Oxford City Lacrosse Club is looking to crowdfund over £6,000 to support the installation of four box lacrosse substitution gates and appropriate netting to surround the indoor turf at The Oxford Academy’s indoor dome.
The Oxford Academy is the home of Oxford City Lacrosse Club and its facilities include an outdoor astro-turf with lacrosse markings, grass pitches, and an indoor dome with 3G turf; the indoor dome is now used regularly by national teams, elite representative squads, and external lacrosse camps.
The Club's leaders, David Brucie Morris and Annabel Campbell, have strived to develop community lacrosse for juniors based at the school with Oxford City hosting weekly training sessions and termly community outreach programmes which culminate in a junior community tournament at The Oxford Academy.
The school has recently begun to introduce more curriculum and after-school lacrosse for year seven and year eight pupils and are looking to introduce box lacrosse to their older boys and girls in 2022.
Thanks to the progress of Oxford City Lacrosse Club, the opportunity for junior box lacrosse, the location of the school in the south, and the potential for the indoor dome to become an excellent venue for box lacrosse, the South of England Men’s Lacrosse Association (SEMLA) would like to ask for the lacrosse community’s support to fund further work to improve the venue.
Sport England will match all funds raised so the Club is seeking a minimum of £3,050.
The cost to install substitution gates will be £5,663 and the remaining £437 will be spent on additional netting, supporting steel wire and to cover the Crowdfunder transaction costs.
Any further matched funding above £6,100 will remain with SEMLA for their support of box lacrosse in the south delivered by Southern Box Lacrosse (SBL).
Due to the financial pressures of the pandemic on core activities, Oxford City Lacrosse Club has decided to use Crowdfunding with Sport England to help fund this transformational development of the indoor dome.
Head Coach of the England Men’s Box Lacrosse National Team, Walt Christianson, has described the venue in glowing terms.
"I think the potential for the Oxford dome is great. It is fairly centrally located, the flooring is good, and the size, although it is a bit wide, works well. The square corners are a bit of a problem, but the positives far outweigh the problems."