Midstream Lighting has been appointed as the Official Lighting Partner of England Athletics. So, we’ve asked James Brunt, Sports Director at Midstream, to tell us more about how this partnership started and what it means for both England Athletics and Midstream.
England Athletics was looking to build a group of partners to help them with their strategic vision of increasing standards and improving facilities across their 1,400 affiliated clubs. They didn’t have a lighting partner, so we approached them. And from the very first meeting, it was obvious there was a perfect fit between us.
We don’t enter into partnerships lightly. We believe for them to work both organisations need to have values and goals that really align. That was definitely the case between England Athletics and us. We both have integrity as an important value – it’s our first. And a culture of learning and development is very close to both our hearts.
One of the objectives of this partnership is to educate and support all the England Athletics’ facilities across the country – from the grassroots to the elite. So, we’ll be offering the entire England Athletics community a host of webinars, in-person training, and supportive guides so they can understand exactly what we as a team can achieve. That’s not all. They’ll also be able to take advantage of our lighting health checks, consultation services, advice on financial support and grants, plus lighting designs for their clubs – all for free.
Our core benefits, such as vastly cutting energy and maintenance costs, and future-proofing venues for years to come, will help them free up money to invest in athletes’ performance too.
Improved lighting will also mean clubs can get more people participating all year round at all times of the day, including at night. And it’s been shown time and time before that better-quality club facilities help improve performance.
Obviously there will be potential business opportunities that develop through this partnership. But it means much more than that for us as a whole. As well as working on major sporting projects, we’ve got a great deal of experience working at the grassroots level. A lot of the team here have experience playing at that level too. And for us, this partnership will allow us to work closely with an organisation that’s taking athletes from the grassroots right through to the Olympics. To be able to support these clubs and see the results of the work we’ve done coming through is going to be so exciting and highly rewarding.