Manchester Titans Awarded Inaugural BAFA Community Heroes Award for Club of the Year
At the start of the year, BAFA introduced the Community Heroes Awards, “recognising and celebrating the people, clubs and organisations who bring to life the values at the heart of [BAFA’s] Together to Inspire strategy and help make Britball a better place for everyone.”
“Manchester Titans have been named our inaugural winners, recognising the breadth of their club, with teams competing across almost every level of BAFA competition. Their nomination also highlighted their contribution to the wider game, strong performances across contact and flag, and the game day experience they have developed at every level, including commentary, livestreams and opportunities for supporters to engage with the club.”
— BAFA
B West and Liam Twigg accepting the Club of the Year award at Britbowl XXXVIII. Photo by @BR7Film.
As a club we are honoured to have been nominated in this category and to accept this incredible award and we would like to thank BAFA for recognising the work on and off the field at the Manchester Titans this year. At Titans, we are firm believers that you have to be the change you wish to see - “the Manchester way is to make it yourself”.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank absolutely everyone at Manchester Titans for playing their part this year - no matter how big or small - and to put some of our behind-the-scenes heroes in the spotlight and give them their flowers for the remarkable ways they have gone above and beyond.
Media
Stuart Robinson, Media Manager. Photo by Katie Stepek.
Over the past couple of years Stuart has put an immense amount of time and effort into the Titans media strategy and improving our livestream product. We have gone from renting and borrowing pieces of equipment from universities to investing into our own; from a one-camera set-up to a 2-3 angle broadcast; from static graphics to creative and dynamic overlays and engaging production effects. Stuart is constantly learning new ways to tweak and improve the stream, and we have made incredible strides thanks to his commitment to streaming every Titans event he possibly could this year. Every game is a new opportunity to implement solutions to past mistakes, make some more mistakes, and learn from those, rinse repeat.
In a bid to make Titans football accessible to watch for everyone regardless of where they are in the world, in the past 12 months we have not only live-streamed our Premiership team’s games, but also those of our Women’s Contact team, our U19s, our U16s, and both Mixed and Women’s Flag. We not only reach our players’ families and friends living further afield, but we also reach (a surprising amount of) fans globally - we frequently see North Americans commenting on our YouTube live-chat while having their breakfast! It may not be an “NFL on Fox” standard broadcast (yet) but by putting ourselves out there we’re telling the world “We exist, we care about this, and we hope you do too.”
Stuart has a zero tolerance policy with regards to generative AI across the Titans media strategy because it’s important to us that we champion human creativity and talent and provide opportunities for creatives from all walks of life to do what they love. He has engaged current members, ex-members, local university students, fans, and entirely unaffiliated enjoyers of American Football who want to use their talents to help the club in some way: we now have a core group of volunteers who provide livestream commentary, work on the stream production, do photography, videography, graphic design, and other content creation across the wider club. He has been instrumental in building relationships with local creatives and fostering a community dedicated to capturing the club’s energy and passion, narrating the club’s epic highs and lows, and creating beautiful imagery for our members and fans alike to enjoy.
If you enjoy or are interested in graphic design, creating content, filming videos, working on a live broadcast, editing highlights, writing, interviewing - or anything to do with media we’ve not mentioned here - get in touch with Stuart at media@manchestertitans.co.uk.
Game Day
B West, Game Day Manager. Photo by James Camenzuli.
If you’ve been to a Titans game day this year you will undoubtedly have seen B in and around the stadium hard at work in their high-vis vest. From organising food vendors and negotiating facility requirements to designing games for fans and running half-time entertainment, they took on an absolutely mammoth task this year and gave it their all.
There are a million things to do on a Saturday afternoon (or evening!) in Manchester so B and the game day team keep their ear to the ground during game days to find out what our fans love and what keeps them coming back. Our merch desk is not only a bright royal blue beacon for arriving fans but also a hub for suggestions, support, and feedback. After every game day the team goes through a thorough review of the event to ensure the next one is even better. It’s a constantly evolving process and it’s fantastic to see our events grow and to see our supporters enjoy each new addition and improvement.
In the past two years our Premiership game day attendance has increased from a handful of friends and family at regular season games in 2023 to an average attendance of 300 in 2026 culminating with over 500 spectators in the grandstand for our semi-final fixture against London Blitz. Not only have we improved our game day product for the Premiership team but we have expanded this approach to game day management across every team in the club to ensure all Titans home events have a uniform look and feel - every event follows the same structure and contains most of the same features depending on the wants and needs of each individual team/discipline. Not every team will want flares and a bombastic run-out, but the option is always on the table.
Our thanks go out to B and the game day team for making our events so special this year and for continuing to push the envelope on what’s possible for our club! If you’ve enjoyed our game days and want to get involved behind the scenes, get in touch with B at gameday@manchestertitans.co.uk.
