Frustrations at Bridlington Town Football Club due to restrictions

Coronavirus restrictions and lockdown have been frustrating for Bridlington Town Football Club.

That is from Chairman, Pete Smurthwaite, who has been speaking about how they have been coping.

In the last few months, Bridlington Town recently installed a new clubhouse.

He said:

"We've got this wonderful new building and the doors are locked yet again. We've not been able to make reasonable money out of it and it's not just been built for that purpose, it's been built as a community asset.

"Bridlington is in Tier 3 unable to open the town bar. We're right back now in the situation of no football either, because we can't have fans. The league agreed along with 80% of clubs that if we can't have fans and we can't open clubhouses, there's no point in restarting.

"In our league, 37 of the 40 clubs are in Tier 3. So it was a very, very difficult situation because we would be travelling from one Tier 3 area in East Yorkshire to West and South Yorkshire.

"It would just be wonderful to be able to get 200-300 people in watching a game on a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday evening; get that wonderful new clubhouse of ours open. It's a bit like buying a new suit and not being able to go out.

"It's so, so frustrating because we were getting somewhere with the new clubhouse. People were coming in and we've got the potential to have functions and parties in there because there's a shortage in Bridlington for that type of facility.

"In the first lockdown, we got some reasonable grants from the Government, Sport England and the local authority, which really did help us keep things going. But this time, all we've had so far in a month is a Government grant, through East Riding of Yorkshire Council, of £1,334."

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