A junior soccer club in Newcastle has stretched itself to the limit to fund upgrades to its council-owned facility while paying more than $40,000 in annual fees.
Mayfield United Junior Soccer Football Club has been in a battle to upgrade "outdated" facilities at Stevenson Park through grants and its own funds.
It managed to source the money to renovate changerooms last year and applied to Newcastle council to carry out the works.
But the club was told that council would need to manage the project and the club pay them the money.
"This in turn meant that they chose the quote that they wanted to go with and not the one we would have chosen," president Laura Ranger said.
A City of Newcastle spokesperson said when sporting clubs secured grants for work on community land, council undertook the project management to ensure the work meets required standards, governance requirements, WHS practices and is consistent with council policies.
"Prior to this arrangement, there were numerous instances of inferior work being delivered when sporting clubs requested to project manage field upgrades, as well as significant budget blow outs with ratepayers forced to cover the additional costs," the spokesperson said.
The works involved installing new cubicles in both the home and away sheds and new flooring.
But the old, rusted fixtures and toilet doors were then put back on and busted tiles around the toilet cubicle weren't replaced.
"If we wanted to have this done, we would have had to put more money in - which after two COVID seasons, we were not in a position to do," Ms Ranger said.
The council spokesperson said the delivery of the project would be discussed with the club following the winter season and council would "continue to manage the project in partnership with the club and refine the scope of works, review contractor quotes in line with grant funding available and deliver the upgrade".
This is on top of high fees the club pays council for field usage and lights. The club paid $42,000 to council last year, which they said they had little to show for in return.
"We line mark our own fields and put up our own goal posts each season," Ms Ranger said.
"The one main thing that council does is mow the grounds, but even this year, that has not been done well.
"The grounds are left with grass clippings and it is quite an uneven job that has actually caused some knee injuries to players."
Vice president Susan Kay said she had spoken with a club in Port Stephens who paid their council $2,400 for their two irrigated fields and $440 for lights per year.
In comparison, she said Mayfield United pays $18,000 for four non irrigated fields and $24,000 for lights.
She estimated through looking at different councils' fees and charges that if Stevenson Park was located in Port Stephens they would pay council $6600, in Lake Macquarie $30,000 and $15,000 in Maitland, but acknowledged it was hard to compare precisely due to the different ways council charge fees.
"The biggest issue with the way [Newcastle] charges clubs is that they don't actually do anything for the money we give them," Ms Kay said.
"If we want something done, they tell us to apply for grants. We're volunteers, we spend hours of our week running community sport and fundraising to afford the excessive fees charged by council and other governing bodies, and then council expects us to spend more time writing grant applications."
Council said its fees and charges were placed on public exhibition annually and sporting user groups and community members had the opportunity to provide feedback.
"We have no record of the soccer club ever objecting to the proposed ground and infrastructure fees," the council spokesperson said.
Council provides user groups with refunds when applicable, the spokesperson said, including $12,500 returned to Mayfield United for floodlights and ground non-usage last season. The season was abandoned last year due to COVID lockdowns.
Council said the "unprecedented wet weather" had affected its ability to maintain grounds and open spaces while mowing and maintenance was significantly delayed due to saturated grounds.
"Many sportsgrounds, including Stevenson Park, were often too wet to get even the smallest equipment on the grounds without causing significant damage to the turf," council said.
"In one instance due to heavy rainfall, the grass at Stevenson Park was cut and clippings clumped. [Council] returned to rectify the issue, re-mow and spread the clippings."
However the club says the issues had been ongoing since before the wet weather.
The club is now in the process of trying to upgrade one of the fields. Council initially told them it would need to be a field that other clubs use as well, but eventually agreed to let them upgrade a field they use exclusively.
They said council had constantly asked for more information on the project, which they struggled to obtain from contractors and when they did, it wasn't what council wanted.
After resolving the issues, the club said the extra requirements would blow the project cost out by $50,000.
"Council constantly reminds us that the fields and buildings are their assets yet their maintenance falls on the rate-paying community and hard-working volunteers - it's infuriating," Ms Kay said.
Northern NSW Football CEO David Eland said contributions from clubs for capital works were common and there was an "acute need" for more investment in facilities across the region.
"Sports clubs are being increasingly asked to make contributions," he said. "An audit we conducted found 70 per cent of football facilities in the Hunter have no drainage whatsoever, which is really being felt at the moment. I hope this is something all councils can focus on."
But Mr Eland acknowledged Newcastle council was disadvantaged by being metropolitan and not eligible for regional grant funds. He said progress had been made to this for some funding pools, which he hoped to see the effects of in coming years.
Northern NSW Football developed its own funding scheme that all players contribute to in order to fill some of the void, Mr Eland said.
The CEO said he encouraged councils to keep fees as low as possible to prevent costs being a barrier to participation.
"Ground hire fees are one of the largest costs facing clubs," Mr Eland said. "They need to absorb that into their registration.
"It's certainly something we all need to be mindful of. We do need to remember the people running clubs are volunteers.
"That's a key driver behind a Northern NSW Football review to provide clubs with more tangible support."
