British sport is paying a growing price for climate change, with damaged facilities, disrupted fixtures, rising costs and falling participation, according to a new report that warns the sector is dangerously under-prepared for the extreme weather now hitting it every year.
The report, from the British Association for Sustainable Sport (BASIS), surveyed more than 200 clubs, venues and governing bodies. Every organisation surveyed said it had been affected by extreme weather in 2026, and 94 per cent said sport as a whole was under-prepared for climate change. Yet a separate review of professional club disclosures found only nine clubs had explicitly identified climate or extreme weather as a business risk.
The findings describe a sporting landscape built for weather conditions that no longer exist. Among those surveyed, 86 per cent reported being affected by extreme heat, 78 per cent by drought, 31 per cent by storm damage and 28 per cent by flooding. Those pressures are now showing up on balance sheets as well as fixture lists, through damaged grounds, higher insurance costs, lost match-day income and fewer opportunities for people to be active.
The financial exposure is starkest where water meets the pitch. BASIS found that 27 per cent of professional football, rugby league and rugby union stadiums analysed in England face a high direct flood risk, a share projected to rise to 35 per cent under future climate scenarios. AFC Wimbledon reported nearly £900,000 in stadium flood costs in its 2025 accounts, while Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s flood-prone New Road ground has repeatedly faced questions about its long-term viability, and Carlisle United have described flood insurance for Brunton Park as increasingly unaffordable.
Even the biggest clubs are now flagging the risk. Manchester United have warned investors that extreme weather could damage property, disrupt match-day operations and cause losses that insurance may not fully cover. The report argues that if a club of that scale and resources treats the risk as material, smaller and less financially resilient institutions cannot reasonably treat it as peripheral.
The disruption extends deep into the fixture calendar. Research cited by BASIS found at least 118 weather-related postponements across the top six tiers of English men’s football between the 2021-22 and 2025-26 seasons, with lower-league and non-league clubs bearing the brunt. For clubs operating on tight budgets, a cancelled or rearranged match can mean lower attendances and lost revenue.
The summer of 2026 made the threat tangible. After a long, hot and exceptionally dry summer, the Rugby Football Union took the unprecedented step of postponing the start of the community rugby season in September because of rock-hard pitches and player welfare concerns. Beyond elite sport, BASIS warned that climate change risks undermining public health: Sport England found that nearly three-quarters of people affected by this year’s unprecedented heatwaves took part in less sport and physical activity.
The report calls for climate resilience to become a boardroom priority across British sport, with dedicated adaptation plans, better reporting and a £30 million annual fund to help protect grassroots facilities from increasingly volatile weather. Its founder, Russell Seymour, said sport was already paying the price through damaged grounds, rising insurance costs and lost income, and that extreme weather was no longer a series of isolated disruptions but a material, recurring and intensifying business risk.
Note: the featured image is a file photo of a flooded football pitch in the Czech Republic in 2013, not a photograph of a British stadium.
Sources: Reuters, “British sport under-prepared for climate risks as costs rise, report says” (5 November 2026), https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/british-sport-under-prepared-climate-risks-costs-rise-report-says-2026-11-05/
