Exciting Times For Southland Softball Association

Participation in softball has been growing at such a rate over the past 5 years, there is no wonder Invercargill needs new clubrooms.

The $1.8 redevelopment of the Southland Softball Association’s facility is well underway, and should be ready for the summer season.

Project manager Noel Eade said they have already started shifting the diamonds from the old Surrey Park site to the north side.

Surrey Park has been the home of Southland Softball since the 1950s, but there was so much “disconnection” between the clubrooms and the fields, and now everything would be centralised in one area, he said.

“It’s in a good location on a bit of a rise with a view over the athletics,” he said.

As well as providing a home for the 8-9 softball clubs involved in the association, the multi-purpose building would also be used by the Queens Park Football Club in winter,  and possibly other community groups.

The main funders of the $1.8 million redevelopment have been the Invercargill Licensing Trust, ILT Foundation, Community Trust South and Lotteries Commission.

Noel said they were always looking for other smaller funders to help out financially and “to put the icing on the cake.”

He said softball had up to 1000 players involved nowadays and was growing all the time.

The association was hoping to have the building finished by the end of October in time for the start of the season, “but we’ll be playing over there anyway,” regardless, because of the fields already being set up.