SOME of Bradford City’s first-team stars helped officially open a new community hub and cafe run by the club’s charity after a £30,000 refurbishment.
City Hub, which has been built in the former Bantams club shop at their Valley Parade ground, is the brainchild of the Bradford City Community Foundation.
The community café will become a new space to meet and eat, while funding some of the club charity’s most necessary provisions like feeding families in need and creating a safe space for women and girls in Bradford.
The 30-seat café will also be open for supporters to have a cuppa on City home matchdays from the new year, but it is now open weekdays between 8am and 2pm. The site also includes a meeting room and toilet.
City Hub was officially opened on December 7 at an event attended by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Martin Love, and City first-team players Scott Banks, Ryan East and Matty Foulds.
It is hoped the site will be used by a host of community groups including Alzheimer’s, education workshops, disabled groups and to help combat loneliness.
Ian Ormondroyd, chief executive of the Bradford City Community Foundation, says he wants the facility to be used in the week as well as Bantams matchdays.
He said: “It’s a great space. If people are coming to the shop opposite, they might come down to the café.
“We’re hoping it will be a hub for everybody in the general community.
“Fans can come down here on a matchday and can have a coffee and a relax before the game.”
Banks, who joined the Bantams on a season-long loan from Crystal Place, said: “It’s really important.
“It will help support mental health groups. Since I have been around the club there have been lots of developments in and around the community. The club supports the community so much.
“Fans will have somewhere they can come for a relaxing time before games. It gives that bit of something different.”
The Lord Mayor said: “It is a great new facility for the club near the stadium.
“It will be open during the week, not just for matches. It is a good way to utlilise the space.”
Funding for the work on the Hub came from the foundation staging the re-scheduled Bantams Ball on November 19, at Valley Parade. It was originally due to take place in September but was postponed due to the national period of mourning following the Queen’s death.
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