Rugby League RFL Facilities Strategy

2009 – 2013

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Contents Introduction and Update ...... 3 Community Club Development Programme ...... 3 Strategy Focus ...... 5 Introduction to ...... 6 Governance ...... 6 Geographical Spread and growth ...... 7 RFL Vision ...... 9 Rugby League Facilities Background ...... 10 Basic requirements for the playing and training of Rugby League ...... 12 Rugby League Facilities – meeting the need ...... 13 Strategic Partnerships ...... 14 Facility Project Development ...... 15 Phase 1 Facility Baseline Targets...... 17

FIGURE 1 GOLBORNE PARKSIDE ...... 3 FIGURE 2 SIDDAL ...... 3 FIGURE 3 OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY AT ST CUTHBERT’S AND INSIDE THE TRAINING BARN AT INCE ROSE BRIDGE ...... 4 FIGURE 4 RUGBY LEAGUE MAP OF UK ...... 8 FIGURE 6 MINIMUM STANDARDS ...... 12

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Introduction and Update

The RFL’s Facilities Strategy was published in 2003 and provided a 10 year plan for the development of facilities within Rugby League. The key aims of the strategy remain the same and focus on:

• The provision of training facilities which meet the training, competition and development needs of each locality • The provision of adequate multi‐team playing and operational venues for all community clubs • The provision of suitable facilities for Coach Education and Match Official development • The provision of suitable facilities for performance and elite player development

Community Club Development Programme The Community Club Development Programme, which commenced in 2003, provided funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport through Sport for the development of community club facilities. The funding has been used by the RFL to support over 20 club facility development projects, providing almost £3million in grants and attracting over £8million in match funding. The projects funded have included the development of new clubhouses, pitch remediation, floodlights, clubhouse redevelopments and new changing blocks.

Figure 1 Golborne Parkside

Figure 2 Siddal

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Figure 3 Official Opening Ceremony at St Cuthbert’s and inside the Training Barn at Ince Rose Bridge

The Community Club Development Programme has brought great benefits to the game, however inadequate facilities are still one of the key issues facing Rugby League at all levels and we need to build on the progress made so far.

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Strategy Focus

In order to achieve the objectives of the RFL’s Whole Sport Plan the focus of the Facilities Strategy for 2009 to 2013 will be to:

• Establish effective and long‐term Strategic Partnerships at national, regional and local levels to ensure the sustainable development of facilities to support Rugby League • Identify and prioritise local investment needs in order to enhance and support existing local facility provision in order to: o Increase regular participation with focus on under‐represented groups, the college and university sector and under‐developed regions o Reduce drop‐off in participation by increasing satisfaction and rates of retention among players of Rugby League o Provide fit‐for‐purpose facilities to meet playing and training needs at all levels of the game • Define local needs by the development of: o Facility mapping which will clearly demonstrate where resources are inadequate to meet the needs of the game, and additionally show areas of development opportunity. o Facility audits which identify where there is greatest facility development need and the additional resources required to meet the needs of the game • Provide support to clubs and other providers in making the case for facility development in Rugby League • Provide a framework for the effective and efficient distribution of the capital element of the funding made available directly to Rugby League, and other grant‐aid funding streams

The principal outcomes of the above will be:

• A strategy focussed on clear development need which optimises strategic partnerships and development opportunities • A Strategy which clearly identifies the funding and resource requirements necessary to meet the overall facility needs of the game.

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Introduction to Rugby League

Rugby League is an exhilarating, high‐speed, collision sport which people of all levels of ability across a wide variety of sectors can enjoy. In particular, it offers children and their parents a safe, effective and child‐ friendly alternative to other team sports, where discipline and respect for the referee’s authority remain absolute. It has the power to embrace social and economic diversity, and its clubs provide the sporting and social nucleus of many communities. Rugby League is also the UK’s most popular summer team spectator sport.

In a changing world, with increasing pressure on time and a proliferation of leisure opportunities, the ability of the game to attract, educate and retain players, coaches, match officials and volunteers is crucially important and demands the provision of quality facilities.

Governance

The governance systems of Rugby League have been extensively restructured since 2001, in order to prepare the game to face the challenges of a new era. This restructuring culminated in the establishment of the League (RFL) as the single governing body for the game in January 2003. The RFL now has an Executive Chairman , CEO and a largely non‐executive Board of Directors which is independent of club interests, and which is charged with formulating and delivering policy initiatives for and managing the game on behalf of the ultimate decision‐making body, the Rugby League Council.

