Barossa United Football Club gets $4 million club and change room upgrade

A local SA soccer club is set to reach a new level on and off the pitch after having an application for a new $4 million facility accepted. See the plans.

A regional SA soccer club has received a major boost for its future with the State Government approving new $4 million facilities at its venue.

Barossa United Football Club president George Triandafillidis believed his club was ready to make significant progress on and off the ground as it prepared for the development of new club and change rooms.

The development will take place next to the club’s new elite-level pitch.

“We’re over the moon as a club, we’re really, really excited from committee members all the way down to the kids,” Triandafillidis said.

“We’ve already got our new main pitch completed – which everyone is loving – and there’s going to be a second pitch as part of this development.

Barossa United's newly-installed synthetic pitch. The club will add another pitch as well as new clubrooms and changerooms next to it for the coming season. Picture: Barossa United Football Club

“It’s going to give us a bigger scope for possibilities on and off the field – we were very limited previously in terms of how many people we could host and how many games we can play but it’s going to allow us to do a lot more.”

Barossa United currently plays host to around 450 junior and senior soccer players.

Triandafillidis said that while the club has experienced promising growth recently, the new facilities would see popularity rise significantly.

“We can now fill more teams and fit all teams at training for starters,” he said.

“We’ve seen a number of juniors coming from the northern suburbs to play and we already offer our membership at a much lower rate, and we think having these facilities will make us even more popular.

Barossa United's recently approved club and changeroom facility. Picture: Supplied

Barossa United's recently approved club and changeroom facility. Picture: Supplied

Barossa United's recently approved club and changeroom facility. Picture: Supplied

“We’ve been able to recruit senior players who have stuck around knowing this development would come, and the clubrooms and changerooms are going to give fans, community members and players somewhere to spend time away from trainings or matches.”

Barossa Council mayor Bim Lange said change rooms and clubroom facilities would directly benefit the players and members of the Barossa United Football Club, as well as the wider community.

“Growing grassroots sport and participation is a key deliverable of ‘The Big Project’ and we can only achieve that by investing in high quality, accessible community infrastructure,” he said.

“This project is not only stimulating the local economy during construction, but will deliver tangible benefits to the sporting and wider Barossa community long after the infrastructure has been delivered.

“This project brings us another step closer to developing the Barossa as the best sustainable regional sports event tourism destination in South Australia and it is perfectly timed to capitalise on the growth of the game as Australia jointly hosts the Women’s Soccer Worlsd Cup with New Zealand in 2023.”

Construction will begin in early March.

A Federal Government Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program fund will account for $1,034,462 of the cost, while Council has contributed $3,075,841 to the project.