Hockey Australia launches new Facilities Information Hub

The future prosperity of hockey in Australia has taken a significant leap forward with the establishment of a world standard national Facilities Information Hub for the sport.

The Hub is a one-stop shop for Hockey facilities – from lobbying to construction and everything in between – in one centralised location.

With clear, concise and user-friendly resource guides available to digest and download, the Hub is aimed at assisting Australia’s legion of hockey volunteers, clubs, venues and communities across the nation with every aspect of facilities.

The topics of the Facility Resource Guides are:

• The Hockey Revolution
• Hockey 5’s Courts
• Hockey Turf and Field Standards
• Building Hockey Fields
• Hockey Field Equipment
• Hockey Field Irrigation
• Lighting for Hockey Fields

“These Facility Guides are the result of hockey across Australia working together to provide facility expertise to the hockey community who are charged with lobbying, constructing and upgrading hockey facilities,” said HA CEO David Pryles.

“This is another example of wonderful collaboration between our Members Associations and Hockey Australia to improve our sport and make it a great experience for everyone involved.”

A special event was held at the Melbourne Sports Centres – Parkville to launch the new Hub. Several world experts on the topic of facilities attended the event, including FIH Facilities and Quality Manager, Professor Alastair Cox, and Managing Director of Smart Connections, Martin Sheppard.

Cox provided an introduction to the FIH Quality Program and presented on sustainable considerations in hockey field design and the future direction of hockey facilities across the globe.

Having played an integral role in developing and outlaying the content, Sheppard officially launched the Hub before conducting a panel interview with Cox and Hockey Victoria CEO Andrew Skillern to explore the future of hockey globally and locally.

Areas of focus included:

• assessing the environmental footprint of hockey turf products,
• Australia’s hockey revolution and approach to engage with Local and State governments to promote more hockey facilities, programs and events,
• examples of Hockey 5’s being set up on multi-sport or alternative smaller surfaces around the world, plus new innovations, technology and international examples.

The launch coincided with the National Sports Convention taking place this week.