Football Fields Shine thanks to Community Investment Fund
Football NSW is delighted to announce the recipients of the second year of its highly successful ‘Let’s Light Up Football’ Campaign with 17 clubs/council’s being recently selected to receive funding.
Year Two of the Let’s Light Up Football Campaign has seen another $300,000 from the Community Investment Fund spread across NSW to provide much needed lighting upgrades for community football clubs across the state. The key objective of this Campaign is to incentivise a joint funding approach whereby matching contributions from a club and/or association is combined with local council support.
Together with projects supported in 2018, the Let’s Light Up Football campaign has now seen a total of $600,000 invested by football resulting in a further $5.8 million by clubs, associations and local councils. The key outcome is that over the first two years, 34 football fields in NSW will now be lit as a result of this campaign.
Football NSW CEO, Stuart Hodge commented, “Football NSW is thrilled to once again provide much needed funding to football clubs across NSW”.
“Improving field lighting is a fantastic opportunity for councils and clubs to increase the capacity of fields in a time when green space is scarce – none more so than in many of our associations in metropolitan Sydney”.
The recent NSW State-wide Facilities Audit revealed that lighting is a major concern across the state with 32% of fields not having lighting. For a sport predominantly played in the winter months lighting is a crucial element of any football facility allowing more hours for training and playing”.
“Lighting is a simple and effective way to improve a large number of community facilities for football”.
“The Fund was oversubscribed which again clearly demonstrates the need to light football fields across the state. Clubs are bursting at the seams and in some cases, there are multiple senior teams training on one full sized football field simply because there are not enough fields with lighting in their local area” further added Mr Hodge.
Fourteen grounds from metropolitan Sydney will be the beneficiaries of upgraded lighting with the remaining three projects, from as far south as Eurobodalla to as far west as Narromine, being from Regional NSW.
Successful applicants from the second year of the Let’s Light Up Football fund are as follows (alphabetical order):
| CLUB | COUNCIL | Venue | Amount |
| Ararat FC | City of Ryde | Tuckwell Park | $20,000 |
| Bankstown City Sports Club | City of Canterbury Bankstown | Potts Park | $20,000 |
| Blacktown & District Soccer FA | Blacktown City Council | William Lawson Park | $20,000 |
| Bodalla Soccer Club | Eurobodalla Shire Council | Bodalla soccer Oval | $20,000 |
| Bonnet Bay FC (SSFA) | Sutherland Shire Council | Tom Evans Fields | $20,000 |
| Canterbury and District Soccer Football Association | Inner West Council | Pratten Park | $20,000 |
| Corrimal Juniors FC | Wollongong City Council | Memorial Park | $4,803 |
| Hurlstone Park Wanderers FC | City of Canterbury Bankstown | Ewen Park | $20,000 |
| Miranda Magpies FC (SSFA) | Sutherland Shire Council | Seymour Shaw No.2 | $20,000 |
| Mount Pritchard Junior Soccer Club | Fairfield City Council | Joe Broad Park | $20,000 |
| Newington Soccer Club | City of Parramatta | Newington Reserve | $20,000 |
| Normanhurst FC | Hornsby Shire Council | Thornleigh Oval | $15,000 |
| North Sutherland Rockets (SSFA) | Sutherland Shire Council | Sutherland Oval No.3 | $20,000 |
| Shoalhaven District Football Association | Shoalhaven Council | South Nowra Football Grounds | $20,000 |
| Southern Districts Soccer Football Association | Liverpool City Council | Cirillo Reserve | $20,000 |
| St Ives Football Club | Ku-Ring-Gai Council | Warrimoo Oval | $20,000 |
| Trangie Soccer Club | Narromine Shire Council | Trangie Sporting Precinct | $5,000 |
The Community Investment Fund is a joint initiative of both Football NSW and Football Federation Australia (FFA) and is made possible by the FFA’s annual grant to Football NSW.
