North Sydney Junior Baseball Club, Northbridge Football Club fight for use of Bicentennial Reserve in Willoughby

A Sydney reserve is at the centre of a heated debate over line markings and “safety risks” as clubs from two different sports defend their right to play on the ground.

A suburban turf war has kicked off as sporting clubs jostle over the use of an in-demand playing facility in Sydney’s north.

Bicentennial Reserve in Willoughby is at the centre of a debate over line markings and “safety risks” as two clubs from separate sports defend their right to play on the ground.

The North Sydney Junior Baseball Club has used the site as its home ground for more than a decade but says a council move to allow the local Northbridge Football Club to paint soccer lines on the baseball pitch from March will result in “damaging” and “dangerous” impacts during the baseball club’s finals season.

Northbridge Football Club - which has more than 2000 members – has defended its right to use the site, saying all public sporting facilities were shared and no single sport should be given exclusive use of any one place.

Les Tyrpenou, the president of the baseball club, said Willoughby Council’s decision to allow soccer on the site from March would clash with his sport’s season and present “safety risks” for junior players.

An aerial photo of the Willoughby field.

“Bicentennial Reserve is the only ground on the lower north shore that is suitable for junior baseball and we’ve always been able to mark the ground for baseball,” he said.

“Now Northbridge Soccer wants to paint line markings and put up goals, which is going to cause confusion for our players and have safety impacts, particularly for young children.”

Northbridge Football Club president Brian Norton defended the club’s use of the site, saying the shortage of sporting facilities across Sydney meant all grounds needed to be shared.

Baseball players pictured at the reserve.

“We have 2200 local players and nowhere to play a football game in February and March during the pre-season and that’s a problem,” he said.

“For decades, football has had to share cricket ovals and we’ve managed that OK.

“It’s a shame there are a few people who want exclusive use of public fields when we should be using all the public resources as efficiently as we can.”

Northbridge FC has been granted council approval to paint lines on the facility from March.

Northbridge Baseball Club has, meanwhile, argued allowing football line marking “goes against” the club’s lease hire agreement with the council for the use of the ground, which Mr Tyrpenou described as a “retroactive and damaging” change.

Sean Leonard, the club’s operations manager, accused Willoughby Council of “kowtowing” to football supporters and raised concerns the use of football boots may carve up the playing field and lead to uneven surfaces.

Willoughby Council, in a statement, said it “does not permit the use of studded footwear throughout the summer of sport by casual hirers or for seasonal hirers conducting training”.

There is growing demand for sporting facilities across the north shore.

It said Northbridge Football Club would have approval to partially line mark a football field from March to “supplement their historical use of Bicentennial Reserve for pre-season activities during the summer season of sport”.

The jostle for use of the sporting field follows a study by the Northern Sydney Regional Organisations of Councils finding there was a growing shortage of sporting facilities in the region.

To meet demand, the study showed the number of facilities needed to grow by 49 per cent by 2036.

A council spokesman, in a statement, said “encouraging shared use and multipurpose design of sport facilities is one key strategy to meet training, competition and social needs of the community in a sporting context”.