Photo: South Hobart coach Ken Morton hasn't seen much improvement in the two main football venues since he arrived in Tasmania in 1979 [PlessPix]
South
Hobart may have won the Milan Lakoseljac Cup on Monday and thus gained entry to
the FFA Cup competition as Tasmania’s representative, but the club has yet to
find a venue should they be drawn at home.
Their
home ground, South Hobart Oval, has a suitable surface but no floodlights.
FFA
Cup Round-of-32 games are always scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday nights, and
with no lights, South Hobart Oval cannot be the venue.
An
alternative would normally be KGV Park, and Olympia Warriors did play APIA
Leichhardt there in 2017.
But,
the artificial surface at KGV Park is no longer deemed up to the standard
required by Football Federation Australia, and the floodlights certainly don’t
meet the required standards.
This
has been evident for some time and has not been rectified.
Other
football grounds in southern Tasmania have better lighting, and Lightwood Park
is one such ground.
At
a media conference in Glenorchy today, South Hobart coach Ken Morton said it
was disappointing that other sports had upgraded their facilities and football
had not.
He
said hockey and AFL grounds had improved surfaces and lighting over the years
since he arrived in Tasmania in 1979, but football had not.
Morton
said other potential venues for any South Hobart home game in the FFA Cup
included the Twin Ovals in Kingston, North Hobart Oval, and Blundstone Arena at
Bellerive.
But,
he said AFL grounds didn’t afford spectators as good a view of the game as
purpose-built rectangular stadiums.
“Darcy
Street is a boutique stadium and a fantastic little ground and, if we had a
crowd like the at Monday’s final, it would be buzzing,” Morton said.
“It
would be humming down at Darcy Street and it’d be a great venue for the home
team.
“But,
unfortunately, it won’t happen because there are no lights there.
“It
is what it is, though, and we’ve got to move on and find ourselves another
venue”
Photo: Football Tasmania CEO Matt Bulkeley (left) and South Hobart coach Ken Morton at a media conference today [PlessPix]
Football
Tasmania CEO Matt Bulkeley said an audit of football facilities in Tasmania was
being conducted and shortfalls would be identified.
Federal
MP Andrew Wilkie did manage to obtain $1 million funding to improve facilities
at South Hobart Oval prior to the federal election, but there simply would not
be time to install proper flood-lighting before an FFA Cup match at the venue
this year.
Perhaps
it won’t matter. South Hobart may not
get a home draw.
But,
something has to be done because there’s always next year’s FFA Cup to
consider.
8 comments:
Why aren't there FFA Cup weekends so that games can be played on Saturdays and Sundays? That way, you wouldn't need floodlighting and games could be played at many more venues and clubs such as South Hobart wouldn't be disadvantaged.
“An audit of football facilities ?” FFS! Is the CEO serious? Does he ever get out of the office? It’s been studied and stated over & over for years now how bleeding obvious is the problem? Individual clubs are way ahead of FT in terms of raising money & improving facilities. One coffee with Vicki Morton is all it’d take. Look at what she’s done first at Wellesley and now at D’Arcy Street. And now Knights are doing great things. It’s too polite by half. ITs decades of incompetence.
As a European everything is so far behind the times here it's like a third rate country for futbol
Lets hope FFT has nothing to do with anything that happens with any proposed club facilities. Our club has played Friday night matches at KGV over the last few seasons and we were left to lock up facilities after the match. No one from FFT was there plus had to pick up and drop the keys off to the takeaway shop next door. Yep, that's right!!! the takeaway shop!!! Bizarre to say the least! Couldn't pick up the keys on one occasion because the shop shut early so all the facilities were left unlocked over night. This shouldn't be happening.
The only audit that must be done is on the FFT staff including the CEO down that is where the problem lies in our game at present .
Same old, same old! Would struggle running a chook raffle. Might help if all employees had a love for the game? Just saying!
FFA statement saying that KGV is not up to standard. well how long has the plastic pitch been in ?. what a waste of 1.5 million dollars.
How about ripping the stand down putting decent drainage in put back the grass. we have a business at Richmond that just grows grass so easy to replace.
Knights and Zebras can play at POW bay, queens walk or the athletic centre till construction is completed.
Something has to be done about KGV and it will take time, no quick fix here.
FFT have had a couple of opportunities to leave grove Rd but for what ever reason they haven't.
FFT could of brought the old Kingston high school site to se up their business , next to a highway with plenty of land to build a class stadium. they probably could of done a similar thing out at Brighton.
They could of built their own futsal stadium by now and used it for winter training venues when grounds are closed but No can't be bothered.
A few years ago futsal was nearly a $100 000 business a year.
They ask clubs to have a sound business plan but do FFT, really leaves them open to scrutiny
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