Cost of hiring a pitch

[miniman]

Slightly random question and possibly wrong forum but - does anyone have any experience of renting a football pitch? As in a properly constructed, drained etc. one?

Context - our village hall has one which is used by a local football club in exchange only for cutting the grass (and, whilst doing so, blatting the gang mower over the rest of the playing field, probably 3/4 of a pitch size). We're a little concerned that this deal is very much in the club's favour and wonder if the investment in a modest tractor mower would be paid off swiftly by a fair rent for the pitch and then some.

TIA!

[tvrforever]

plenty of experience in hiring all weather / astro pitches - some thoughts :

• Are you wanting to hire by hour or by day?
• Are you wanting to hire the whole pitch? (some places allow half pitch hiring - applicable for younger age groups)
• Are you offering floodlights? (often an extra charge)
• What commitment level will you require? (many require some degree of block booking and advanced booking - also tax rules kick in here re minimum booking quantity etc)
• Will you offer refund cover for inclement weather?
• Will you be charging VAT? (often a pain when councils outsource as many clubs can't reclaim VAT)

I guess like most things actual costs vary by geography, and by the supply/demand ratio...

In the Thames Valley area an all-weather full-size pitch hires between £75-£130 per hour (depending upon surface type and level) plus floodlights (often £30 per hour).

But all-weather astro pitches cost around £500k-£750k to build and the surfaces only have a warranted life of 8-10yrs (although often used 15yrs, and replacement cost is much lower than build)

Looking at local grass pitches they seem to be between £18 (junior mini) and £80 (adult) per hour...

[miniman]

Thanks for the reply, very useful.

Currently the pitch is exclusively used by the local (youth) football club - they have unrestricted year-round access in exchange for cutting the grass. Recently their chap has been pulling up fence posts instead of using the access gates and generally I don't think the deal is in our favour. I've recently taken over as Chair of the committee and I'm more inclined to have a businesslike discussion than my predecessor.

We're very happy for them to keep using the pitch, and not inclined to get in a position where we have to actively promote it and hire it out in small timeslots, but I'm not convinced that the current deal is right.