Perth Voice Interactive

LITIS stadium will finally get its federally-funded upgrades, more than five years since the truly strange circumstances surrounding $3million of grant money offered by the federal government in 2018. 

Vincent council owns the property and the main lease is held by football club Floreat Athena.

Back in August 2018, then-senator for One Nation Peter Georgiou announced $3million of federal funding was on offer to upgrade Floreat Athena’s home ground.

That was a huge surprise to Vincent council: Despite owning the property, no one had told the council of the announcement, and they were unwittingly caught up in federal politicking. 

Floreat Athena’s management of the day hoped that bringing $3million in upgrades would convince Vincent to give them a long-term exclusive use lease over the grounds. 

But that was at a time when Vincent was bringing an end to the era of one club having exclusive-use of its grounds, and steering towards shared use by multiple groups. The council refused to green-light Athena’s plans.

New blood

New blood at Athena and a shift in club culture eventually saw relations with the council grow warmer, and Athena accepted new buddies with the Vincent City Ducks gridiron team now sharing the grounds.

Now, with Vincent having had time to draw up a proper long-term plan for the stadium and its surrounding Britannia Reserve, construction is finally starting this month. Works include roof repairs, kitchen upgrades, new flooring, new electrics and constructing publicly accessible gender-neutral change rooms.

A long-recognised barrier to getting more women playing team sports is that they have often have to share old dingy men’s changerooms, so it’s hoped gender-neutral change rooms will help foster more women’s involvement. 

Vincent mayor Alison Xamon announced the construction’s start in a media statement this week, saying: “Female sport has been on the rise in Australia and across the world thanks to the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup and ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.

“Our new changeroom facility will build on that momentum and global interest while boosting female participation in sports at a local level.

“It will also benefit the clubs that use the stadium and Britannia Reserve and attract new members from the local community.”

Construction’s scheduled to complete in October 2025. 

by DAVID BELL