Wet weather ground closures: extend sports season, says Wollongong councillor

Wet weather has again ruined this weekend for outdoor sports, with all Wollongong grounds closed. It's the latest in a long line of weekends, and the second season in three years with more than half the games cancelled.

Many soccer teams across Wollongong have played only four or five games since junior soccer started in April and Football South Coast is investigating ways to make the back third of the season meaningful.

Grounds are closed by the city council when they are too wet to use, as playing on a sodden field can destroy the grass surface for future use.

Cr Cox, herself a keen soccer player, will move at Monday's meeting of Wollongong City Council that the season be extended, and that the city develop a longer-term climate adaptation plan which would include better drainage and shade at council grounds.

"This is the second season in three years to have severely restricted community sports through ongoing wet weather," Cr Cox said.

"Many teams have played less than five games since April, with more games being cancelled than have been played," she said.

"This is incredibly frustrating, especially for the hundreds of new football players who have registered off the back of the Matildas' success at the World Cup.

"To keep those players engaged, we need a way to ensure they can actually play."

Cr Cox said alternative venues, including schools, could be explored for use on weekends.

"While some solutions will need time and money and planning, there are some quick fixes that could be employed to extend the season this year.

"With the simple addition of line markings and temporary goals, some unused fields could be freed up to enable the season to overlap with the cricket season, or we could work with schools to access some of their grounds."

After more cancellations this weekend, Football South Coast will next week be brainstorming how the final weeks of the seasons can be best managed to facilitate a meaningful season.

FSC CEO Ann-Marie Balliana said some teams had played far fewer games than others, depending on the grounds involved.

Double headers and a condensed finals timeframe may be among the solutions.

"What we'll do over the next week is come up with some different plans or contingencies," Ms Balliana said.

"We'll need to obviously liaise with our clubs and get their feedback on some of those plans that we'd like to put in place to make sure we have the volunteers at the clubs.

"If we're looking at extending the season and perhaps condensing finals series, we need to make sure that the clubs are OK with that as well.

"The other thing we do have, up our sleeve is, is really trying to use those grounds that are not impacted by the summer sports.

"Cricket ran into issues last year as well with wet weather. We just need to be conscious that we don't want crossover impacts to other community sports at the same time."

Greens candidate for Wollongong Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said solutions would take time to they should be planned now.

"We are already seeing climate impacts significantly impacting community sport, and we know that these impacts are only forecast to get worse," she said.

"It's important to start planning now so that our community members of all ages can continue to play sport in the summer or winter seasons. Facilities like all weather multi-use sports venues are big and expensive and take many years to fund, so the work needs to start now if we are to have these sportsgrounds in the future."