Our Vision
A place worthy of the talent it serves
The White Rose Performance Institute is proposed as the leading women’s football, rugby and performance destination in the North of England: a single, serious building where the pathway, the science, the education and the community all live in the same place.
The problem
Talent leaves because the facilities do not exist
Women’s football and rugby have grown faster over the past decade than almost any other area of British sport. Participation, attendances, broadcast coverage and commercial investment have all moved sharply upwards. The infrastructure supporting that growth has not kept pace.
In Hull and East Yorkshire the consequence is familiar. Promising players train on borrowed pitches at inconvenient hours, share changing provision designed for somebody else, and travel long distances for the strength and conditioning, testing and medical support that a serious pathway requires. Many stop before they find out how good they could have been.
The Institute is proposed as a direct response: not a scheme in search of a purpose, but a purpose in search of a building.
Guiding principles
Six commitments that shape every decision
These principles govern the brief, the plan, the specification and the operating model. Where a decision is difficult, they are how it is resolved.
01
Designed for women, not adapted for them
Most sporting facilities were designed for men and later adapted. The Institute reverses that order. Changing provision, gym layout, sightlines, lighting, circulation and safeguarding are set from the outset around how women and girls want to train.
02
One building, not a collection of sheds
Everything sits in a single integrated building over two principal floors with a rooftop hospitality level. Shared circulation, one reception, one kitchen and one plant strategy reduce both capital and running costs while making the place feel coherent.
03
Performance evidence, not opinion
Testing, analysis, strength and conditioning, physiotherapy and recovery work as one department. Selection and progression rest on measured baselines rather than impressions formed on a touchline.
04
Removing the barriers that actually stop people
Childcare, cost, travel, timetabling and safety are the real reasons participation drops away. A crèche, public café, flexible membership and a single accessible location address each one directly.
05
Commercially self-supporting
Membership, hospitality, conferencing, clinical services and player development are designed to carry the operating cost of the sporting programme, so the pathway does not depend on annual fundraising to survive.
06
Built to last a generation
Robust materials, straightforward geometry, generous servicing and a plan that can absorb change. The intention is a building still doing its job properly in thirty years.
Access policy
Training and play for women and girls. Hospitality open to all.
The distinction is set out plainly, so that everyone arrives with the same expectation.
Women and girls only
The active side
- The women’s gym
- The strength and conditioning gym
- All four football and rugby pitches
- Academy, squad and pathway programmes
- Athlete changing, recovery and treatment areas
Open to everyone
Public and professional spaces
- The café, restaurant and members’ lounge
- The White Rose Rooftop Club, bar and terrace
- The conference and events suite
- Coaches, practitioners, staff and volunteers
- Families, supporters, partners and guests
Single-sex provision would be operated in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and relevant governing-body guidance, and confirmed with legal advisers before opening.
Beyond sport
The pathway is only half of the proposition
A sporting career is short and uncertain. The Institute is proposed so that everyone who passes through it leaves with something durable.
Education
Classrooms, study space and coach education, delivered with school and college partners so that qualifications sit alongside the training programme rather than competing with it.
Childcare
A crèche with a secure garden, treated as infrastructure. For many women it is the single condition that determines whether training is possible at all.
Participation
A women’s gym, community sessions, walking formats, schools programmes and referral pathways that connect elite performance to everyday health.