by Shane Sody
Is it possible to get three old sports buildings on your Park Lands replaced with two newer ones?
The Adelaide City Football (soccer) Club has put forward a proposal to the Kadaltilla / Adelaide Park Lands Authority, seeking feedback from the Authority.
The ACFC leases three buildings in your Park Lands for its senior and junior soccer teams.
These two are in Pelzer Park / Pityarilla (Park 19):
Left: the ACFC building off Unley Road; and right: the building off Greenhill Road - both in Pelzer Park / Pityarilla (Park 19).
The club also has a third sports building - in the neighbouring Peppermint Park / Wita Wirra (Park 18).
Built in the 1980s - this two storey shed has toilets that are open only when sports are scheduled on the adjacent fields. The ACFC says the shed “has minimal use by community users, due to its poor condition.”
On Thursday 26 June 2025 the ACFC made a presentation to the Board of Kadaltilla/ the Adelaide Park Lands Authority.
Board Members were told that the sports fields next to these three buildings are used by more than ten community organisations, with an estimated 60,000 participants annually.
The club shared with Kadaltilla its vision to replace one or both of its buildings pictured above with a new two-storey building; something like this:
The club’s submission to Kadaltilla described its proposal as being a “community” building but its plans nevertheless include facilities of a private nature: an office, a dining room, a meeting room and a players’ “education auditorium”.
The images above represent the ACFC’s hopes for Pelzer Park Park / Pityarilla (Park 19).
They are separate from its hopes to replace its other building located in Peppermint Park / Wita Wirra (Park 18). No concept drawings or plans for such a building were put before Kadaltilla on 26 June.
The submission on that date canvasssed two options - one of which (“Option A”) was to retain the 1980s shed on Greenhill Road, despite plans for the other two new buildings!)
The other option (“Option B”) was to combine the existing three buildings into two; demolishing and returning to Park Lands the shed adjacent to Greenhill Road.
ACFC’s “Option A”: two new buildings (marked as “New Park 19B” and “New Park 18”) while retaining the old shed off Greenhill Road (marked as “Existing Park 19A”)
Adelaide City Football Club estimates the total cost at $6.5 million, including improved lighting, pathways, and “access” although it was not clear from its submission whether this sum was intended to cover one new building, or two.
Perhaps surprisingly, the club is not asking the City of Adelaide to contribute funding. Instead the ACFC advised Katatilla that both Federal and State Governments have indicated support.
If this is the case, it would be replicate recent pushes by other sporting bodies to get Council approval for new Park Lands buildings after first getting funding pledges from other levels of Government.
At the meeting on 26 June 2025, Kadalilla was not required to make any decision.
The author of this article, Shane Sody, is the immediate Past President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association, and the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".
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