Retail and Commerce
Gaz Shadwell, Retail and Commerce Manager. Photo by Farrell James.
Alongside being a player for the Titans’ Premiership team, Gaz has worked tirelessly this year on our merchandise offering - both to players and to fans. He oversees the complete end to end process of Titans merchandising, from the designs to the deliveries. The lofty goal was to bring our merchandising entirely in-house so we could provide new and unique merch designs to our players and fans and offer an extensive range to display and sell at our in-person game day shop.
Thanks to Gaz, his retail team, and our fantastic Club Shop volunteers we achieved this goal incredibly (but not surprisingly) quickly. Gaz’s love for this club and his enthusiasm for creating unique designs on high quality but affordable apparel that fans and players actually want to wear has been instrumental in the commercial success of our merchandise, both online and at games. It’s important to us that we can quickly turn around new collections and designs based on the feedback from our club members and our fans.
So if you have ideas and suggestions for merchandise you would like to see or would like to join our retail team, we would love to hear from you! Get in touch with Gaz at g.shadwell@manchestertitans.co.uk.
Communications, Outreach and Equipment
Madeleine Tjalma - Head of Communications, Equipment Manager, Adult Contact Team Manager. Photo by Rory Macnair.
Working in tandem with George on almost all aspects of operations, Maddy sits at the heart of much of the invisible work that makes the Manchester Titans run like a well-oiled machine or a swan, if you will, gliding gracefully across the water. What you don’t see is its feet frantically paddling beneath the surface propelling it forward. That’s Maddy. A near unstoppable engine of energy working day and night to ensure that things in the club work as efficiently as possible.
Over the past 2 years Maddy has led the club’s equipment strategy, not only increasing the club’s stock of helmets from 15 in December 2024 to 85 at the start of the 2026 season but also implementing a kit catalogue to meticulously track how much kit the club has, to whom it’s been signed out, and when it will need replacing. For a club of over 200 members playing contact football, this has revolutionised our ability to provide safe kit to everyone who needs it, lowering barriers to the sport for all, but also to protect our investment by knowing where it should be at all times.
She’s also the driving force behind the Titans’ wider community outreach, organising a Titans presence at external events such as NFL watch parties and the upcoming Union Jack Classic College Football game in London, and engaging with youth zones and schools to bring American Football to more children in the Greater Manchester area. She is the de facto Titans Press Office, handling the majority of in- and outbound general enquiries and building positive working relationships with BAFA, other clubs, and other external stakeholders.
Club Operations
George Foster - Head of Operations. Photo by Hannah McManus.
As Head of Operations, George has been part of and overseen the implementation of all aspects of the club’s operational side - from the new website and the streamlining of member registrations and payments, club-wide financial reporting and roll-out of the new game day product and livestream, and improved collaboration and communication across all teams in the club. The majority of the work done by the operations team is invisible - it’s about structures, processes, and governance - all the unsexy things that make a club of this (or any) size run smoothly. In creating the operations team, the aim was to separate the day-to-day running of the club from individual team requirements, allowing coaches and players to focus on football - secure in the knowledge that their game days, travel, finances, and overhead admin were all taken care of centrally by Club Operations.
George has an ambitious vision for the Manchester Titans, a relentless drive to realise it, and the ability to inspire those around him to make his vision a reality. He’s also not shy about getting stuck into the grunt work himself and getting his hands dirty - quite literally, as he spent about 10 hours painting the Titans sword logo on the stadium pitch for the semi-final.
The creation of the Operations Team has quite frankly revolutionised how our club operates and we would like to take this opportunity to thank George for the endless hours of work he and his entire team have put in and continue to put in to drive the Manchester Titans forward.
If you would like to be a part of the Operations Team, please get in touch with George at george.foster@manchestertitans.co.uk.
Our incredible Elisa and club shop manager Karina Foster (yes, that’s George’s mum). Photo by James Camenzuli.
It’s not easy to put structures in place to help everyone in the club pull in the same direction, but it’s not complicated either. It’s not easy to recruit and retain volunteers to turn your grand ideas into a reality, but it’s not complicated either. All of these things do require structured and sustained effort over time and, crucially, always appreciating the people putting themselves forward to help.
Our club currently is run exclusively by volunteers, and we cannot emphasise enough how grateful we are for every single person who gave us their time to make some very special things happen this year. Thank you for believing in the Titans.
We would like to impress upon everyone in the wider Britball community that the secret to our success isn’t a secret - and it never will be. If you are reading this as a member of another club and you’re interested to learn more about our operations, we are more than happy to show you how we do things so please do not hesitate to reach out. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Ⓜ️