Football Wagga says asking the local soccer community to financially support a multi-million dollar redevelopment of Rawlings Park is a critical element of their campaign for council and government funding.
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The organisation and its clubs formally launched a membership drive on Thursday with a target of raising $500,000 over the next two years through the sale of $500 memberships.
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It's the community funding element to a $10 million vision for the site including a new stadium, two synthetic pitches and improved amenities.
Football Wagga president, Tony Dobbin, said the organisation has an obligation to drive its own future.
"We've never been in the situation before of raising money. What we've done before is we've charged players (to play) and we've run the competitions. But we've got to the point where we've expanded so much, we need now to get more fields," Dobbin said.
"Wagga Council has been great with us over the years. They've worked with us, done everything else. But we've both realised we can't keep going the way we are. We need to do this.
"More importantly though we realise we need to get the ball rolling. We can't just write away and say give us money, etcetera.
"So this is the whole idea of the fundraising idea. We realise the ball is in our court, literally, that's why we're doing it."
Football Wagga raised concerns about a 'crisis' in playing fields late last year in a public shot at Council.
Now, they are trying to take the lead in a bold bid to secure the sport's future.
Football Wagga director Tim Barter is driving the project. He admits the leap from a failed attempt to get one synthetic field to going all out in a bid to completely upgrade the precinct at Rawlings Park is a bold one.
"I think it has to be a 'boots and all' approach because this needs to be a complete complex so that we can be a drawcard for country tournaments, state. Not only that, we need to redevelop this for what we already have, for this whole association because it's already way over-used, all these fields, we're stressing them badly," Barter said.
"It is critical. Look, council's doing everything it can to help us but we just grew faster than anyone predicted - than our predictions, than state predictions and averages."
Barter said that although soccer enjoys massive participation numbers - often as many as the other football codes combined, he says - it doesn't enjoy the benefits of huge TV and sponsorship deals at the top level filtering down to the grassroots.
"For football, I'm afraid, it's a drip-up effect. Where the players pay money which gets fed up to the other associations," Barter said.
"Where, in the other codes, it gets fed down."
For $500, backers of the bid will receive a one-year double-membership to the new stadium as well as their name engraved on a paving stone at the front of the site.
It's a two-year drive to raise half-a-million dollars at the grassroots level while campaigning to get 20 times that much through state and local government funding.
Barter believes it's a reasonable attempt.
"I think it is," he said.
"Any state government is not going to be too favourable to put money into something that they can't see the community's behind. By us gaining $500,000 through the community as a part of this, then the state will see the community is behind what we're trying to do. And that's when you can generate the funds from state grants."
Football Wagga's hope is for $5.5 million in state funding and a total commitment of $4 million from Wagga City Council.
"We're throwing these numbers around. It's our wish. It's a proposal at this stage. All you can do is put your ducks in a line and throw them out there and hope that it all works the way you've planned for it," Barter said.
"This is a two-year drive, so we're looking to raise these funds over two years. We're looking at a three-year project for the complex. It might go out to four but if you don't aim for three, you'll never get four.
"So that's what we're trying to do."
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