Within membership of the Rugby League Council are the professional and semi‐professional clubs, The Community Board which comprises of all sections of the game outside of the professional arm of the game, the British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA); the English Schools Rugby League Association; the Student Rugby League, and the Combined Services Rugby League. Each of these last named organisations has its own management structures which, in BARLA’s case, include an extensive network of leagues.

In 1997, the Rugby League National Development Strategy, a joint initiative between the RFL and BARLA, created a new infrastructure based on common ownership and a working partnership, involving all sections of the game. The country was broken down into a network of cellular geographical units called Service Areas, which were defined in part by Local Authority or County Sports Partnership boundaries depending on the strength of the game within the area. Within these units all Rugby League agencies are brought together alongside representation from the local authorities, and charged with the local delivery of initiatives for coach and match official education, the identification of talented junior players, the increase in women’s and girls’ rugby, etc. The Service Areas develop plans to meet the needs of their locality and all Service Area Plans are brought together to form the basis of regional Plans, the boundaries of which equate to Sport England’s Regions.

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Geographical Spread and growth

Rugby League continues to grow and expand at an extremely healthy rate, to the point where it has become one of Great Britain’s leading participation and spectator sports. The game is now played in every county in England as well as Wales and Scotland and throughout Ireland. The sport has seen:

• In the two years since 2006, a 68 per cent growth in participation rates outside of the sport’s traditional heartlands in and the North‐West, through the success of the nationwide Rugby League Conference competition • In the six years since 2002, a fourfold increase in the number of schools participating in the programme, from 88 to 394 – with a concomitant growth in individual participants from 5,168 to 23,570 • In the two years since 2006, a 158 per cent growth in participation rates within Further and Higher education, through internal growth and the advent of the programme • In the period between 2006 and 2007, a 33 per cent growth in the number of match officials active within the game • In the five years since 2003, almost £3 million of Community Club Development Programme funding has been invested in capital projects for Rugby League worth in excess of £15 million

The Engage is the game’s elite professional summer‐based competition and has gone from strength to strength since it kicked off in 1996. In 2008 the average attendance at the completion of the 27 round regular season was 10,338 per game per week (last season's average at the end of the season was 10,264 per game per week). 1,674,809 people attended matches during the regular 2008 season, and the aggregate weekly crowd across six fixtures is in excess of 60,000.

In 2008, 97 teams including clubs from the game’s grassroots, top divisions, Russia and France all competed for a place in the Carnegie Final which was played at Wembley on 30th August. St Helens retained the famous trophy by beating Hull FC. In 2007 the Catalan Dragons’ run to the final enlivened the 2007 tournament and illustrated the growth of the sport in Europe and attracted broadcast coverage in both France and Spain.

In October, the 2007 Engage Super League Grand Final ended a hugely successful domestic season at Old Trafford attracting a crowd of 71,352

Beneath the Engage Super League, the Championship competition makes up the second and third tiers of the “first‐class” domestic club game. The national spread of this semi‐professional level of the sport has never been so great.

The Rugby League Conference is also playing a major role in growing a broad playing base for the sport. Since its formation in 1998, membership of this nationwide competition for Community Clubs in non‐ traditional Rugby League areas of Great Britain has grown from 14 teams to 76. There are 13 leagues including divisions based in Wales, the South East, South West, and Scotland.

Rugby League is also played extensively in primary and secondary schools and is at the forefront of efforts to integrate participation in schools with club‐based structures. The Carnegie Champion Schools tournament is the largest knock‐out Rugby League competition in the world. In the last five years, more than 1,500 schools and 90,000 pupils have taken part.

In Further and Higher Education the numbers of participants is growing year on year throughout the country. The Student Rugby League, for example, has a membership in excess of 66 universities and institutes of higher education, some of which run more than one team and also features women’s teams. 7

31 The competition between Oxford and Cambridge has been covered by Sky Sports since 2005. There are 1,050 players who are currently playing within the Champion Colleges competition, which embraces 48 colleges of further education.

