The new Riverhills Park football pitch, the home of the Fencibles United AFC, has been officially opened.
The Eastern Busway Alliance worked alongside Fencibles United and Auckland Council to improve the sports field and walking paths in the park.
Some of the open space is being used to build Gossamer Station as part of the Eastern Busway project, and the alliance and council have taken the opportunity to enhance the park for the local community.
The sports field in Gossamer Drive, Pakuranga, officially opened on Tuesday, and has been modified, with the football pitch being rotated and upgraded to include artificial turf, goals, dugouts and lights for training at night.
These changes will help boost capacity training for the club from 10 to 40 hours a week and give players a state-of-the art playing surface.
The Riverhills Park pitch:
The new turf is manufactured and installed by Polytan NZ from their German manufacturing entity. Polytan are a FIFA Preferred Producer
The turf gives the club a consistent playing surface year-round
It’s the first of its kind in New Zealand. LigaTurf Cross GT Zero is the world’s first carbon-neutral synthetic turf, made from 80 per cent bio-based fibre raw material. Shock pad is made from recycled foam. Infill (BrockFill) is manufactured from sustainable wood products and the bio-based yarn is made from a by-product from the sugar cane industry.
The Polytan turf was used by the Matildas at their home base (State Football Centre, Bundoora, Victoria) during their World Cup campaign in Australia last year and is also used on FIFA’s three pitches in Zurich.
The Riverhills Park pitch has been FIFA-tested and is expected to receive its FIFA Certification in the next four to six weeks.
