New Lights at Steel Blue Oval

Swan Districts Football Club is delighted at the new oval lighting at Steel Blue Oval.

The club has worked tirelessly over the past 8 years to gain support to improve the lighting at Steel Blue Oval.

“This has been a long term priority for our club”, said club President Peter Hodyl.

“We could no longer accept training under lights that didn’t even meet minimum acceptable standards for community sports grounds, let alone an elite State Level Australian Rules football oval.

“It was actually well less than the minimum, limiting use of the oval and causing significant safety concerns for our players and coaches.

“Improved lighting has increased the use of the oval providing more opportunities for local boys and girls to reach their dream of playing in the AFL.

“It has also allowed us to grow our successful community impact programs including All Abilities football, the Bassendean Youth Hub, and also progress a culturally and linguistic diverse football team.

The new lighting level provides 200 Lux with the infrastructure designed to be able to increase up to 500 Lux in the future. This will create many opportunities within the town for events other than football and Swans is proud to be a significant contributor for this to occur.

“We really wanted to get to a lighting level close to most of the other WAFL clubs which have 500 Lux to 750 Lux lighting which is what’s required to play official night games.

“But this would have cost an extra $320,000, on top of our contribution of over $320,000, and we just couldn’t afford it.

Swans first approached the State government in 2019 to help fund new lights through its CRSSF grant which required a third contribution from the club, a third from the Town of Bassendean, and the remaining third from the State Government. At the time the Town didn’t support the grant submission.

The club later approached the Federal Member for Perth, The Hon Patrick Gorman for financial support prior to the 2022 Federal election and he provided a $200,000 commitment toward the project.

Swans then worked with the Town of Bassendean to secure a $350,852 commitment from the State government which was a third of the project cost at the time.

The club then approached WA Football which contributed $200,000 to the project.

“We were well underway to finally getting this done. However, cost escalations increased the project cost to well over $1,300,000”, said Hodyl.

In 2024, to finally get the project over the line the Town increased its commitment to $231,000 and Swans did likewise to $332,000.

The Town continued to manage the delivery of the project.

“Swans is a not for profit 90 year old community sports club. We have worked tirelessly over the past 8 years to build our club’s cash reserves helping future proof the club for the next generations.

“Committing such a large amount of money toward what is ultimately the Town’s asset was a difficult decision for our club.

“However, the safety and increased access to the oval for our male, female and All Ability players, and local young people was paramount.

“The club thanks the Town’s CEO Cameron Woods and his staff for helping complete this project.”

“Finally, we celebrate the completion of what has been a mammoth task to get this off the ground to ensure the safety of all Oval users.”

The project would not have been possible without the considerable support from both State and Federal governments, Swan Districts Football Club, WA Football, and the Town of Bassendean.