Why one Adelaide sports group doesn’t want hockey in the south Parklands

A SPORTING community is rallying to oppose plans for a $10 million hockey hub in the south Parklands. Here’s why one code is so opposed to another.

An artist’s impresion of the multimillion dollar hockey ground in the south Parklands

• What new $10m city sports ground would look like

THE touch football community is rallying to oppose plans for a $10 million hockey hub in the south Parklands, fearing it will leave the sport without a home and trigger a drop in participation.

Dozens of Touch SA members last week gathered at the sport’s Park 17 base to voice concerns about a proposal to build two international-sized hockey pitches and a two-storey clubhouse on the playing fields.

Touch Football SA advisory panel chair Jane Russo told the meeting about 10,000 social, school, masters and representative players would be forced out of the sport’s home of the past 20 years if the hockey plan went ahead.

“This proposal, it means that we cannot be here, it simply does not cater to our needs,” Mrs Russo said.

“We will need to go somewhere else and we might get smaller.

“That’s something I want to know – will you continue to play touch if this isn’t here?”

An artist’s impresion of the multimillion dollar hockey ground in the south Parklands.

Burnside and Adelaide hockey clubs approached Adelaide City Council with plans for the multi-million dollar hub, which they say will fill a gap in pitches in the region, attract new players and help draw international events to SA.

It will also end Burnside’s more than decade-long search for a home ground and clubrooms.

At last week’s meeting, which included players, referees, coaches and parents, one Touch SA member said their sport’s statewide base should not be displaced for just two clubs, while another argued touch football fields were a better use of the Parklands than “fenced-off” hockey pitches.

“When you think about how the Parklands are intended to be used, it’s multi-use, multi-purpose – which is what you have now at Park 17,” the member said.

Touch Football Australia chief executive Colm Maguire backed calls for touch football to remain at Park 17, saying the venue was “central” to the sport’s growth in SA.

Last week, the council would not be drawn on the future of Touch SA at Park 17, saying only it was committed to “increasing participation in formal and informal recreation and sport activities” in the Parklands.

Consultation on the plan is open until April 26 at yoursay.cityofadelaide.com.au