Southwest sports get $30 million boost this year
SPORTS clubs across the southwest will cash in on a wave of upgrades starting this month, as work kicks off on a range of developments scheduled for this year.
South
Don't miss out on the headlines from South . Followed categories will be added to My News.
SPORTS clubs across the southwest will cash in on a wave of upgrades starting this month, as work kicks off on $30 million in developments scheduled for this year.
An $8.8 million upgrade of Edwardstown Oval started last week, while construction for a $7 million overhaul of Plympton’s Weigall Oval also began this month.
Alongside these projects is a $6 million project at Camden Oval, Novar Gardens, also scheduled to start soon.
Another $8.5 million has been set aside to build a new soccer ground and international standard BMX track at O’Halloran Hill.
Also underway is a long-awaited revamp of Weigall Oval — the home of Adelaide Angels Baseball Club and the Adelaide Omonia Cobras soccer club.
Edwardstown
SOUTH Coast Cycling Club president Chris May said the Edwardstown Oval upgrade would give his 100-member club its own building for the first time.
It will also involve resurfacing the south’s only outdoor velodrome.
“It will make it smoother and faster, which gives us more exciting racing,” Mr May said.
“We’re hoping to increase the novice training. We’re getting a few parents now ... and other people coming back to cycling once they get to adulthood.”
Mr May’s daughter Heather — a member of the SA Sports Institute squad — says having a new clubroom and smoother velodrome surface will be “fantastic”.
“Hopefully with the extra spectators’ seating and facilities, we’ll be able to host bigger club races and have the country kids come up and race as well,” she said.
The upgrade will include a new two-storey sports and community clubroom with function areas and a canteen, a spectator mound, cricket nets and storage areas, and improvements to the soldiers’ memorial grounds and carparking.
O’Halloran Hill
Down at O’Halloran Hill, The Cove soccer club president Leo De Pretis expected work to begin in March on his club’s new home at Majors Rd, which would bring its men’s, women’s and junior teams together for the first time in more than nine years.
“The juniors will be able to have their games there and watch the seniors play, and it makes everyone feel like they belong again,” Mr De Pretis said.
The new ground, to be managed by the Football Federation of SA, will feature two pitches with lights for night games and training, a spectator stand, clubroom and function centre.
Mr De Pretis said the project would help the club, which boasts “well in excess of 300 members”, to build its revenue.
The future of a BMX complex planned for land next door will be decided soon, as Marion and Onkaparinga councils work out what to do about expansive clay found on the earmarked site — part of the O’Halloran Hill Recreation Park.
The clay threatened to derail the project, as the councils and State Government had set aside $3.5 million toward the complex — to be named after Olympian Sam Willoughby — then found its cost could blow out to $6 million because of the clay’s impact on the track.
The councils will next week consider whether to push ahead with the project at O’Halloran Hill, or build it in Onkaparinga instead.
Plympton
CONSTRUCTION has started on a $7 million upgrade of Weigall Oval but the future of a resident horse training group remains unclear.
The Weigall Oval Trainers’ Association has been based at the Plympton site since 1925 but in 2016 members were told their trotting track would eventually be demolished to make way for a new baseball diamond and soccer field.
“It’s a really sad feeling,” association president George Smith, 69, said.
“I’ve been there since I was a lad.”
Stage one of the oval upgrade began with site preparation and demolition work in December, and continues this month with further demolition and the construction of a new playground, carpark and tennis courts.
It’s due to be finished by June.
That’s when stage two work — including new shared clubrooms and paths — will begin, including the eventual demolition of the trotting track.
“I don’t know what we’ll do, we can try the Marion Sports club (Club Marion), there’s a small trotting track there,” Mr Smith said.
“Or Plan B will be driving to Globe Derby Park,” Mr Smith said.
“If that doesn’t work we’ll have to give up.”
There are six trainers based at Weigall Oval who look after one or two horses each.
West Torrens acting CEO Angelo Catinari said the council was working with the trainers to ensure they could stay at the oval for as long as possible, and would give them “sufficient” notice before they had to leave.
The Weigall Oval Trainers’ Association’s three-year lease ended in April 2017, but the council extended it so they could stay until the trotting track needed to be demolished.
Temporary horse stalls were installed at the site this month to replace the old ones, which were due to be ripped up this week.
But Mr Smith has asked the council to improve them.
“There’s too many stones and rocks ... when (the horses) step on a sharp stone it bruises,” he said.
“We also want a roof over them for when we bring the horses in and its hot or it rains.”
Mr Catinari said the council would address these problems in the coming weeks.
The third and final stage of work at Weigall Oval includes construction of the new soccer pitch, baseball diamond and another carpark.
Adelaide Angels Baseball Club president Leanne Smith said the work would give the area “a major lift” and allow the two clubs to play all year, instead of using the grounds for half the year each.
“The people I’ve spoken to have said it’s been 10 years coming,” she said.
“There’s a lot of excited members out there.”
It is due to be completed in early 2019.
‘Like a second home’: Local footy club legend calls time
A Southern Football League great has called time on his dazzling career ahead of season 2025 after winning a fourth A Grade premiership with his beloved local club in 2024.
Surprising suburbs where homes are most at risk
Cost of living and high interest rates are pushing SA households to the brink, the latest mortgage stress data shows. Search the suburbs most at risk.