Knight Frank and Birchfield Harriers join forces to support young athletes
11 August 2022 - Knight Frank, the leading independent global property consultancy, and Birchfield Harriers, the UK’s premier athletics club have entered into a new partnership to support young athletes, with an initial three-year agreement.
Based in Birmingham at the Alexander Stadium, the home of the Commonwealth Games, Birchfield Harriers is a highly successful club producing athletes such as Denise Lewis, Mark Lewis-Francis and recent world medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith. The Birmingham Commonwealth Games has demonstrated the impact sport can have and the three-year deal that Knight Frank has agreed with the Club will support the work of Birchfield both at the stadium and within the Community.
Knight Frank has been in talks with the club for a considerable period of time to gain an understanding of the club’s aspirations, for their current athletes in addition to the community and the athletes of the future. This support from Knight Frank will allow the Club to bring more young people into the sport through a range of activities. The first of these is the Athletics Festival on 12 August at Wyndley Athletics track. This is when the Club hopes to capture the interest generated by the Games by giving young people new to the sport the opportunity to try events and participate in a competition.
Ashley Hudson of Knight Frank said:
“We are proud to be sponsoring Birchfield Harriers and are very excited to be part of the important work the Club is doing to allow athletics to become more accessible to young people. We recognise the discipline around training and competing is very beneficial to the future of young athletes both in and out of the sport and we will be supporting the Club financially as well as providing career guidance to its athletes.
“Birchfield Harriers’ social value ambitions and ESG commitments align with our own, which has played a large part in forging this partnership. With the recent launch of Knight Frank’s new Birmingham office and hitting a 25-year milestone of the firm operating in Birmingham, we wanted to truly give back to a city and community where we operate.”
Cath Muth of Birchfield Harriers commented:
“This partnership will be of great value to the Club, and we are thrilled that Knight Frank will be part of our future. We have some ambitious plans to build on our success as we return to our home, the Alexander Stadium, after three years of being a nomadic club. As we work together to build our relationship, on and off the track, we hope to find more future champions through our grassroots programmes and from the support we will be able to give our more established athletes who are bordering on international success. There are exciting times ahead for Birchfield Harriers and Knight Frank and we can’t wait to welcome them to the stadium later this year.”
The partnership will run up until 2025 on an initial basis. Knight Frank will become the headline sponsor of Birchfield Harriers, and this will be recognised through branding on competition kit and support of athletes and grassroots programmes.