Ovingham Football Club facing uncertain future as it bids to secure lease on Charles Cane Reserve

CENTURY-OLD Ovingham Football Club will be forced to close its doors if it loses a battle for its home ground amid a scramble for open space.

CENTURY-OLD Ovingham Football Club will be forced to close its doors if it loses a battle for its home ground amid a scramble for open space in the inner north.

The Cats' 10-year lease on Charles Cane Reserve - its home since the 1950s - expires on March 31 next year, leading Prospect Council to this month call for expressions of interest to licence the oval during winter.

But the council says at least five other clubs are already eyeing off the Churchill Rd ground, which is one of just three in the council area, with Prospect and Broadview ovals.

Blackfriars Old Scholars Association Soccer Club (BOSA) is desperate to move there after turning away more than 40 players this year.

It says winning the lease would allow it to expand from three senior squads to four, bring in an extra 70 juniors to its 50-strong training academy and establish over-35s and women's teams.

Prospect Council's community development manager Brendan Lott said the battle for space would be fierce.

"A lack of sporting ovals is an issue across Adelaide ... and Prospect has the second-lowest proportion of open space of any metropolitan council," Mr Lott said.

Blackfriars says it does not have a permanent base and has outgrown playing fields in the northern parklands next to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre and at Blackfriars Priory School.

Ovingham president Luke Vanstan said his club, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year and was runner-up in the SA Amateur Football League's division eight reserves, would not survive if it had to abandon the oval.

"Pretty much if we lose the ground I'd say we'd lose the whole club," Vanstan said.

"It's a big concern for everyone."

Ovingham and BOSA want to stay in the inner-north but say a lack of ovals in the area means there is nowhere else to base themselves if they cannot use Charles Cane Reserve.

The council will decide the next winter licence at a November 26 meeting.

Vanstan said it could leave his club without a home for next season.

"There's not much scope to go anywhere else," he said.

"We've got to win this expression of interest, keep the ground and build the club up or it'll be gone."

Vanstan said the council wanted the next tenant to maximise the ground's use.

He said that meant having one team and about 55 players based there during winter, as was the case with Ovingham this past season, would no longer be acceptable.

The Cats planned to apply for a shared licence with Broadview Football Club and West Torrens Lacrosse Club to strengthen its expression of interest.

Ovingham also hoped to start an Auskick program to bring juniors to the oval, in line with the council's push to diversify who uses the ground.

If the Cats miss out on the licence, they have been told they may be able to share the ground with another tenant in 2014 but not beyond then.

"The club is being pulled out of debt, we're starting to get (player) numbers and it's only looking like getting better," said Vanstan, who joined the club from Victorian town Traralgon last year.

"Our players are pretty upset to think the club could possibly be gone."