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Tips on How to Build a Multi-Sport Complex and Bring Joy to Your Community

Our urban settlements are expanding by such a rate that it is hard for landscaping architects to follow the growth. That is why certain urban areas are left without parks and some parts of the city are in need of adequate sporting facilities. The latter can be erected by residents themselves, as creating a multi-sport complex is easier and cheaper than you might think at first. In fact, you yourself could be the one ushering sports in your neighborhood to the joy of children and adults alike. All you have to do is think through the following segments of a sports complex and follow the tips provided here.

Choosing a suitable location

The first thing you’ll need is a suitable location for the sports center within the community’s limits. Start the property search from your backyard as many homeowners have large backyards that are full of junk and are utterly disused. You can ask around if any of the neighbors are willing to lease or let you use for free his or her land. After all, the complex will serve the entire community, so this favor will make them look good in the eyes of others. If nobody is willing to help, you can drive around to find some empty lots and see with the local authorities whether you could use them or at least rent them if they are a public space.

Deciding on the sports

Building a complex for each individual sport is far too complicated and requires a lot of land and money that you probably don’t have at your disposal. That is why you are building a multi-sport complex that will house more than one sport. Of course, this doesn’t mean that horse-riding and swimming will be under one roof but simply that an AFL field could double as a cricket field and NFL, rugby, and soccer could be played on the same pitch. You can conduct a poll to see what the most desired sports are, but in most cases, these coincide with sports which are popular nationwide. For instance, if you ask people from Sydney which sports they would like to be able to play, they will definitely put AFL high on the wish list.

Selecting the turf and handling irrigation

Whichever sports you decide on, you are likely to have at least one sport that is played on grass. This means choosing the type of turf: natural or artificial. If there is already grass there and it’s in solid condition, then you can leave things as they are. Of course, you are going to have to create some sort of irrigation for hot days and a drainage system that will prevent you field from becoming a pond during every shower. You will need to get some good fertilizer and apply herbicide regularly. On the other side, artificial grass requires much less maintenance but it is a huge investment. You will either have to ask everybody in the community to pitch in or find a sponsor that will donate the artificial grass to you.

Solving the goalposts issue

Now, since you are going to have several fields for different sports overlapping, this might create confusion with drawing the lines. However, an even bigger issue is how to go about goalposts which are all different. If you try to combine them on your own you will be creating a safety hazard since there is no guarantee that makeshift nuts and bolts will hold the whole thing together. Whether you knew it or not, there are multi field goal posts that amateur clubs use and that are sold ready-made, so you can choose the combo that best suits your needs. You can pair up a soccer goal with all four AFL uprights that come in a single sturdy set. There are even combinations of three sports, like soccer, AFL and rugby that have removable crossbars and behind posts.

LED lighting

A true sports complex needs to be used at night time as well because during winter it gets dark at 4 PM so it would be foolhardy to go through all this trouble for a “daily” version of a multi-purpose sports field. Lighting might be a major investment but four columns in all four sides of the field should provide enough lux for any amateur sports’ match. Floodlights are the standard but if you want to save on the electricity bill, install LED lights that are more eco-friendly. Not only do they use up to 40% less power to operate but they are instantly turned on by the press of a button. LED lighting comes with a computer-controlled system that will allow you to switch the lights on and off using a simple mobile phone app.

Whichever sports you decide to introduce to the community, all its members will rejoice for finally having a place where they can practice. No price is too high to pay for bringing people together and enabling them to lead a healthy lifestyle.   

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Written by Liam Smith

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