How 30 years of funding sports facilities helped build a healthier UK

16th December 2024

To be the best in any sport takes blood, sweat and tears. Yet fundamentally - whether you win, compete, or simply take part - you need facilities.

For 30 years The National Lottery, through Sport England and other funding distributors, has boosted well over 100,000 sports and leisure facilities.

Across the UK, funds have backed buildings, big and small, from stadia to clubhouses. It’s helped lay 3G pitches and sustain natural playing fields. It’s filled aquatics centres, and over 1600 swimming pools. It’s laid velodrome tracks from Glasgow to Manchester, arenas from Belfast to London. All-weather tennis courts. Rugby pitches. Village greens. Urban basketball courts.

The list of sporting facilities funded spans everything from abseiling to zorbing (that's football, golf and other activities played from inside giant inflatable bubbles).

Heavyweight impacts

A quick spotlight on a few gyms tells a lot about this kind of 'facilities' funding. Back in 2002, Finchley & District Amateur Boxing Club had a National Lottery grant of £124,250 to refurb their facilities. Five years later, a teenage Anthony Joshua was brought into the gym by his cousin who was already boxing at Finchley ABC. The youthful Joshua started to sculpt his body and mind using the facilities funded by The National Lottery. Five years further on - and after a lot of coaching and training - Joshua won gold at the London Olympics 2012. Today he’s a sporting mega star and influencer.

Sean Murphy ringside with Anthony Joshua at Finchley ABC (courtesy of Sean Murphy)

Immediate impacts, lasting legacies

“The cardiovascular room was extended,” says Sean Murphy who heads up the Finchley club. “The weights, exercise bikes.”

All used by Joshua? “Definitely. It made a difference.” But Murphy is quick to point out that the club has always catered for all comers. Hundreds of boxers, fitness fanatics and staffers have used Finchley ABC’s facilities. Indeed, the original reason for Finchley ABC to apply for funds from The National Lottery speaks volumes.

“We needed facilities for females,” says Murphy. “The grant was mainly to get a changing room for females because we had nowhere for them to change.”

Like so many local sports clubs around the UK, Finchley ABC’s facilities have made a big difference to the present day.

“At the minute we've got an African champion,” says Sean. “She boxes for Nigeria. So that might not have been possible if we hadn't had those facilities.”

Group shot of an all-female sparring camp at Finchley ABC (courtesy of Sean Murphy)

The long reach of National Lottery funding

In September 2024, boxer Daniel Dubois won a heavyweight title from Joshua at Wembley. Both Dubois and that famous stadium are part of this story too. Wembley received a National Lottery boost of £120M for its major refurb in the noughties. While Dubois’ club, Peacock Gymnasium, Canning Town, won four small-scale National Lottery grants (totalling £35k) between 2002 and 2013, to deliver projects and pay for sports facilities.

The National Lottery links reach Daniel’s boxing sister, Caroline Dubois. She trained at Repton Boxing Club where, in 2014, the club applied for National Lottery funding to improve its facilities and was awarded £50,000. In the subsequent years, Caroline’s training at Repton led her all the way to represent Team GB at Tokyo 2020 Olympics reaching the Quarter-Finals.

Caroline’s success provides a final link. Like Joshua at London 2012, Caroline's membership of Team GB meant elite level funding through the 'World Class Performance Programme' funded by The National Lottery, administered by the national sporting body UK Sport. Like his sister Caroline, Daniel Dubois made Team GB for Tokyo yet opted to turn professional before those Games.

Wants versus needs

Across all of sport; medals, titles, cups and championships are among the wants. But for any sport, like any walk of life, it’s first and foremost about needs.

Over recent decades, obesity and mental health crises have risen. Current analysis from the UK Government (ONS 2024) finds that where there are more sports facilities per 10,000 people, a greater proportion of adults are active for over two and a half hours per week. And that's good for physical and mental health. So, National Lottery funding of sports facilities will have made a huge difference. It's helped ensure sport is accessible and inclusive. And given people, all over the UK, better and fairer chances to feel happier and be healthier.