Bradford Bandits BMX Club Races Ahead

“If it hadn’t been for runningsports I doubt that the club would be here today”. Dramatic words perhaps, but Jeremy Brown from Bradford Bandits BMX Club says that the runningsports Funding for Your Club workshop that he attended inspired him and his two fellow volunteers to keep the club going for the sake of the young people of Bradford.

BMX is a relatively young sport, having developed in America in the 1970s, but it has generated a large following over the years, with a very different offering to the more traditional sports. Its introduction to the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 has enabled BMX to reach a worldwide audience for the first time.

Back in 2003, there was a BMX club in Bradford but it was struggling to maintain both its track and the interest of the local young riders, with only about 20 members. Jeremy and two other enthusiasts resolved not to let the club disappear, and with some members from another local club that was also struggling, and some borrowed equipment, a new club was formed; the Bradford Bandits.

BMX is not a hugely expensive sport, but without any bikes the club could only cater for young people who owned their own. Trying to make sure that young people could participate without their own bike, helmet gloves and pads, meant that any small amounts of money the club managed to get their hands on did not go very far. Jeremy takes up the story, “We were wondering how on earth we were going to get some more money, when our local County Sports Partnership (CSP), West Yorkshire Sport, recommended that we enrol on a runningsports workshop. Funding for Your Club sounded like the perfect workshop for us and it turned out to be just that. We were given loads of really practical advice, which has stood us in good stead as we have sought funding from various sources. We also learnt from the other people at the workshop – it’s great to hear other people’s good ideas and to benefit from their experience.”

Soon after attending the runningsports workshop, the club was encouraged to apply for the CCPR’s Sports Club of the Year Award. With £6,000 on offer to the winning club, Jeremy treated the application form as a funding bid and applied some of the principles he’d learnt at the workshop; explaining how they had tried to raise funds in the past and how they were endeavouring to cater for everyone in the local community.

To their amazement they were not only shortlisted but actually won the national award, with the £6,000 prize money doubling their turnover for the year.

And since winning the CCPR Sports Club of the Year Award, and subsequently gaining Clubmark – Sport England’s cross-sport club accreditation scheme – the Bradford Bandits’ fund raising has gone from strength to strength, obtaining additional funding such as £10,000 from an urban village project and £2,000 from a local community fund.

As the club has developed, Jeremy and his fellow volunteers have turned to runningsports again for support along the way, finding the Valuing Your Sports Volunteers workshop particularly useful. “As our membership had grown we have needed to increase the number of volunteers and runningsports showed us low cost ways to recognise and reward our volunteers. This has meant that they stay with the club longer so we aren’t always having to try to recruit new people to help out”, explains Jeremy.

So where has the club got to six years on? “We now have stability as the track has been redeveloped and we have a 25 year lease from the council. We also have 40 bikes, enough protective equipment for 20 riders and two portable start gates, which allows us to go into schools and introduce BMX to a larger audience and to young people who may not have thought about coming along to the club. The most important element of BMX racing is the start – the races only last about 40 seconds – so good technique at the start gate is vital, and the portable start gates are less intimidating than a standard gate so are great for beginners.” The school visits, together with the club’s involvement in Sport Unlimited – a new national programme targeted at youngsters who may have some interest in sport, but aren’t particularly engaged with club sport – means that there are almost three times as many members as there were in 2003, with numbers approaching 60, a great achievement is just six years.

Jeremy has learnt a lot about applying for funding, both from runningsports and from experience, but his advice to other clubs when seeking funding is quite simple, “Be positive in your application; once you’ve shown that you’ve met their criteria, funders really want to know what’s good about what you’re doing and how you are serving your local community. And if you make sure you keep a photographic record of all the initiatives you get involved with, you’ve got your evidence for the next funding application.”

And the future is looking good for the Bradford Bandits; “One of the things we picked up from the runningsports was to be imaginative when thinking of sources of funding. For example we are looking into the possibility of getting a wind turbine. It’s possible to get 100% funding for one, and then we could generate electricity to sell!” It’s not the most traditional route for a sports club looking for additional income, but it’s one that could turn out to be very successful for the BMX Bandits.

If you’re involved with a club that needs to know more about maximising funds, increasing its membership, applying for a grant or recruiting and keeping volunteers, Jeremy has proved that it really is possible to make substantial changes with relative ease when you’ve got runningsports behind you.