Sporting clubs divided over $4.2 million proposal to upgrade Cricket Ground

A Wagga Cricket Ground Masterplan will be presented to Wagga City Council on Tuesday night, with the proposed upgrade expected to cost in excess of $4.2 million.

The construction of the new Multi-Sport Cycling Complex (MSCC) at Pomingalarna Reserve has paved the way for a much-needed facelift to one of the city's most central sporting venues.

Council plan to remove the old velodrome and upgrade the current playing surface, as well as construct four new cricket nets, a new clubhouse, an electronic scoreboard and install new lighting in a staged redevelopment of Wagga Cricket Ground.

The masterplan would also see an upgrade to the car park, toilets and changerooms, a cover added to the existing grandstand plus a facelift to the garden and hedging that surrounds the Kincaid Street facility.

The plan has been welcomed by Wagga RSL Cricket Club president Shaun Perry, whose club has been based at Wagga Cricket Ground for decades.

"We've been pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. We've been going to council for ages on this," Perry said.

"We've got huge plans to have our own club there and all sorts of stuff. And when I say our club, I mean a club that everyone can use.

"We've got a bit of money there ready to go, we just need the okay from council. We can go with those nets as soon as we get a grant. We've got some money there but we're not going to waste it until we've got the go ahead."

But the masterplan has been met with opposition by another of the facility's tennants.

Wagga Kangaroos Rugby League Club have also used the Cricket Ground for decades. The senior club walked away from the venue recently due to the state of the facility but the juniors still train there three times a week.

They, like all user groups, met with Otium Planning Group during the consultation process where they signalled their desire for a second ground to be included in the redevelopment.

"We've got real issues with green space for kids with where junior rugby league and senior rugby league's heading. That's the biggest thing for us and we're a real loser in that because I think with a bit of creativity in design we could have accommodated better for rugby league and still had a really good facility for cricket as well," Kangaroos president Peter Hurst said.

"The other thing is any footy field with a pitch in the middle of it is a second grade field because of winter, where at Parramore (Park) they've designed the pitches in between fields and this would be a good opportunity to do that at the Cricket Ground. You could have two international fields and the cricket pitch in between.

"We put that to them when we met but it obviously didn't resonate."

Hurst believes rugby league will soon face significant issues due to the growth of the game.

"We're going to have a real issue for facilities for rugby league," Hurst said.

"I don't know if there is a (NSW Rugby League) masterplan to introduce it because they've rushed all this stuff through but really it should have been on the drawing board for years because they've introduced 12s, 14s, 16s in the girls tackle this year in the juniors, they've got the senior girls tackle plus next year they want to have 18 girls and senior girls tackle plus the other girls years added to that as well.

"It won't take long before you've got double the requirements for fields, coaches, referees, managers, fields and infrastructure.

"So every redevelopment should be looking at maximising the green space. I would have thought NSWRL would have been onto that given they're introducing these girls in hurry, you'd think they would be ahead of it."

Hurst indicated that Kangaroos would love nothing more than to return to a redeveloped, much-improved Wagga Cricket Ground for senior training.

"The biggest reason we pushed away from there was facilities. They're dilapidated and the surface itself, because of the velodrome, it's a swamp, it just holds water," he said.

"Our major sponsor is the Sporties, it's right next door so if you've got two international fields there it's common sense. But take it away from us and us being selfish, for the betterment of Wagga it should be two international fields.

"Everyone used to push to the schools for their footy fields when a ground is shut down by council but they've really shrunk back now with insurance and getting a school ground is getting harder to do so any council-owned facility needs to be maximised."

There is no allocated funding for the project within Council's long term financial plan but the development of the masterplan is expected to assist in future funding allocations and grant applications.

Council will recommend to Tuesday night's meeting that the Wagga Cricket Ground Masterplan be placed on public exhibition for 30 days from June 14 to July 14.

Council will then make a further report following the public exhibition period that will address any submissions made during that process.