Twenty new 3G pitches are being proposed by Cardiff Council as part of a new long-term strategy in partnership with the Football Association Wales (FAW), Cymru Football Foundation (CFF), and local leagues.
The ‘Going for Goal’ strategy is aimed at reducing the number of weather-related fixture cancellations, attracting investment into grass pitches, and increasing participation in football.
Subject to stakeholder consultation, the new strategy could also see a rationalisation of grass pitches into a smaller number of highly maintained hub sites across the city, once the new 3G pitches are delivered.
The hub approach aims to improve the quality of grass pitches and provide better quality changing and ancillary facilities. It is proposed that the main hub sites will be at Trelai Park in the west, Pontcanna/Blackweir Fields in the centre of Cardiff and another site, yet to be identified, in the east of the city. There may need to be additional hubs in the north or south if required. The hubs would act as multi-sport destinations, catering for other sports such as rugby, baseball and softball as well as football.
Cabinet Member for Culture, Parks and Events, Cllr Jennifer Burke, said:
“More than 10,000 players, 97 clubs and over 1,000 teams make football Cardiff’s most popular sport – and it’s pleasing to note the growing popularity of the women’s game in Cardiff, with girls making up more than 30% of players at under 13 level – but those numbers put incredible pressure on the 70 grass pitches currently maintained by the council.
“Moving to a hub model is supported by the FAW and Cymru Football Foundation and would allow us to focus our increasingly limited resources on maintaining clusters of higher quality pitches, with better facilities. Alongside the introduction of more all-weather 3G pitches, that will mean less cancellations and ultimately more people playing football week in, week out.”
Currently, three to four months of every season can be lost to weather cancellations, with issues caused by long periods of wet weather compounded by poor drainage, while unregulated training sessions and games being played outside of booked fixtures lead to pitches being consistently overplayed.
New 3G pitches, which have more than four times the playing capacity of grass pitches, would be delivered as part of the council’s Community Focussed Schools programme, with the ambition for every secondary school in Cardiff having access to a 3G pitch.
The council says that providing access to sporting facilities, including 3G playing pitches, remains one of the best ways for residents to benefit from the investment being made in schools, and the council proposes to consult with schools on the development of a more consistent approach to making 3G pitches and facilities on their sites available for use by the local community outside of school hours.
The council also plans to continue its ongoing work to transfer pitch and changing facilities to local football clubs to enable clubs to self-manage. These arrangements give clubs the long-term assurance required to attract investment to improve facilities by accessing external funding from sport governing bodies that is not available to councils.
Cllr Burke added:
“Formal self-management arrangements are already helping local clubs build the changing facilities, dug outs and grandstands that are required to progress up through the leagues, and we believe there are potentially many more clubs out there who, with our support, could benefit from taking on responsibility for the maintenance of their home pitches.”
Once the current stock of 3G pitches has been substantially increased, the council is proposing to move towards hub sites and to concentrate its maintenance of grass pitches in these locations.
All current pitches that are not transferred to clubs to self-manage or that do not form part of one of the future hub sites would remain as public open space in communities, available for informal recreational and sporting use, but would no longer be formally laid out as playing pitches and would not be subject to the current mowing regime.
All grass pitches that are self-managed by clubs, or which form part of the new hub sites would remain available for public use, when not being used by clubs.
