Sports club loans for cricket, rugby, hockey and bowls clubs

Many clubs are unincorporated associations run under a constitution. The club has no separate legal identity, so it cannot borrow or give security in its own name. The land, if the club owns it, is usually held by trustees. Borrowing is then arranged with the trustees or committee members as the borrowers, which means they may carry personal liability. Fewer commercial lenders will consider this structure.

A club that is a company limited by guarantee or a registered community benefit society has its own legal identity. It can borrow, own property and give security in its own name, and its members' liability is limited. Lenders generally find these structures easier to work with. See also social enterprise finance.

A CASC is a tax status rather than a legal structure, so a CASC can be unincorporated or incorporated. HMRC requires a CASC to be open to the whole community, organised on an amateur basis and to keep its assets for approved sporting or charitable purposes if it is wound up. Those rules affect what security a lender can take and what happens to it, so read HMRC's CASC guidance and take advice before offering club assets as security.

Borrowing of £25,000 or less by sole traders and small partnerships can be regulated consumer credit, which brings additional protections. Some unincorporated clubs can fall into the same category, so a small loan to a members' club may be handled differently from a loan to a club company.

Clubhouse works are usually the largest project a club takes on. Lenders treat them as building works, funded with a term loan, fit-out finance or a secured loan. See sports clubhouse finance.

Cricket clubs borrow for the square, covers, mowers, non-turf pitches, nets and the pavilion, and have a governing body loan route through the England and Wales Cricket Trust. See cricket club finance.

Rugby clubs usually focus on pitches, floodlights for training, changing rooms and a clubhouse bar that does much of the earning. See rugby club finance.

Most hockey is played on artificial pitches, and many clubs hire time from a school, university or leisure centre rather than owning a pitch. Clubs that do own or share a pitch face a carpet replacement every so often, which is usually funded with a term loan or secured loan. Our page on artificial pitch finance explains how lenders view surfaces fixed to the land.

Bowls clubs spend on green maintenance, mowers and scarifiers, ditches and banks, and clubhouse upkeep. Machinery can go on asset finance, and our grounds maintenance finance page covers the kit in more detail.

LED fittings, mowers, rollers, scoreboards and bar equipment can often be funded on hire purchase or leasing. Columns, foundations and cabling are closer to building works. See sports floodlight finance.

A club buying its ground can look at a commercial mortgage, and a club that owns its land may be able to offer it as security for a secured business loan, subject to its rules and any CASC conditions.