Tauranga City AFC's Links Ave home set for crucial summer upgrade

New playing fields and increased on-site parking are part of the improvements in conjunction with Tauranga City Council.

The home of Tauranga City AFC is set for a facelift with approval given for a major upgrade this summer. 

Tauranga City Council have given the thumbs up to the first phase of improvements at the Links Avenue Reserve site where Tauranga City’s men’s and women’s teams currently play their home fixtures. 

The planned revamp will see Links Ave hosting three full-size football pitches as well as an expansion to the current on-site parking facilities.

Tauranga City’s men’s first-team narrowly missed out on promotion to the New Zealand Northern League in the 2022 season. The women’s team played in their first ever NRFL Premier League campaign and reached the quarter-finals of the Kate Sheppard Cup in their debut outing.

That is the tip of the iceberg for the club, which currently has close to 700 playing members across Senior, Junior and Youth grades.

However, resources across the club’s fields were stretched during what was a particularly wet season. 

The improvements at Links Ave are part of a wider strategy from TCC to improve sports grounds across the region - for all clubs and codes. 

Tauranga City chairperson Brendon McHugh believes the upgrades are desperately needed. 

“Like all sports across the country, it’s been a tough year with the amount of rain we’ve had,” he says. 

“But even with good weather, we would’ve struggled this year as we’ve had increased Junior, Youth and Senior teams and also increased numbers in our football development programmes. 

“Our only pitch that held up well was one that had good maintenance carried out a couple of years ago, with the right drainage and grass surface. Spending more money on grounds ultimately reduces the cost of maintenance going forward and enables higher utilisation.”

Further details of the specifics of the improvements are impending but Brendon is pleased with the Council’s approach so far.

“When we first saw the plans, we had some concerns over the design,” he admits. 

“Huge credit to the Council team, who listened to our feedback and allowed us to work with them on designs which will enable Links Ave to be utilised more than it currently is”.

The upgrades at Links Ave are the first phase of a wider collaboration project - dubbed the “Home of Football” project - across the city’s biggest football clubs.

A major part of football development across the area has been the implementation of New Zealand Football accredited programmes. These include Skills Centre (SKC) programmes for those aged 9-12 and the NZF Talent Development Programme (TDP). At present, Tauranga City operate the only NZF accredited TDP in the Bay of Plenty and, along with Papamoa FC, operate the only SKC in the region. 

“The accreditations acknowledge that NZF supports what we’re doing and shows a high level of trust that we are making the right decisions for the development of our junior and youth members,” says Tauranga City director of football Barry Gardiner.

“A lot of work has gone into gaining these accreditations by our staff on and off the field. We’re lucky to have a talented and highly qualified team of coaches who all share the same beliefs when it comes to junior and youth development.”

But Brendon states that NZF have advised clubs in the Tauranga region that more collaboration is needed to compete with clubs from outside the Bay of Plenty - in traditional hotspots Auckland and Hamilton. Many of these clubs have membership bases of 2000 or more, compared to Tauranga City’s roughly 1300 members. Brendon suggests there is more to come in regards to a more united effort in the Bay but that the improvement to facilities is the first step.

“We recognised that there is an opportunity in the region to collaborate more with other clubs, and we’ve discussed it a lot over the last few years,” he says. 

“This year we really wanted to push these plans ahead and hope to announce some exciting news around this very soon. TCC has been part of these discussions, along with Sport Bay of Plenty, WaiBOP Football, Northern Regional Football and NZF. 

“To support this collaboration with other clubs, we needed improved facilities and grounds.”

Work on the upgrades is scheduled to start in November and should be finished in time for the start of the 2023 football season.