GMS, to draw up our planned proposals for the facility. This would consist of a ground of Unibond League standard, together with a Community Centre which would be used as the clubhouse on matchdays. We also wish to integrate 2 all-weather pitches on the site for use by local sporting organisations or groups.

We have already established associated links with a junior football organisation within the town, Beechwood Linnets, and we would wish to further extend this in due course. We have held discussions with a Ladies football team, with a view to them becoming more closely identified with the club and offering them use of the new facilities. Our longer term aims would include working with the PFA to set up coaching schemes within the schools and local community.

We feel that we have already brought benefits to the local economy. We hold all our regular board and fundraising meetings in local public houses. We have much of our printing done by a local firm. We have set up a travel club using a local mini bus company. Local businesses have already offered excellent support, both with programme advertising and sponsorship at our home matches. We achieved the highest level of support in our league last season and that support has continued this year, being some 25% higher than the next best team and almost twice the average for the league. All this despite playing our home matches some 12 miles out of town. The potential is great, as Runcorn is a natural football community.

We continue to receive good support from our local Members of Parliament and we were honoured when the Duke of Westminster accepted our offer to be the club’s patron during the course of last season.

We would hope that our proposed facilities could help offer much needed regeneration within the town. The college authorities know that they will have access to them for prestige fixtures and we would be delighted if local cup finals could be scheduled for the ground. We want to firmly establish the club at the centre of the community within Runcorn and bring the town success. We have already started this with our first promotion last year and we hope this will just be the start. Our club is unique and we hope you will help us thrive and prosper.

Our aims

• To preserve 90 years of top-class non-league football in runcorn
• To provide a football ground to UniBond Premier Division standard
• To provide multi sport all-weather facilities for use by local sports enthusiasts
• To provide a social and sporting facility to benefit the local area
• To work within the community with established junior and ladies football organisations
• To establish coaching within the community

The proposed location of the new facility

The location of the proposed new ground is ideal, with excellent road and rail links and right at the heart of the local community. The proposed lease deal with the college will allow for College use of the facilities. We have established links with local junior football and ladies football within the town and the all weather facilities will allow multi sport use. The ground plans are available for download as a PDF file. Simply click the image below. How you can help To enable us to realise our ambitions, we will need to raise a minimum of £250,000, to enable us to apply for Football Association funding to complete the project. If you or your organisation feels able to support us, please do not hesitate to contact us for further information, or visit our Ground Fund page to get further information. Alternatively, contact either Hedley Edwards (Tel: 01928 575529) or Stuart White (Tel: 01925 602505), who will be delighted to answer your questions. If you wish to make a donation, then you can make a transfer directly into the Ground Fund Account using the sort code 30-99-14 and account number 07840359, visit any Lloyds TSB branch, or you can make a donation online via the Ground Fund page. The first version of the handout with details about the plans, and ways that people can get involved is available for download by clicking here.