A new report commissioned by the Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (NSROC) reviewing the supply and demand for sports facilities in the northern Sydney region has revealed a significant and growing shortfall in supply across Local Government Areas in the region.
NSROC is comprised of eight councils from the northern Sydney area.
NSROC member councils are Hornsby, Hunter’s Hill, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Ryde and Willoughby.
NSROC facilitates collaboration between member councils on projects and shared priorities and NSROC develops regional solutions and regional reports and data.
On 13 December 2203, NSROC released an 81-page report – Review of Supply and Demand for Sports Facilities in the NSROC Region (2023 Report).
The 2023 Report was prepared by Otium Planning Group and outlines trends in participation and emerging sports, including those resulting from the impacts of COVID-19 and assesses supply and demand in the region in line with forecasted population growth along with identifying both threats and opportunities to mitigate the shortfall.
Key Findings include:
- There is a crucial need to increase the current supply capacity of NSROC sports facilities by 40% to 2026 (equivalent to 181Ha of total space) and 49% to 2036 (equivalent to 222Ha of total space);
- In order to address the current and increasing shortfall of sports facilities within the NSROC region, a number of barriers will need to be considered including a lack of suitable land located in proximity to the majority of our population and high costs attributed to creating new sports facilities including sportsgrounds.
The 2023 Report’s major findings will come as no surprise to the NSROC member council and local sporting groups. The Lane Cove Sport and Recreation Facility project at 180 River Road Lane Cove directly results from Lane Cove Council and local sporting groups trying to address the lack of indoor courts (and some outdoor courts, such as Netball) in the Lane Cove Council area and neighbouring suburbs. Read more here.
The 2023 Report notes a projected 11.3% population increase in the NSROC area by 2036, which means an increase in sports infrastructure is crucial in maintaining liveable and cohesive communities.
The 2023 Report was prepared before the NSW Government announced the Medium Density Housing Plans and the Traffic Orientated Development Programme.
The State Government has identified eight Sydney transport hubs for accelerated rezoning for the delivery of up to 47,800 new high and mid-rise homes over the next 15 years.
Crows Nest, and, Hornsby are two Northern Sydney areas that will undergo rezoning by November 2024 to provide significant uplift and support new homes within 1200m of their Metro and rail stations. This makes the need for sporting facilities even more pressing.
What Are the Future Opportunities to Address Sports Facility Demand?
The following were identified (in no particular order):
- Invest in sports facilities that support grassroots community participation only.
- Continue to advocate to the NSW Government for enhanced and formalised access to school facilities and to include recreation land with future land acquisition strategies.
- Incentivise and promote commercial developer and operator investment in sports facilities.
- Investigate opportunities at publicly owned golf courses to retain golf, yet introduce alternative uses for sport.
- Continue to enhance the capacity of sports grounds through improved best practice design and lighting,
- synthetic surface conversion (whole or part) and expanded maintenance regimes.
- Continue to modernise policy and guidelines to optimise the capacity of current sporting facilities and expand community accessibility.
- Investigate opportunities for alternative locations for active recreation and community sports.
- Explore opportunities for consolidation and re-purposing of current facilities to meet changing demand and participation trends.
- Promote partnership opportunities for repurposing indoor spaces to accommodate indoor sports and facilitating rooftop opportunities, including shopping centres, offices, and residential buildings for sports.
- Introduce opportunities within the recreation parks network to accommodate smaller/ modified versions of traditional sports.
Retain Golf Courses
It’s interesting to note the report recommends retaining golf courses. In recent years, the future of golf courses has been hotly debated.
The report notes:
“..the 2022 Golf Australia Golf Club Participation Report has indicated significant increases in both memberships and general participation.
Golf and other singular-based sports experienced higher levels of participation than formalised sport throughout the Pandemic, induced by the COVID 19 health restrictions, where such activities were able to continue on a restricted basis.
These participation increases have immediately been sustained post-COVID 19 at levels equivalent to the increases during the Pandemic and at rates higher than pre-COVID 19.
It is too early at this stage to determine whether these trends will be maintained and whether there will be a shift back to more traditional team sports overtime.
It is reasonable though given the investment in changing activity patterns (learning the sport) and investment in equipment that such increases are likely to be sustained.
Opportunities to enhance golf courses to retain golf, yet introduce alternative uses include, however, are not limited to:
- Emerging sports
- Archery
- Playing fields
- Nature-based recreation
- Community events
- Orienteering
- Parkrun.
