6 Jul 2023

NEW ERA AS DERWENT PARK RENAMED AS FIBRUS COMMUNITY STADIUM!

Mutual focus on improving communities at heart of the partnership!

New era for Workington Town as we rename stadium in major sponsorship deal

Workington Town’s Derwent Park will now be known as the Fibrus Community Stadium as part of a
significant investment in the club by full fibre broadband provider Fibrus.

The company is injecting a substantial sum into the Rugby League club in return for the stadium
naming rights. The partnership was driven by a mutual focus on investing in the local community and
the pursuit of improving sport in Cumbria.

As well as stadium naming rights, Fibrus is also taking the front of shirt sponsorship for the newly-
formed women’s team and the training and warm-up jerseys for the men’s side.

Laura Ivison, captain of the new Workington Town Ladies team, said: “It will be an honour to go out
there in these shirts and lead the lasses onto the field for the town. It shows girls out there that
there is a way forward to play rugby for your local team.”

Carl Forber, the club’s record point scorer, said: “I think it’s a good choice to call it the Fibrus
Community Stadium because it literally is a community club with things going on at every home
game to involve local people, and I think it’s because it’s such a good community club that I’ve
stayed here so long.”

Graeme Peers, Director and Commercial Partnerships Manager at Workington Town, said the cash
injection would transform the club:
“The deal will allow us to change the business model and help the women’s team get established.
We will be able to employ paid professionals on the commercial side and in our community
development. We aim to have a representative, a skilled coach, who can work with schools and
colleges to nurture young players.”

The launch of stadium signage and official naming of the Fibrus Community Stadium will take effect
at Town’s next home fixture, a double header on Sunday 9 th July when the men take on Rochdale
Hornets in League One and the women play their first ever competitive home fixture against
Newcastle Thunder.

Tickets: Workington Town Rugby League Football Club Ltd (byretail.net) , however if you arrive before the Ladies game kick off time of 11:15am you can get in for an amazing offer of £5! £5 tickets are not valid after 11:15am. These can also only be purchased from the club shop on Friday 1030-1630pm or Saturday 10-2pm.

Graeme said: “We’ve been approached about the naming rights before, but it didn’t really fit with
what we were trying to do at the club. As soon as we spoke to Fibrus we knew we were on the same
wavelength. Fibrus is really focused on community and big on supporting a variety of sports.”

Dean Jooste, Stakeholder Director for GB at Fibrus said “The stadium is an iconic landmark in West
Cumbria with deep community roots dating back to the 1950s. The launch of the Fibrus Community
Stadium marks an exciting new era for Fibrus and for Workington Town, and we are honoured to be
part of this journey.”

Fibrus has demonstrated its support for Cumbrian sport this year by launching a fund for grassroots
clubs, which will invest £30,000 in boys’ and girls’ sport in the county, and it recently sponsored the
Fibrus 100 girls’ cricket league in partnership with Cumbria Cricket. This investment sits alongside
The Fibrus Community Fund, in which Fibrus have invested £60,000 this year to tackle digital poverty
across Cumbria.

Catriona Henry, Sponsorship Lead at Fibrus, added: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Workington
Town. We recognise that sports clubs are at the heart of communities we serve and that’s especially
true of Rugby League in West Cumbria.”
“This comes at an exciting time for us, having made over 1,000 homes in Workington available for
gigabit capable broadband, and having recently launched our partnership with Cumbria Cricket Girls
team, all in the past four weeks. We’re proud to assist the new women’s team and help the club as a
whole to thrive.”
Fibrus is transforming the digital infrastructure of rural and regional areas of the UK by investing in
excess of £700m to bring full-fibre broadband to homes in towns and villages across Northern
England and Northern Ireland. Just recently, the broadband provider connected its first homes in
Cumbria under the Government’s Project Gigabit contract.

Pictured left to right:

Workington Town Ladies captain Laura Ivison, vice captain Saskia Middleton, Dean Jooste (Fibrus) Director Graeme Peers, Sean Sabutey and Cral Forber.

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