AFL Venue Improvement Plans

Author: Pete Griffiths, CPR Group

As part of our ongoing work with AFL Queensland, CPR Group recently completed a venue improvement plan (VIP), including a master plan, for the Noosa Tigers Australian Football Club.

While the primary aim of the VIP is to assist the club in meeting the minimum AFL facility guidelines necessary to host State level competition, it’s also an invaluable resource for the club in other ways as it grows and develops over the coming years. These Plans, through the identification of all relevant constraints such as planning overlays, establish an essential baseline for any future development and help address any historical misunderstanding of what can be achieved at the site. They inform any ideas the club may have as it prepares to develop its clubhouse, sporting fields or amenities.

Noosa Tigers AFC, like many clubs, is driven by a desire to be more welcoming and inclusive of all players, officials and spectators, and this includes the provision of suitable change rooms, viewing areas, amenities, car parking and social spaces. Here at CPR Group we always find it affirming to work with a club that is so genuinely dedicated to not just their quest for QAFL state level success but to embracing all of their players and officials, be they women, men, boys, girls or those playing with a disability.

Like many clubs, the Tigers look to grants to assist with the funding of these improvements. While securing grant funding remains a competitive and time consuming business, a venue improvement plan (or master plan) can be powerful evidence to funding bodies that the club is ‘grant ready’ and deserving of assistance.

Club facility master plans, when coupled with a clear strategic plan and underpinned by a contemporary constitution, also provide a strong foundation for any club when advocating to landowners, local government decision makers and their community. These documents show that the club has not just commitment, but has completed the thinking and preparation necessary to sustainably build participation, impact and support.

The Tiger’s facility upgrades laid out in their Venue Improvement Plan will, when completed, make a world of difference to the Australian Rules football community in Noosa and the wider Sunshine Coast. It's been a pleasure to be part of that journey.

CPR Group has the expertise and experience to help your club prepare for, and accomplish, your next phase of growth and development. We are here to help! Click here to learn more.