Northern NSW Football (NNSWF) is set to welcome nine promised infrastructure upgrades from the Labor Government following the party’s win at the Federal election.
The commitments are a result of NNSWF’s strategy to lobby Federal MPs as part of its key strategic priority of Places to Play, as well as the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Legacy plan.
The commitments are from Labor candidates standing for election on Saturday.
“We thank sitting MPs and candidates who have made pledges to support football within their electorate,” NNSWF CEO David Eland said in a statement via the organisation.
“One of our priorities as part of our 2021-2023 Strategic Plan is ‘Places to Play’. So these commitments are not a coincidence. They are reflective of the work NNSWF and Member Zone staff have done over a number of years.”
NNSWF launched a comprehensive Facilities Audit in 2018 to capture data on more than 200 football facilities across northern NSW. A priority projects list was established in conjunction with clubs to advocate with all levels of government.
The NSW Football Infrastructure Strategy was then released in 2020. From this, NNSWF developed seven Local Infrastructure Strategies consisting of data from the audit and outlined a strategic direction to cater for the increase in participation based on five pillars:
- Planning for growth and demand
- Improve existing venue capacity
- Inclusive football facilities
- Homes of football
- Partnerships and investment
“Football is the largest team participation sport in NSW with our current rapid growth certain to continue,” Eland continued.
“We needed to plan for the future and identify the needs of our sport for those that currently play and for those that want to but can’t.
“We identified at the time that there could have been as many as 30,000 additional players across NSW that could have played in 2019 if they had access to a football facility.
“What we are doing is ensuring that football has the infrastructure and facilities to continue to grow into the future and players will have access to quality places to play wherever they are in our region.”
The clubs set to receive much-needed infrastructure upgrades following Labor’s election win are:
- Wallsend FC, Wallsend DDC ($286,000 for ground improvements, including irrigation on both fields)
- Newcastle Olympic FC ($625,000 for amenity improvements and a new grandstand)
- Maitland FC ($2,000,000 to upgrade lighting and to develop new amenities and a function centre)
- Valentine FC ($184,000 for amenities upgrades)
- Dudley United Senior FC ($320,000 for gender neutral amenities upgrade, disability access and toilets)
- Garden Suburbs FC ($400,000 for female friendly changerooms)
- Singleton Strikers FC (3,000,000 for upgrades to three full fields, multi-use court, upgraded amenities and carpark)
- Edgeworth FC ($65,000 for fencing, completion of lighting project and completion of dish drainage)
- Thornton JFC ($150,000 for lighting upgrade to two fields and new lighting to MiniRoos area)
