President's Note - April 2024
It's with great pleasure that the hard working volunteers and coaching staff present the 2024 Season.
In a turn around, and to provide greater accessibility to the club, across multiple nights, The Women's Premiers see a move to Saturday nights at 5pm, with our men, by popular choice moving to 7.30pm on Fridays. Unfortunately the draw does see our Men away for the first 4 rounds.
Why the change? The Club is striving for greater financial sustainability, and by offering a potential 3 nights a week of live sport the Board feels we can reach a wider audience and truly share our refurbished clubrooms better along with driving better income sources.
On the grass, we are seeing record numbers, numbers not seen for many many decades, which has seen the club expand and secure further training spaces at the Opaheke Sports Park.
We may indeed be forced in the near future to cap our registrations, something I never thought possible 3 years ago. The senior spaces see an addition of 2 more NRF community teams, and 4 Development Sunday Conference League teams in the youth spaces, additionally greater demand for user pays products.
Financially we are the strongest we have ever been, without the need for, or reliance on excessive grants. Papakura City is one of only a few clubs that is working in a sustainable self funding space. The club has been recently recognised by the NRF as the fastest growing most diverse, not just Football club, but now overtaken other codes as the largest sporting club in South Auckland.
Whats next? Our Kitchen plans have been delayed a fraction, but we are still operating at 100%, some minor modifications to the Stadium as part of the FIFA legacy, but bigger than Texas, is the clubs acceptance to apply for the NZF Talent Development pathway (TDP) , this will mean that Papakura City FC will be the only ,if approved , facilitator for potential youth National league competition in South Auckland. It's well overdue, some clubs have tried, but none have the expertise or facility to carry this out efficiently, nor with long term strategy to maintain it . It only adds to the cadence to which the club is moving, to catch our inner city brothers.
I wish Mahalia and Women's Premier Conference side all the very best on Saturday night , as they take on our experienced neighbours Beachlands-Maraetai in what will be one of their tougher fixtures , and the Men lead by Peter Martin, will travel to my old club Waiuku AFC, don't take it easy on them.
At this time we would like to acknowledge Brett Caddy. If what seems to be a lifetime at the club. Brett will step down as Groundsperson this year, handing over to the very capable Damon ( surname ) . Brett has helped thousands of children, parents, coaches over 2 decades, but Brett has found new interests and we wish him well, as difficult as it has been for him to step down , I think watching the club progress, and becoming a spectator will be a more fitting role for Brett .
Best wishes to all.
Dave
