Badminton England - New Headquarters and more planned

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New £20m Milton Keynes badminton headquarters planned

18 October 2012 Last updated at 06:01 ET
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-19989176

Excerpts:

The National Badminton Centre is set to move to a £20m headquarters and training base at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes.

The sport's governing body, Badminton England, has announced plans to move from its existing facility in the Loughton area of the new town, to a complex of "at least twice the size".

Initial plans include a 16-court badminton hall, a 3,000-seater arena, a fitness club and athlete accommodation.
It is due to open in spring 2015.

...Chief executive Adrian Christy said the move was inspired by the "massive demand" for badminton courts and the desire to recreate tournament conditions in a training environment.

"As a minimum, the National Badminton Centre will double in size," he said.

..."The arena will also allow Milton Keynes to attract major national, European and international sporting events - not just badminton competitions, but several other sporting events that might include volleyball, table tennis, netball and basketball."

 

One year on: The true legacy


25.07.13 http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/s...gacy&section=13&sectionTitle=News&year=&month=

Excerpts:

...With the London 2012 Games came one word which has remained associated with the post-Olympic period, and that is legacy.

...At BADMINTON England, there has been a conscious effort since the sporting extravaganza came to a close to guarantee that aspiring athletes are encouraged to pick up a racket and begin playing.

With the approval of the new £22 million facility at The National Bowl to develop the National Badminton Centre earlier in April, it seems the only way is up for badminton in England.

Investment
Since last summer, there has been a 1,500 increase in affiliated membership of BADMINTON England. There has also been an impressive 100% increase in free, online membership of Club England Community which now reaches 75,000.

...We were able to extend our investment into community badminton facilities to invest £1,725,276 into 15 projects, which attracted £25,513,602 of third party investment. This enabled us to build 37 new badminton courts, refurbish 57 courts as well as increase the number of court hours available to badminton, per week, by 620.

This gave us over 2 million more hours of badminton as a direct result of the community use agreements.

There has also been a great demand to host BADMINTON England’s flagship ‘pay and play’ nationwide initiative, ‘No Strings Badminton’, in leisure facilities to cater for increased local desire for low cost community court time.

Since the closing ceremony in London last summer, more than 200 venues have come on board to deliver weekly sessions whilst the programme has also seen a 70% increase in weekly player numbers coming through the doors of facilities right across England.

The programme now boasts eight major leisure operators in the local delivery network alongside community trusts, education institutions, local authorities and independent leisure providers.