Wet weather floods sportsgrounds in winter, and high temperatures make it impossible to play in summer. How recreational athletes can continue to get their fix was on the agenda at Wollongong’s July council meeting. Photo: Flooding around Dapto, Michael Hughes.
Soccer in summer and cricket well into autumn could be on the cards to allow recreational athletes to fit their seasons around climate change.
At the July Wollongong City Council meeting Councillor Mithra Cox put forward a motion to adapt sports seasons around flood events that are closing sports fields regularly throughout the winter season.
“For a lot of people sports are their outlet, their connection to community,” she said.
“But for the past couple of seasons we’ve seen utter chaos. Whole seasons wiped out, or as few as four games for teams since April.
“This has a significant impact on people’s mental health.”
The motion proposed the council develop a climate mitigation plan for community sport.
In the short term the council would work with sports associations to extend the winter outdoor sport season for codes significantly affected by ongoing wet weather.
In the longer term, the council will develop an additional chapter of the Sportsgrounds and Sporting Facilities Strategy that deals specifically with climate adaptations for community sport.
These could include plans for drainage, irrigation and shade at established sporting grounds, planning for one or more indoor multi-use sporting facilities to be booked by clubs and teams in the instance of flooding or extreme heat and working with other government agencies on facilities sharing plans.
There was some debate about how these adaptations would work – and which sports would get priority.
Councillor Dom Figliomini was concerned about extending the season for winter sports into the summer.
“If the extended season overlaps with cricket, we’re just robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he said.
“Our intention is to find a way for people to make up for lost games, and I think we can do that without affecting the cricket season.”
Councillor Janice Kershaw also identified challenges around goals and line marking if sports games were moved to alternate grounds.
“The money has to come from somewhere and we have no budget for it,” she said.
“Many people play both winter and summer sport and that may clash if we extend the season.
“It’s swings and roundabouts.”
Cr Cox suggested clubs could take responsibility for line marking and goals if they were keen to make up for lost games.
She kicked a goal in the end – with a few variations the motion was passed unanimously.
Loading ...
