The Stand Gang

How Two New Stands were Built at Post Office Road

The story starts way back in the late noughties when the club was trying to improve the facilities for access into Super League.  The club had tried to make use of its assets by involving a developer to build a new stadium. This along with other ideas fell by the wayside. Then along came Mark Campbell with an idea. He’d seen that Scarborough Council were trying to sell the football stands at the McCain Stadium - did I fancy having a look at them. I said OK and off we went. Mark has said later that maybe we should have carried on to the sea front and had fish and chips!

The process of acquiring the stands began in January 2011 with correspondence going back and forth with Scarborough Council. We eventually agreed a sale with them round about July, which would involve the complete demolition of the McCain site. Quite a big undertaking for a rugby club.  The next step was to get a demolition company that would work with us, and to be honest we couldn’t have found one better.  The company stuck to the agreed price and must have made little profit, if any. I think our presence as a team of volunteers driving to Scarborough and turning up every day for 13 weeks inspired him.

Financing this part of the project goes down to our Joint supporters Group and the profits from our successful pie hut and burger bar.  With the stand sat at Featherstone we now needed funds to erect it and thanks goes to the Rugby League Facilities Trust for having faith in the project and they awarded us their biggest ever grant.

The club has been very lucky in that not only have volunteers turned up on a regular basis but we have had the support, and in many cases free time, from professional people such as architect, structural engineer, safety consultant, a local builder who has already built most of the buildings on the Rovers site and a clerk of works.  A mention also goes to suppliers and local businesses for their contribution in not only best prices but in some cases donations to the cause.

Even with the RL Trust grant the project was always going to be very tight and our coffers have been empty many times, but just around the corner there would be a donation from the supporters' bus or money raised by giving jam away and asking for the jar to be returned with the spare coinage, sales of calendars and foreign coin collections and of course individual donations which at times have made us volunteers feel very humble.

The last part of this article is dedicate to the volunteers who have turned up day after day for the past 4 years.  The effort by these men has been truly monumental and considering most are retired and way past their pension age only makes it more incredible. The guys have applied their skills and learnt new ones along the way.  Along with the regular guys I would also like to thank those who saw the call on social media when help was needed to either paint, lay grass turf or rake half a rugby field and is many cases they brought their own rakes and paint.

I'm sorry if l've missed anyone or anything out but it’s a big story and a lot has happened in 4 years.  The last thing I’d say is look around you and see the legacy that has been left by Featherstone folk and Featherstone fans.

Paul Coventry

September 2015

See the story in pictures here