Bulli footballing juniors gear up for huge upgrades to home facilities

The club is set to go undergo an extensive project - with an expected bill of more than $300,000 - for new lighting, a new barbecue area and a proper storage facility at Bulli Park.

Bulli JFC are well on their way towards reaching that target after recently securing a Football NSW Legacy Grant worth almost $120,000, but the club needs to generate more money themselves to reach their target.

Club president Francis Hinds said that they were grateful for Football NSW's support.

"It's kind of unbelievable in a way. It's something that we desperately needed to get the project off the ground," Hinds told the Mercury.

"My hat goes off to the main people involved in our committee. Brett Cleaves and Sarah Wilson have been driving it a lot, and we've all got this vision of how we want to support the community and support the needs of our kids in the club.

"We are actively seeking sponsorship for support with the project."

Bulli JFC boasts more than 600 members, with Hinds adding that they were among the largest junior football clubs in the region.

"The lighting is certainly a key for us moving forward," he said.

"I think we're still the third biggest club in the Illawarra and we only have two grounds, and one of those grounds you can't play full-field games on because of the lights. So we can't even do night games when we need to. Last year, we had over 50 teams, and we had to say to a lot of teams 'sorry, you can't train twice (a week)'.

"Our big field will be lit up, so night training will be a lot easier. And we have a connection with the senior club and they want to run more training sessions for us. So in terms of being able to bring professional trainers into help us, and for teams to do normal training, it's a massive gain for us.

"At the moment, all of our storage is in our change rooms and ref rooms, so we don't actually have change facilities. So moving all of that stuff into a proper storage facility means that we can use the facilities that we have for their intended purpose."

Bulli JFC's project announcement comes as Wollongong City Council have released a proposal to plant trees alongside the front side of Bulli Park.

In a statement on their website, council wrote that "we've aimed to strike a balance between greening and shading the new (Ursula Road) shared path while taking into consideration much-loved views".

However, Hinds expressed that he had some concerns over the proposal.

"We're in a position where there is limited plan details on where the trees will be planted," he said.

"I understand their intent in terms of shade and greening, but the position is actually right on our field, according to the diagrams. So it will reduce the size of our only playing surface that allows full-sized games.

"It would pretty much cut out 50 per cent of players from playing at Bulli Park."