WET WINTER HIGHLIGHTS DIRE GROUND SHORTAG

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Capital Football is one of seven Federations affiliated to New Zealand Football. We

administer and develop football (soccer) in the Greater Wellington, Horowhenua-Kapiti

and Wairarapa regions.

Our playing numbers continue to grow significantly and the issue of grounds and

associated facilities is perhaps the biggest single issue facing the game in this region. We

welcome the opportunity to make a submission on Wellington City Council�s (WCC)

Draft Annual Plan as it relates to this issue.

We recently copied to WCC details of our playing numbers for this season. Highlights

from those numbers are as follows:

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but also a move to smaller-sided teams);

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in 2004 to 271 in 2008, an increase of over 20% in 4 years;

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Zone region

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What is harder to measure is the growing demand for football of some type over the

summer months, but it is increasing. This might be Futsal, 5-a-side, business house,

NZFC (National League), Nationa l Women�s League, Capital Football Academies for

elite players, the Hyundai A-League season, pre-season tournaments, Ethnic

Tournaments (WCC has been a great supporter of these) or Beach Football. Not all of

theses forms of football create demand for traditional football pitches, but many do.

Football as a game has been gaining in popularity in New Zealand for many years but we

have a few extra factors in our favour in the Greater Wellington region.

In particular, the arrival of Wellington Phoenix has been a major boost for the game and

it�s great to see our junior numbers up despite us having significantly increased our junior

affiliation fees this year. The �Phoenix Effect� has probably been more prevalent though

in Senior football, with the extra 15 men�s teams and 3 women�s teams seemingly driven

by a number of mature players returning to the game, or giving it a go for the first time.

As well as the rise of The Phoenix our local NZFC team, Team Wellington, has just

completed its best-ever season making the Final of the competition.

We anticipate these positive influences on our game continuing, with one huge extra

opportunity to grow our game leading into next season. In October/November of this year

New Zealand hosts the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women�s World Cup and Wellington is one

of four host cities. FIFA treats these sorts of tournaments as �legacy events� -

opportunities to grow the game on a sustained basis. We expect a significant surge in

interest in football leading into and after this tournament, particularly in the

girls/women�s game.

Running out of grounds to play football on is just about the best problem that we could

have, but it�s still a problem requiring a solution. In fact, we label �grounds� as the

biggest single issue facing football in this region. When we say �grounds� we mean both

the number of grounds and the quality of grounds and associated facilities.

Whilst our playing numbers have been growing, over the last four years especially, our

grounds �stocks� have not. The only �new� grounds that football has picked up in that

time have been those at McAllister Park in 2007, whereby three rugby fields were

converted to two senior and one junior football fields. This reallocation was hugely

beneficial for us, in an area where the �pinch� is most acute i.e. the central city. However,

the benefit has been largely offset by the loss of other grounds. In 2007 we lost Newtown

Park # 2 to renovations for The Phoenix, and # 1 was all but lost as a temporary training

ground for The Phoenix. This year we have the use again of Newtown Park # 1 but we

await the loss of Cobham Drive, at which point we are back to square one.

Add into the mix the loss of all the fields at Karori Park while it was redeveloped, and the

ongoing restrictions there, and there has never been more pressure on our grounds. This

redevelopment will of course have tremendous longer-term benefits for football (and

other activities), but it has put a short-term strain on our game, and that continues.

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Further pressure has been created by the frequent closure or restrictions on grounds such

as Anderson Park and The Velodrome.

As well as the number of grounds available to football we are keenly interested in the

quality of grounds. As our numbers grow we are playing more ga mes per ground, and

regularly using more grounds that in the past would have been considered �back-up�

grounds. The more the standard of our grounds suffers with over-use, the more we

threaten to reduce or reverse the growth that we�re generating � because the quality of the

playing or training experience diminishes, and matches and training sessions are

cancelled. Football is a sport that relies on a reasonable surface to play the game.

We have worked very hard over the close-season with WCC, other Councils and Schools

to establish some �new� junior fields; partly to accommodate growth in playing numbers

but in particular to accommodate a reduction in some team sizes. We are moving towards

a model that provides children more time and space to play, on appropriately-sized fields.

This model, or variations of it, is well established in other footballing nations, and indeed

in parts of New Zealand, The move has created a need for more playing slots. We�ve

managed our way through the changes coming into force this year, but face another

challenge next year as the next age -group changes over.

It�s taken a lot of work and assistance from the likes of WCC to �create� more junior

grounds but we�re using some School fields, reconfiguring some grounds (made possible

by introducing portable goalposts), and squeezing in small pitches where we can.

