Yorkshire Launch Lottery to Fund Ground Works

By JMB
September 15 2006

Yorkshire have launched a lottery to provide some of the funds required to modernise the Headingley Carnegie Stadium. Yorkshire's Chief Executive Stewart Regan unveiled the scheme to members at Headingley last night. The club hope the Yorkshire Pride lottery will raise half a million pounds a year.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club showed members plans to make Headingley Stadium recognisable, modern and a venue for international cricket for decades ahead. These ambitions took another step forward last night. Stewart Regan's iconic vision of Headingley will need huge investment, but the end results would be breathtaking.

The proposed redevelopment of the Kirkstall Lane End into a multi-tiered structure housing the new pavilion, a state of the art media centre, education centres and corporate boxes will arch from the Western Terrace across to the northeast of the ground. The batwinged roof that will be visible for miles around will become the global iconic view of what Headingley cricket ground will become. Regan outlined that this work is crucial to maintain the future of the club, but that it will require significant (£15 million plus) investment.

A lottery has been run unsuccessfully by the club before but times have changed at Headingley and Regan is not a man to stand still, or look back on previous failures. Many professional sports clubs including Manchester United and cross-penine rivals Lancashire CCC run hugely successful lotteries.

The new Yorkshire Pride Lottery incorporates the recently introduced matchday Yorker draw, a pound a week lottery competition with terrific prizes and a one off Christmas draw where one lucky winner will scoop a £10,000 jackpot - the single biggest prize in UK cricket. By entering the lottery at a pound a week participants will then get 52 entries into that Christmas draw.

At the launch Regan and the evening's compere Harry Gration became the first people to sign up to play the new Yorkshire Pride Lottery. If you wish to join them in playing the new Lottery this site is now an official vending agent. If you would like to know more or just want to be signed up send an email to jimmy69@gotadsl.co.uk - provide us with your phone number and we will ring you back as soon as we can.