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Opinion
Dedicated, year-round facilities for football have long been a discussion point for our community and the situation is improving.
Work is progressing swiftly on the new ‘home of the Matildas’, on land owned by LaTrobe University in Melbourne.
A huge project, funded by the Federal and Victoria Governments, the facility is worth more than $50 million and will be the headquarters of Football Victoria, semi-professional football, and the intermittent home of the Matildas and Socceroos in Melbourne.
Labelling this wide-use facility the home of women’s football is a nifty piece of public relations, not least because it leaves open the question of ‘what about a home for the Socceroos?’
Naturally, Graham Arnold is on the case. As part of his post-World Cup call for change and legacy-building for football, he has called for just that. But where might Football Australia seek to build such an important facility?
(Photo by Youssef Loulidi/Fantasista/Getty Images,)
Two Years yago, it was reported that Football Australia had applied to Bayside Council in Sydney to take over the new development at the old St George Stadium at Barton Park.
This stadium was one of the first purpose-built grounds of the NSL era, being the home of Johnny Warren’s St George Budapest.
But since St George dropped out of the NSL, the stadium fell out of professional use and into a sad state of disrepair. The wreck of the old stadium is finally being demolished by council and a new football facility is being built in its place.
With three pitches and futsal courts, this facility is a big improvement on what is currently there, but neither Football Australia nor Bayside Council received the tens of millions of state or federal funding to make this facility professional standard and St George FC, now an NPL club, are looking forward to moving back in.
This is great news for grassroots football, but arguably a big loss for professional football.
Fortunately, the missed opportunity at Barton Park is not generally indicative of the kinds of high capacity, year-round facilities that have coming online for the game.
Football NSW has set the standard with Valentine Park, Northern NSW Football has Speers Point, similar facilities are in the pipeline for Capital Football and Football West’s State Football Centre, and Football South Australia recently opened its impressive new headquarters at Gepps Cross.
These facilities add critical capacity for community leagues, especially for Spring and Summer when local councils almost always kick football off its fields so that cricket can be played.
I don’t want to start an interstate feud about where an equivalent home for the Socceroos would be sited, but if the Matildas are to be based in Australia’s second city, then Football Australia is probably thinking that Sydney would be the natural home for our other major team.
So where in Sydney would such a facility be built?
The really tough part in answering this question is finding available urban land that has enough space. The home of the Matildas has five pitches, a gym and administrative facilities, across an impressive six hectares of land.
Land is a premium in the capital cities, and sometime overcoming entrenched opposition from locals can wreck a worthy proposal, as Melbourne Victory found out with their proposal to build on existing public ovals in Footscray.
Steering clear of public land, especially that used by existing grassroots sporting groups, will be important to avoid any public backlash.
My personal suspicion is that FA and Graham Arnold might have one eye on Fairfield Showgrounds in South West Sydney. This site used to incorporate a raceway, but was redeveloped into a multi-code facility just a few years ago, including a new grandstand.
But to date it appears that only our code of football is a regular user, with Macarthur Bulls using it until their fancy new digs out at Cawdor are finished.
With two existing football pitches and space for two more, plus grandstand and player amenities, this facility already hits the mark.
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