It’s a Parklife!

The Parklife venture, delivered by the Football Foundation and funded by the Football Association, The Premier League and Sport England, has been a huge success.

McArdle Sport Tec and partners TigerTurf have been involved in numerous Football Foundation ‘Premier League and FA Facilities Fund’ projects, for example, Falmouth School, Dorothy Hyman and Ilkley Town, but we are immensely proud to have built 10 out of 20 existing ‘Parklife Sports Hubs’ football pitches to date.

The ‘Parklife Programme’ is a five year, £200-million pound investment which was introduced in 2016 by the Football Association, The Premier League and Sport England, and is delivered by the Football Foundation.

Our completed Parklife Projects:

McArdle and partners TigerTurf were selected for the first Parklife project in Sheffield, installing two new artificial football pitches at Thorncliffe Recreation Ground in 2016.

Since 2016, we built a further Parklife project in 2017 for Ealing Council which involved two full-size artificial football pitches at Rectory Park.

In 2018, two further Parklife hubs in Liverpool, built by McArdle Sport Tec and partners TigerTurf, were officially opened:

Jericho Lane Playing Fields consisting of two full size artificial pitches and one full size WR Reg 22 artificial rugby pitch completed in November 2018.

Heron Eccles Playing Fields opened their new Parklife hub in October 2018 with three new artificial football pitches.

In total, partners TigerTurf and McArdle Sport Tec have been awarded and completed 4 out of the 8 Parklife hubs opened to date.

The ‘Parklife Programme’ is still an ongoing venture, and at present a further 5 Parklife hubs are under construction, totalling 15 artificial football pitches to be built.

TigerTurf and McArdle were awarded the Gunnersbury Park Parklife project and the Northern Area Playing fields for Sunderland Parklife.

McArdle are currently on-site at Gunnersbury Park, preparing foundations to install two new synthetic football pitches, having appointed a new groundswork team and newly acquired Komatsu dozer and digger. Groundworks are also well underway at Northern Area Playing fields, installing a total of three artificial football pitches plus a WR Reg 22 artificial rugby pitch.

What differentiates ‘The Parklife Programme’ to the FA’s the ‘Premier League & FA Facilities Fund’?

The ‘Parklife Programme’ is the creation of new multi-pitch artificial football hubs installed in high demand areas, which typically will have a minimum of two artificial pitches, changing accommodation, and potentially a natural grass pitch.

The aim of the ‘Parklife Programme’ is to create sustainable football facilities contained within hub sites, which differs from traditional football investment streams as the funding partners are keen to see a portfolio* approach that provides an area-wide solution rather than a one-off site investment. Local authorities managing areas with a population of over 200,000 are invited to access the Parklife programme.

The ‘Premier League & FA Facilities Fund’ focuses on installing individual pitches in high demand areas.

The fund is available to football clubs, schools, local sports associations and councils, providing grants for building new or refurbishing existing grassroots facilities, including changing pavilions and artificial pitches.

*A portfolio approach is where Local Authorities develop proposals for multiple (i.e. a minimum of two) Parklife hub sites. The Parklife model is based on sufficient surplus revenue being generated from hub sites to re-invest in the grassroots game, which would not be possible at single sites.