Local firm Provident Financial has joined forces with the Bantams to attract new fans through the turnstiles at the Coral Windows Stadium.
The club’s Community Foundation supported by Provident’s Good Neighbour programme has signed a new three-year deal and invites supporters from schools, youth clubs and community groups to come to matches using heavily discounted tickets in the newly-named Provident Community Enclosure.
Run by former City player Ian Ormondroyd, Bradford City Community Foundation provides football and multi-sports coaching, holiday courses, disability clubs, ground tours, penalty shoot-outs and other schools activities for different parts of the local community. The foundation works under the four themes of sports participation, education, health and social inclusion.
Established in 1880, Bradford-based Provident Financial is the UK’s leading non-standard financial services provider. It employs 3,700 people and has 9,500 self-employed home credit agents and over 2.7 million customers across the UK and Ireland.
The deal will see the Provident Personal Credit brand feature on a dedicated area for the scheme on the Midland Road (Northern Commercials Stand) side of the ground. Provident logos will feature on the club's Main Stand and North West corner as well.
With away fans set to be move back into the T.L Dallas Stand for next season, the section of the Northern Commercials Stand dedicated as the Provident Community Enclosure will be blocks F & G.
As part of the deal, Provident will also work with the football club to reach out to people who haven’t been to a football match before, to develop the next generation of newly-promoted Bradford City fans.
City players, including striking duo Nahki Wells and James Hanson, were at the launch, to mark this new collaboration.
Chris Gillespie, Managing Director of Consumer Credit, Provident Financial said: “Last season was an incredible one for Bradford City and we are delighted to be able to support the club into the new season in League One. This sponsorship is about helping the football club to engage more with communities that might never be able to attend a football match. We want to help as many people as possible to have a stake in the success of the Club and the success of Bradford. We’ve also got a large number of fans within the company and this will certainly complement our other partnerships within Bradford.”
City's Director of Operations David Baldwin added: “The club is proud to have agreed this partnership with Provident and feel the project of introducing the next generation of Bantams fans to the club through the community ticket scheme will prove invaluable to the long term success of the football club."