Cost blowout for new Waikato football turf revealed to be $500k

A new artificial turf in Rototuna is boosting Waikato's football scene but has come in $500,000 more expensive than planned.

The Korikori Park turf was originally projected to cost $2.7 million, divvied up between Hamilton City Council and funding partners such as WaiBOP Football, WEL Energy Trust and The Lion Foundation.

In June, the council acknowledged unexpected ground conditions were to blame for a then-undisclosed cost increase to the project.

The final cost can now be revealed as approximately $3.2 million. Of that, $1.84 million was covered by the external partners, with the remaining $1.36 million falling to council.

The council-owned community turf is the first of its kind in Waikato and third overall, the region's first two being privately owned by Hamilton Marist Rugby Club and Hamilton Girls' High School.

Despite the cost increase, a specialist football turf in the Waikato is well overdue, according to WaiBOP Football CEO Karyn Walters.

WaiBOP was one of, if not the only, football federation in New Zealand without a turf, Walters said - a stark contrast to similar-sized Wellington's nine.

Teams travelling from Auckland, Taupō and Tauranga often found their games cancelled due to weather impacting grass pitches, she said.

"The Waikato can be quite wet so if you've travelled that far and potentially got up at five in the morning to get down here and find our grass pitches are not able to be played on, that's very problematic," Walters said.

Community feedback has been overwhelmingly positive since the turf officially opened in late July. Games were even shifted there two days early to avoid cancellation.

"Council has some really strict guidelines... Korikori is 15 hours a week usage per pitch," Walters said, referring to the grass pitches.

"It's really hard to keep it to that because you've got school activity during the day, you've got trainings and you've got games on the weekend."

Council parks and recreation unit director Maria Barrie said having artificial turf and lights allows for significantly more hours of use, due to its weather-resistant durability.

The infrastructure will help meet the growing demand for training and competition space for a whole host of sports, with Korikori Park being the obvious choice, Barrie said.

"It has sufficient space to accommodate a 1.5 full-sized turf, is within a 30-minute drive of more than half of WaiBOP Football's members, and is in an area of the city expected to experience significant population growth," she added.

Players also get a chance to experience football on turf, helping them put their best foot forward as they climb the ranks, as familiarity with the surface in games and skill-development camps can be a difference-maker.

Walters said having funding partners such as WEL Energy Trust and the Lion Foundation join Hamilton City Council and Sport Waikato was instrumental in getting the turf across the line.

"When they [council] said it'll be active this season I was like, 'yeah no it's not gonna be,' but it's actually amazing how quickly it does go up."

The council expects ongoing maintenance costs of $25,000 a year.