Golf course clubhouse facilities could also support specialist indoor sports activities such as dance, martial arts and yoga/ pilates.”
In recent years the Lane Cove Public School has held family movie nights on the Lane Cove Golf Course first tee – the Fairway Flicks were popular and another way to utilise the Golf Course.
The Garingal Orienteering Club holds several events in Lane Cove – usually around Blackman Park.
Why Was the Report Commissioned?
For a considerable time, NSROC member councils have been concerned about the capacity of sports facilities to meet the needs of the growing population.
The NSROC 2017 Regional Sportsground Management Strategy Review (excluding Mosman) investigated sports field capacity (such as Blackman Park or Tantallon Oval) and found a large and increasing deficit between the demand and supply of sportsgrounds in the NSROC region (2017 Report).
The 2017 Report noted that (excluding Mosman), the playing space gap for sports grounds was projected to be 60 hectares by 2026 (26% over current capacity) and 94 hectares (over 40% of current capacity) by 2036. In response to this gap, the 2017 Report recommended the provision of indoor facilities to manage increasing demand.
Since the 2017 Report, the NSROC region and the broader Sydney metropolitan area have undergone rapid changes in response to extreme weather events and the COVID-19 pandemic.
NSROC councils have observed subsequent changes in sports participation patterns, with some activities declining in popularity and others experiencing an unexpected resurgence.
There was a need to assess these changes and update NSROC Council members’ understanding of sports participation trends and their impact on the demand for sports facilities. The 2023 Report – Review of the Supply and Demand gaps for sports facilities in the NSROC region was undertaken in this context.
2023 Report Launch
NSROC President and Mosman Mayor Cr Carolyn Corrigan was joined by Hornsby Shire Mayor, the Hon Philip Ruddock AO and President of Parks and Leisure Australia, Les Munn, for the launch of the 2023 Report. They, collectively called on the State and Federal Governments to recognise the importance of ongoing commitments to funding and grant programs for such facilities in the region.
Councillor Carolyn Corrigan said:
“Since our last report on this matter was published in 2017, NSROC Member Councils have been working diligently and working hard in an attempt to minimise the growing deficit in sport and leisure spaces in our region,” said Cr Carolyn Corrigan.
“Unfortunately, this latest report highlights that despite our best efforts, the mounting pressure of population growth is making it very tough for our member Councils to keep up with the demand. NSROC and the Mayors of the councils of Northern Sydney are calling on state government to recognise that with increased housing, public space and infrastructure for recreation and sport is more important than ever.
“We need the continued support of the State and Federal Governments in providing these resources for our communities through support for existing projects and grant programs.”
The launch event occurred at the Hornsby Shire Council’s Westleigh Park development site—a future premiere sporting complex featuring three platforms encompassing six sports grounds, including five fields and an athletics track.
Commencing construction in late 2024, the facility—funded by Hornsby Shire Council and the NSW State Government—is the most significant single opportunity in the northern suburbs area to address the shortfall.
Les Munn, President of Parks and Leisure Australia, said:
“Sportsgrounds are increasingly under pressure to meet demand and proposals aimed at increasing their use. Rising populations and an increasing presence of women in some traditionally male-dominated sports are putting welcomed, yet additional pressure on existing sports facilities to cater for the ballooning demand.
“Such open space and sports facility standards are readily applied in greenfield suburbs but are often absent in the established suburbs of Sydney, yet it’s these suburbs that are asked to shoulder the weight of population growth without due consideration to the need for these sorts of facilities that are simply crucial to the healthy functioning of communities.”
Download the Review of Supply and Demand for Sports Facilities in the NSROC Region here.
Help Support Local and Independent News
You can support us in three ways:
- Become an ITC reader sponsor – If you have enjoyed our local news coverage, please consider becoming an ITC reader sponsor. You can sponsor us with a monthly sponsorship fee. We have reader sponsors who support us for $5.00 a month and some who invest $100 a year – no amount is too small or too big. Thank you so much to those who supported us via our press Patreon account. Help Us Here.
- Buy the ITC team a coffee – We now have a team, and they need to be paid – by the ITC team a coffee (or two) that will help us pay their wages. Buy a Coffee here.
- If you own a Lane Cove Business or a Lane Cove resident who owns a business, you can advertise with ITC. Please email us here for our rates card.
