The new project set to lift Tasmanian soccer club

One of Tasmania’s biggest soccer clubs continues to go to another level after unveiling a major new addition to its facility. Here’s what they said.

Kingborough Lions United men’s coach Jon Fenech believes the continued upgrades of facilities at Lightwood Park can help the club continue to grow.

On Wednesday, the club unveiled its new state of the art 830-seat grandstand which includes changerooms to facilitate both men and women.

The grandstand is the third stage of a four-part project with new lights, a pitch reconstruction, additional change rooms for referees and medical facilities already completed.

Fenech said this will help attract players.

“The opportunity to build this sort of facility for soccer in Tasmania, it is huge because it will continually drive the participation rates,” Fenech said.

“For people aspiring to play at the higher level, this facility is best in class, we have to give the juniors something to aspire to.

The plaque at the new Kingborough Lions United FC grandstand which was unveiled in June 2025. Picture: Jake Garland

“For those boys and girls playing at junior level coming through, now they have a place where they can come and play in a high class performance centre for soccer.

“It is great for the club, it’s great for the community and then at the highest level it is great for attracting players.

“There is a lot of talk around this area about high performance centres, soccer is a high performance sport and we want to make this the place to be for this sport especially in Tasmania.”

Football Tasmania Chairman Bob Gordon said the project was a testament to everyone involved.

“I played here 20 years ago and in the winter, sometimes the ball would get stuck in the field because it was too muddy to play,” Gordon said

“There were no real change rooms, there were change rooms but you often had to share them with the team that played before you and they were very basic.

“We’ve had women’s senior competitions for 40-years and it was just not suitable for the number of players we have, particularly with both men and women.

“We had to have gaps between the games because one team had to get changed, then the women had to come in and get changed.

“The work that’s been done here is a real acknowledgement of what a great community club Kingborough is.”

Originally published as The new project set to lift Tasmanian soccer club