The Super 6 is Rugby League’s Flagship BUCS Division for those university clubs wishing to excel both on and off the pitch. British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the national organisation for Higher Education sport in the UK. The whole concept of the Super 6 is to raise the bar, not only on the pitch, but also in terms of how University clubs are managed. This division is made up of the following Universities:

• University of Birmingham, • University of Hull, • Met Carnegie, • Loughborough University, • Northumbria University, • St Mary’s University College

In the traditional Rugby League areas, the game’s Community Clubs serve as an invaluable source of social welfare and are a highly effective vehicle in addressing issues of social exclusion. Regional Leagues provide the organisational focus for a network of such clubs.

The map shown here demonstrates Rugby League’s spread throughout the British Isles.

Key: Rugby League Conference Students National League 1 National League 2 Superleague Army BARLA areas

Figure 4 Rugby League map of UK

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RFL Vision

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Rugby League Facilities Background

In order to maximise its growth potential and build on its successes to date, Rugby League must meet the increasing demands of those who wish to enjoy it at every level. The provision of facilities which are appropriate to the needs and specification of their users is at the centre of those demands.

Extensive research performed in 2003 in the preparation for the RFL’s 10 year Facility Strategy suggests that, throughout the country, players, officials and administrators who are active in the Service Areas at community level have to cope with, and work around, wholly inadequate facilities. The issue of the adequacy of facilities must be seen in a contemporary context. This is set by a number of parameters, which include the following:

• The majority of Rugby League teams and clubs do not own or have security of tenure in the facilities in which they train and play – in Hull, for example, 30 per cent of the 26 community clubs in the city and district borrow school pitches for at least one of their teams • Rugby League’s community clubs are therefore, to some extent, unable to control directly the quality, specification or development of the facilities which they utilise • Meanwhile, there are a greater number of leisure‐time choices available to young people and adults than ever before • Well organised and sophisticated sports promotion and development strategies are being employed by other, rival sports to attract athletes of all ages and abilities • Central Government policy is being utilised to good effect by other, rival sports to deliver effectively targeted provision linked to appropriate and well‐specified facilities • Because of their experience of rival sports and leisure attractions, people have certain levels of expectation in respect of the standard of playing, training and ancillary facilities they encounter in Rugby League • Any failure to live up to those standards may result in the growth that the game has enjoyed in recent times being arrested and, in the worst case, being sent into reverse

The audits of all Service Areas and Regions also identified a number of key facility issues facing the game across all levels and regions:

• Few clubs have access to all‐weather or drained floodlit pitches. The cost of winter training therefore can be particularly high. The impact of the spring to autumn review could have an impact on the needs of training facilities • Many large clubs have to train and play across different sites • Few clubs have changing facilities of an adequate standard • There is a shortage of quality playing venues for Champion Schools, Service Area, Regional and National Development activities • There is a shortage of quality training facilities that meet the needs of the professional game and elite playing squads

As we have seen above, the quantitative growth and increased geographical spread of Rugby League in all its forms is a priority for the RFL and its development plans for 2009‐2013. In particular, this strategy’s aims and objectives include the following in support of the RFL Business Plan:

• Provide facilities of an appropriate standard and location to allow the game to thrive and develop within an improved local infrastructure • Provide good multi‐team playing venues

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• Provide facilities of an appropriate standard and location to allow the game to thrive and grow in development areas • Provide facilities of an appropriate standard and location to service good‐quality participation at local level • Provide facilities of an appropriate standard and location to meet the needs of the game at all levels of performance and to meet the needs of the player and coach Performance Pathway • Provide facilities of an appropriate standard to meet the needs of under‐represented groups

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Basic requirements for the playing and training of Rugby League

Figure 5 Minimum Standards

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Rugby League Facilities – meeting the need

Drawing together information from the extensive research carried out in 2003, the Service Area audits and Strategies developed in 2008, and the facilities minimum standards as defined in the development pathways the following facilities development priorities have been identified:

• All‐weather floodlit training and match facilities

• Facilities which provide large clubs with a central base for training and matches

• Facility developments working within Strategic Partnerships at local levels with the aim of developing the widest range of facilities to meet multi‐club requirements

• Training/changing facilities for clubs with large junior sections

• Training and match facilities available to the Champion Schools programme

• Training and match facilities which support Rugby League Development Pathways

• Facilities which meet the needs of disabled participants

• Facilities which support development staff throughout the game to increase opportunities for participation

