Story added: 18th September 2020

New 3G pitch gets first use as building work continues

This summer has seen an exciting milestone in the development of our community hub The Nest, as the new 3G pitch was opened for use.

The full-sized, floodlit pitch has been added to the seven grass pitches at the facility, and groups including Mini Kickers, our Football & Education programmes, the Football Development Programme, Walking Football, Proud Canaries, and local grassroots teams have been among the first to use the new surface.

Norwich City Women have also made The Nest their new home and will play their first FA Women’s National League home fixture on the 3G pitch, on Sunday, September 27th at 2pm.

Jackie Thornton, Head of Development at Norwich City Community Sports Foundation said:

“It’s been wonderful to see so many people use the 3G pitch already, adding to the thousands that have experienced The Nest’s Phase One facilities since late 2018.”

Build The Nest

The new pitch is part of ‘Phase Two’ developments at The Nest and sits adjacent to what is soon to be a new hub building, housing accessible changing rooms, an IT learning suite, two multi-use spaces and a café for visitors and participants on Foundation programmes.

The ‘Phase Two’ work is due for completion in the coming months and when finished it will be the culmination of a huge effort to raise the £4.6million cost of construction from funding and fundraising over the last few years.

The ‘Build The Nest’ fundraising campaign target sits just under the £100,000 mark thanks to the recent support of Norwich City Football Club, who pledged £500,000 of match funding towards the final £1million.

Mrs Thornton added:

“We are so close to achieving our Build the Nest campaign target and completing construction on the Phase Two hub building and we’d like to thank everyone who has helped us get this far.

“Phase Two has been an epic journey and when complete it will allow us to make a difference so many more people in Norfolk.”