Thanet District Council agreed to sell the freehold of WW Martin Community Stadium to Ramsgate Football Club, who have been long term tennants of the site for over 70 years, at a cabinet meeting on Thursday 22nd September.
The decision to sell the freehold to the club is a huge stride towards it’s ultimate ambition of building a new stand that can become a mixed enterprise and education centre to achieve goals of reducing local unemployment and help increase average salaries.
The football club recently invested in the stadium to upgrade it to a modern 3G facility that has propelled them to become one of the leading community clubs in the country. They now have nearly one thousand youth players, an extensive holiday programme that over four hundred local families regularly attend and the club attract over three thousand people from Thanet and the surrounding areas through the gate every week for a variety of activities and events.
The current investment has created a safe space, trusted by local families as an environment for both enjoyment and education. The club, via it’s charity called the Ramsgate Active Education Foundation, has full time members of staff in local schools and utilises these relationships in collaboration with it’s hundred’s of local business partners to create a unique area for education and employment to mix.
Ramsgate currently sit top of the Isthmian South East Division and are unbeaten in eight matches.