• Quality training facilities for the professional game

• Establishing Training Centres in each Service Area to support the needs of Service Area development programmes, Women & Girls and coach development requirements

• Establishing Regional Training Centres

• Identify Training Centres for Elite Player development

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Strategic Partnerships

The successful implementation of the RFL’s Facility Strategy is dependent on the development of strategic working partnerships with the following key agencies:

• Other National Governing Bodies

• Local Authorities

• Building Schools for the Future/Partnerships for Schools

• Sport England/DCMS

• Local area community sports groups and associations

• Professional sports clubs

• Higher Education/Further Education/colleges/universities

• Local primary and secondary schools/youth organisations

• County Sports Partnerships

• Regional Development Agencies

Multi‐sport multi‐agency partnerships offer access to:

• Greater levels of funding,

• Project development supporting resources

• Technical and facility planning resources

• Organisational and business planning support

• Increased project sustainability

Partnerships with education agencies in particular can offer access to a significantly larger base from which to draw participants into the game. They also offer a greater opportunity for developing a sustainable and successfully managed sports facility. The use of new facilities by the Education Sector, LA Sports Development, community groups, professional clubs and NGB development programmes provide essential revenue streams to support the continued development of the facility.

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Facility Project Development

In order to maximise the facility development opportunities available to Rugby League we will establish plans relevant to local areas. Where appropriate the following actions will be taken:

• Service Area, Regional and National staff will assist clubs in developing partnerships with Local Authorities, Educational establishments, other sports clubs, other NGBs and professional clubs in order to:

o Identify funding opportunities o Identify all potential development sites and opportunities o Assess the viability and long‐term sustainability of development opportunities o Ensure community clubs have access to affordable facilities where LA (or other agency) rental charges apply o Ensure that the ambitions of all Rugby League stakeholders are known to all relevant agencies within the area

• Where relevant an agency‐wide Rugby League Development Plan will be established to support the development of the game throughout a local area in order to identify how each agency will support:

o Club development and sustainability o Facility development and sustainability o Coach and Player development o Volunteer development o The development of a coordinated approach to the delivery of Rugby League

• Service Area, Regional and National staff will directly support clubs in identifying appropriate funding opportunities. Where the required levels of funding will be difficult to achieve support will be provided to prioritise and establish phased stages of facility projects

• Rugby League staff will engage with Building Schools for the Future in all relevant areas, and ensure that project plans support and enhance any other development programmes and take full advantage of the opportunities that BSF offers

• Support will be provided to clubs to identify a professional design and technical team to develop plans and assess costs

• BSF development teams, clubs and all relevant stakeholders will be provided with the Technical and Design Specifications for Rugby League developed in conjunction with Sport England

• Support will be provided to clubs throughout all stages of a Facility Development Project

• Support will provided to community clubs by Service Area staff to develop a club‐specific Rugby League Development Plan which meets the aims of the RFL’s Whole Sport Plan

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• Service Area staff will provide support to clubs in achieving Clubmark and Clubmark Gold status. Where facility projects are to provide facilities for development clubs or are within development areas a longer‐term support plan for Clubmark will be established and regularly monitored

• The RFL will establish a Monitoring and Support Strategy to ensure that funded projects meet the objectives set within the Rugby League Business Plan, and that targeted and tailored support is provided to meet the individual financial and development needs of Community Clubs. This strategy is being developed as part of a wider framework of Community Club support services which aims to bring together local and national agencies to deliver the appropriate skills and resources needed to ensure that Rugby League Community Clubs are thriving and development focussed

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Phase 1 Facility Baseline Targets

In order to meet the most pressing facility development needs of the game the following Baseline Targets have been set:

• Each Service Area to have a nominated Training Centre and Women & Girls Centre which meets the requirements outlined in the Minimum Standards

• Each Service Area to have the appropriate number of Focus Community Clubs based on the overall number of clubs and participants. A Focus Community Club is a Clubmark club with a thriving junior section and facilities which meet the requirements outlined in the minimum standards

• Each professional club to have access to quality Training Centres

• Each Region to have a at least 2 nominated Regional Training Centres which meet the requirements outlined in the Minimum Standards

• 2 National Training Centres to be nominated which meet the requirements outlined in the Minimum Standards

• 1 Performance Training Centre to be identified which meet the requirements outlined in the Minimum Standard

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