Wellington football boom outstrips facilities

Football has become so popular on the back of Phoenix and All Whites success that teams in Wellington have run out of grounds to play on.

Registrations with Wellington's Capital Football have jumped about 20 per cent over the last five years. Anecdotally, numbers appear to have jumped even higher this year, spokesman Cliff Bowden said.

"Both in seniors and juniors, the sport continues to grow... certainly in Wellington," he said.

There were more football teams playing in Wellington school competitions than in Auckland, a byproduct of the high profile football success here, Mr Bowden said.

"Certainly here in Wellington you can't but say the Phoenix has obviously had an awesome impact on the sport," he said.

"I guess at the moment, football is on a pretty big high in terms of the All White's [and] the Football Ferns.

"There are a lot of things the kids can look at and go, wow, they want to be like that."

Mr Bowden said the groundswell of interest in the sport at senior level had reached saturation point, with players now outstripping facilities to play on. Wellington was about seven grounds short.

"We just have a real issue with lack of grounds in the Wellington area to be able to take on many more teams."

Mr Bowden said there were new clubs trying to enter the competition, and existing clubs bringing on new teams.

While growth in senior player numbers - currently standing at about 4000 players - had been rapid, junior growth had been phenomenal.

While player registration numbers were yet to come in for this season, one club which usually received about 15 new players each year, had this year reported 60.

"We've got kids flooding to play the game and so, yeah, we're rapt that that's happening."

"We'd just love to have some more facilities to accommodate them all."

At last count there were about 9000 registered players in the Wellington area, though Mr Bowden believed that number would be higher this year.

Capital Football was working with the council to get more facilities, including artificial turfs, though expected this to take some time.

In spite of the grounds shortage, Capital Football was over the moon about the growth of the game, Mr Bowden said.

- © Fairfax NZ News