Politically Speaking with Jon Trickett MP: Featherstone Rovers belong to the people of Featherstone
Every town has something that brings residents together. In Featherstone, it is Rovers.
Featherstone Rovers have been part of this community for decades. The pits were once the heart of the town, something to be proud of. They were stripped away long ago, and the Rovers have carried that pride forward. When the club went into administration because of bad management, Featherstone lost far more than a fixture list. It lost a shared identity and a reason to come together on a Saturday, whatever people’s differences or life experiences.
Walk through Featherstone and ask people about the Rovers. They will tell you about their dad, their granddad, the lads they played with, the day they took their own kids for the first time. I am proud to represent Featherstone, and I hear those stories constantly. A club gives a town something to belong to, and it gives young people a team to look up to and a pitch to aim for.
That is why the club matters so much. It is a community asset, far more than a rugby ground, and it belongs in community hands. The Rovers’ women’s team is one of the most successful in the country, and for many young people the club is where they first learn teamwork and belonging. It gets people active, looks after their wellbeing and gives them somewhere to go. I am pleased the administrator has recognised that and is prepared to sell for less than a purely commercial price. We believe it can be acquired for about £1 million.
We are now putting the pieces together. The Rugby Football League has said it will help acquire the assets, and its chief executive is someone who I believe wants this done. I sit on Featherstone’s Pride in Place board, which has £20 million to invest in the community over ten years, and it is united in wanting to play its part. Pride in Place exists to let local people decide what their town needs, and here the answer is clear.
There is urgency. Without the Rovers, the league is a team short, and that affects every other club. The RFL cannot hold the assets forever. Our aim should be a partnership between the board and the RFL that gets the Rovers back as quickly as possible, with the ground ultimately in community hands. I set this out this week in a Westminster Hall debate on government support for rugby league.
Getting the Rovers back is the first step, not the last. I want a Featherstone where sport reaches into classrooms, supports people’s health and feeds the town’s culture.
Featherstone Rovers belong to the people of Featherstone. Let’s make sure they are playing again.