Ovington Cricket Club on Albemarle Road seeks to extend the existing 80-year-old building by a further 110m2 to 180m2 on part of Micklegate Stray.
Plans submitted to City of York Council, which owns the common land being sought, say the extension will include a new tear room, kitchenette, garage equipment store and extra changing rooms, with showers and toilets.
The current facility at South Bank, they say, is not large enough for the club and bigger and better facilities will help it meet the needs of this century.
Planning documents say the original air raid shelter was built during 1939-45. After the Second World War, Ovington Cricket Club shared the use of the building as a changing room with Alliance Cricket Club until they moved to a new home at Clifton Without.
The improvements, they continue, “would constitute a significant step in not just retaining summer sport on the Knavesmire, but in allowing OCC to continue to grow, with all the indisputable community and youth benefits that would accrue.”
Ovington Cricket Club has been very successful in recent years, both with thriving junior divisions of 80 players- it’s highest ever- and the senior men’s first team now in Division 1 (West) of the York and District Senior Cricket League.
“For these two reasons alone, the current pavilion facility is, quite simply, no longer fit for purpose,” the application also said.
“The Club is now much larger in scope and purpose than it was even 10 years ago and it has become imperative that we develop our facilities to bring them up to a standard befitting the trajectory of the Club as we move through the 21st century.”
The plans also said: “Our junior section is one of the most successful in the whole of the York area. It was established some thirty years ago and has never been as large as it is today.
“Indeed, the sheer volume of its activities renders our ability to store equipment and provide suitable changing facilities severely compromised.”
This included a lack of dedicated changing space for girls and young women players, a number expected to increase further.
The club also credited the success of its juniors then driving more success for the seniors.
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With it competing in higher level leagues, the club is also expected to have better facilities, most notably for changing rooms and serving teas.
Already, the poor state of the existing facilities meant some home games are not allowed to take place at the venue.
The application added the club has been working with local residents and councillors in developing its proposals and it was keen for good relations with them to continue.