We would like to provide members with an update on a few areas and ahead of the T20 season starting with the first home game less than a week away.
Durham Defenders Evening – Tuesday 20 September
We are delighted to announce that we have finally been able to set a date for the Durham Defenders Dinner with Lord Ian Botham. To help everyone attend we will hold an afternoon event and an evening event on Tuesday 20 September 2022 (we are at home to Sussex that day). Defenders will be invited to book their place to either an afternoon dinner taking place during lunch of the game or an evening dinner which will take place on the evening following the game.
Members will be provided with free food and a drink and enjoy some time with the Chairman where he will chat about the season and answer any questions from the audience about his life or his chairmanship of the club.
There will be a chance to mingle with him after the event. As the event is in September we will update all Defenders on how to book their place closer to the time.
Durham Defender Board
It has been brought to our attention that one or two names are missing from the board which has been put in place. We do apologise for this error and those that we are aware of have been spoken to and the technical reasons for the omissions explained. We are going to rectify the situation as we want to honour everyone who helped support the club through such a difficult period.
As an interim measure we have added these names in a temporary format but the boards will be reproduced in full. If your name or the name of a partner or friend is missing please could you inform us so that we can correct the error when the board is reinstalled.
Members 30 Year Celebration Evening – Thursday 25 August
As part of this season’s membership all members are invited to an evening to celebrate 30 years of first-class cricket at Durham. Members will be provided with free food and a drink to enjoy an evening in the company of club legends from across the past 30 years. Members will be able to claim tickets for the event closer to the date.
T20 Blast Tickets
Sales for this seasons Blast are going well. We are doing our best to make cricket as affordable as possible and a recent report in the Times listed us as one of the cheapest grounds in the country to watch cricket.
We have a number of offers for groups, All Stars, Dynamos and Schools in an effort to encourage everyone to come and enjoy cricket at Seat Unique Riverside.
T20 Blast Shirts
In a further bid to help cricket fans enjoy the Blast we have been able to agree with sponsors and partners that we will retain this season shirt for 2 years. This will help fans get more value from this seasons kit and hopefully everyone can show their colours for the team. Shirts and merchandise are available online now ahead of the club shop opening at the first game of the T20 Blast – buy shirts here
PARKING – Blast, Internationals, Concerts
Due to changes to ground safety there will be no parking within the ground during T20 games other than for those who hold one of the clubs disabled parking passes. Parking at the council car parks can be paid for on arrival at the games or you can now purchase parking in advance along with parking for the international fixture here
T20 Blast parking and concert parking is currently unavailable online but this will be available shortly.
Student attendance
Following discussions with student bodies we have agreed that we will host a student event at the game against Birmingham Bears on Wednesday 8 June. There were a number of reasons behind this decision including the need to engage with a wider audience which will encourage long term support of Durham and cricket and bring in much needed revenue from a new audience.
We are aware there were some issues with last year’s event and have made a number of changes to procedures and put measures in place to ensure that the enjoyment of members and fans is not affected. For this game the students will be escorted to the ground and exclusively enter via Gate 5 and occupy the Vertu Stand.
This area will be barriered off so that students cannot access other parts of the ground and we have an increased security presence in this area. For this game only Gate 5 and 6 will not be available for entry and the Vertu Stand will not be available to sit in.
International Tickets
The final match configurations for the England v South Africa one day international at the ground have now been agreed and a small number of tickets are now available to purchase here. These will be publicised for general sale tomorrow but we wanted to give members the first opportunity to buy.
A very limited number of premium packages and hospitality is still available and can be purchased from Seat Unique here
Ground sponsorship
Today we announced a new sponsor for the Riverside ground. Our premium ticketing partner Seat Unique have agreed to be our venue partner with the ground being named Seat Unique Riverside as part of the agreement.
We have worked with Seat Unique for a number of years and they have proven to be an excellent partner allowing us to bring our hospitality packages online. More information on the partnership can be found here
Welcome hub
The clubs new Welcome Hub will open on Wednesday 1 June at our first T20 Blast home game of the season. The Welcome Hub includes our new club shop, reception area and box office into one newly developed space. We hope this will improve all of the clubs services in these areas