The Beacon is ready to welcome football supporters again in the 2019-20 season thanks to a grant from the Football Foundation, the Premier League and the FA which has helped prepare the ground to safely reopen in line with Government guidelines.
Hassocks were awarded £500 to ensure that social distancing and high hygiene standards can be maintained when fans are allowed back to watch non-league football.
The improvements that have been made around the Beacon include the installation of card payment machines at the Robins Bar, the T Bar and the turnstiles to reduce the amount of cash being handled.
For the past decade, players and fans have been asking with increasing frequency when the Beacon would move towards the 21st century and a cashless society. The cost had always proven prohibitive before but thanks to the Football Foundation Grant, we are now there.
WiFi has been installed, a necessity for card payments to be processed. The password will be publicly available for all guests, which will please both our own media team and sports reporters who visit the ground.
Hand sanitiser stations have been placed throughout the clubhouse and around the ground and a clearly marked one-way system has been put in place.
Supporters will enter through the clubhouse through the front door on the halfway line and exit via the side door opposite the turnstile block. There are also markers to help keep the required one metre apart.
The Robins have produced a Covid-19 risk assessment, a legal requirement ahead of the reopening of the Beacon. You can view the document here.
As well as the £500 grant from the Club Preparation Fund, Hassocks were the recipients of £1500 award earlier in the summer through the Pitch Preparation Fund, also run by the Football Foundation, the Premier League and the FA.
The Pitch Preparation Fund was launched to help clubs prepare their pitches for the 2020-21 season, something that many would have otherwise struggled with having received zero income since mid-March when the previous campaign was suspended.
Hassocks used the £1500 to carry out remedial works on the Beacon’s playing surface, tiding the pitch over to next summer. It is hoped that conditions will then allow the major improvements which had to be postponed this summer to take place.