Although it �s been hard work the task of finding new junior-sized grounds, especially the

smaller ones that we�ve needed this year, has been easy compared to finding senior

grounds.

At the beginning of this season we didn�t think we�d be able to cope with the increase in

senior numbers that were being indicated to us. We asked Clubs if they�d consider

playing on Sundays because the grounds situation was so tight. (That in itself wouldn�t be

a miracle solution because it�s still another match on the same grounds, but it would free

up some time slots if the grounds could handle the extra load.) That was rejected, but we

continue to send the message that we have to be more flexible around our limited grounds

resources. Ultimately we did get every team into a competition and the season is

underway � but we are at maximum capacity. In fact, we did turn away a couple of late

entries whereas in previous years we would have tried to sneak them into a league at the

last minute.

As a sport we are undertaking the following activities to maximise the use of grounds:

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pressures, and plan the longer-term;

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planning for facilities;

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times, days, locations, etc.;

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in this regard);

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of senior football there is limited ability to do this.

More new fields � we acknowledge that space is very limited in Wellington City, and that

with former landfills not being converted into sports fields, there is not a lot of

opportunity to �create� new fields.

Reallocating grounds between codes � we suggest that football�s utilisation rates are now

so high that the rates point to a reallocation being overdue. Perhaps this is more

operational than a Draft Annual Plan deals with but the point is relevant in the context of

this submission.

Greater investment in drainage, irrigation and ongoing maintenance � we think that the

quality of a lot of WCC�s football grounds is insufficient relative to the workloads we

place upon them. We acknowledge that even with greater investment they will still be

grass pitches with limited capacity, and will be subject to winter conditions, but the

quality of the surfaces could be improved with more resource dedicated to this area of the

budget. This is not to take anything away from the Parks and Gardens team which is

doing a good job in our view, within a restricted budget.

Artificial Turfs � we welcome the Council�s intentions to invest in artificial pitches.

Given the limiting geography of Wellington, and the continued growth of our

predominantly winter code, artificial pitches must be part of the solution.

Artificial pitches offer the chance to play football in almost any conditions. The challenge

for our members is to be flexible enough to engage with football outside of traditional

time-slots � this is part of the reason that we�ve been preaching flexibility for the last year

or so. We believe that once people experience the benefits of playing at an almostguaranteed

time, possibly when all other traditional winter sport is cancelled because of

the ground conditions, on a top-quality surface, the demand for time-slots will quickly

out-strip supply. There may some lingering perception that artificial surfaces make the

ball bounce 10m high and produce burns for players sliding on the ground, but

experience will quickly show otherwise. Some FIFA World Cup matches are now held on

artificial surfaces; that�s how good the new technology is.

We applaud and welcome the Council�s plan to build an artificial pitch at Nairnville Park.

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Although some people will question investing in a training facility, rather than a fullsized

match facility, we acknowledge WCC�s findings that it is the training hours that

really take a toll on our grounds, more than playing hours.

In terms of location, we think Nairnville is a very good choice. As an example, Onslow

Junior Soccer Club is the biggest Junior Club in our Federation and really only has

Nairnville and local Schools for all its teams to train at. This was unsustainable last year

and we had to virtually close one of two senior pitches at Nairnville for senior play, so

that the junior teams has somewhere to train, and close the other one to junior training so

that we could play senior football on it. Even then both pitches were often closed.

We look forward to the artificial turf quickly proving itself as a quality surface, as it has

done thousands of times over in Europe in particular, and seeing the Council quickly

following up with some full-sized artificial pitches. This will enable us to schedule some

key fixtures with more confidence, get through more matches, and offer a top-quality

playing surface for everyone, but especially our players in elite programmes or teams.

This extends right though to The Phoenix when they cannot train on grass.

We ask the Council to recognise the special role that football plays in so many

households in the Greater Wellington area, and the growth in the numbers of those who

enjoy the game, both now and in the future. At a time when society is trying to find ways

of keeping people active and healthy football is delivering � in the face of all the other

pastimes competing for people�s time. The game is in good shape to grow but more than

ever that growth is limited by our grounds and associated facilities.

We ask that Wellington City Council continues its good work in moving towards

artificial turfs, but that it increases and accelerates its investment in this regard. Whilst

it�s encouraging to see plans for new pitches extending out to 2017/18 we don�t believe

football can wait that long. Investment in the Wellington City area is needed much

sooner; we�d like to see greater and earlier emphasis on proposed developments such as

Wakefield Park.

We would welcome the opportunity to support this paper with an oral submission.

Please let me know if you require any further information.

Keith Palmer

General Manager