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EcoSport Innovations

I get clients contacting me on their quest for building or resurfacing their synthetic pitch and very frequently they’ve been frightened off immediately by blanket statements from contractors they’ve already approached saying £1M+, far beyond the budget of most. I’ll be brutally honest here and explain why this is often the case…

Their first port of call will usually be the local FA or Football Foundation, who will point them in the direction of the six framework partners. Knowing where the lead has come from these will give a representative price of what a Football Foundation pitch tends to cost all said and done. Reality is Football Foundation funded projects can be very expensive as there is an insistence on developing facilities with every conceivable ‘bell and whistle’, not all of which are totally necessary when considering the primary use of the facility. If however if you are not getting funding, the equation can be very different.

Large green field at the Grasshopper RFC with rugby goal line and Sky Sports banners.
Large green field at the Grasshopper RFC with rugby goal line and Sky Sports banners.

Recently I was approached by a club on the south coast who had been down this road, but when we looked at the project and took the time to focus on what the club actually wanted. Rather than copy and paste, we broke the project down and discovered the build would be closer to £650K, plus our fees, much less than the £1M quoted by one of the big 6 and suddenly a much more realistic proposal for the club.

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How much is our 3G pitch going to cost?

This isn’t an isolated incident, a client we’re currently pushing through planning had a budget given by the Football Foundation and one of their six partners again for £1M. We looked at exactly what needed doing, no fencing, no floodlights, no footpath, just a rectangular box, drainage, stone, kerbs, macadam, shock-pad and synthetic turf, price tag jus over £0.5M plus our fees…suddenly the project gets very real for them.

Many clients are frightened off before they begin to get off the ground, misinformation is a minefield to navigate through when you are led to believe you are talking to an authority on the matter. 

We offer a free consultation for your facility, where we will discuss your needs and budget in an attempt to make the two meet in the middle. All of our budget costings are based upon accurate and current rates on other projects we’re working on so you will not get caught out at the project delivery stage.

Many websites will give you generic estimates, we avoid a one size fits all approach as each project will be very different. Our strength is in our innovation, and in order to innovate we need to touch and feel the project, not simply email you a generic budget costing…

 

Needing advice on a project?

Whether you manage a Premier League training ground or a community club, the principle is the same: the right surface, independently specified.

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