A FORMER director has returned to the Workington Town board to help drive the project to construct a new ground for the West Cumbrian town’s Rugby League and football clubs to share.
In the long term, Workington Town, who are currently based at the Fibrus Community Stadium, will play alongside Workington Association Football Club at the 3,700-capacity Cumberland Sports Village.
It will be built on the site of the latter’s Borough Park home with support from the Government Town Deal, Cumberland Council (who own both current grounds) and Football Foundation funding.
Local businessman Barry Earl, a Town director from July 1995 to February 1996, then from May 1996 to December 2006, is now back as a director of the Championship side and tasked with taking care of the legalities and documentation of the Sports Village initiative.
Work is due to begin later this year, and at that stage the football club will play at the Fibrus Community Stadium, traditionally known as Derwent Park and less than 400 yards away.
That ground was opened in 1956 – Town entered the Rugby Football League in 1945 and played at Borough Park until then – and has also staged speedway.
With seating for 1,000, an artificial pitch and hospitality and community facilities, Cumberland Sports Village, expected to cost £10.5 million, is due to be up and running by late 2027, after which it is thought Derwent Park will be bulldozed.
The football club, known as Workington Reds, currently play in the Northern Premier League Premier Division (level seven of the pyramid), having been Football League members from 1951 until 1977.
Town were inaugural Super League members in 1996, but last just one season at that level.
The Rugby League club has staged women’s football since 2024, and Football Association officials have visited to advise on the steps needed to meet NPL criteria.
“Significant” work, including pitch renovation, has subsequently taken place, while Town and the Reds have been planning how to make the ground-share work as smoothly as possible.