Bathurst District Football has secured $150,000 in funding from the NSW Government, as it continues to upgrade its facilities at Proctor Park.
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Money is expected to go towards improving the irrigation of Proctor Park, which has previously suffered from flooding and a lack of draining.
Member for Bathurst Paul Toole said the three senior fields at Proctor Park will receive surface and sand silt drainage, alongside irrigation.
“This upgrade will ensure that participants can play soccer in a safe environment throughout the season without disruption,” he said.
“At present, the season is being disrupted due to rain on a regular basis.”
He said the booming popularity of soccer is already bringing communities together.
“Almost 330,000 people participated in the sport across the state last year, an increase on the previous year,” he said.
Bathurst District Football president Andrew Speed said the upgrades are extremely important for the sport.
“In season 2015 we lost over 20 per cent of our games with wet weather,” he said.
“With the fields being drained and re-shaped, we shouldn’t lose any games at all.
“We’ve got over 2,000 registered players playing in Bathurst competition plus teams from Sydney come up every weekend. So it’s we’ve probably got a 100 games a week.”
The $150,000 in funding comes from the Asian Cup Legacy Fund.
Football NSW funding and infrastructure manager Daniel Ristic said there was over 60 applications for $1.7 million in funding.
Bathurst had made a “fantastic” application.
“Proctor Park is a great facility and Bathurst has a large number of participants,” he said.
“We want to make sure they have the right facilities to continue their growth.”
While soccer participation numbers are extremely high in Sydney, Mr Ristic said there are strong figures in regional areas as well.
“Bathurst, Orange have strong numbers. The numbers are the largest of any other sport here,” he said.
“We want to make sure players have the right facilities at a young age.”