With over 38,000 participants, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland is New Zealand’s fastest growing football community - Northern Region Football’s Auckland Facilities Plan sets out a future vision for finding everyone a place to play. 

Read the NRF Auckland Facilities Plan 

“This is about planning for football’s long term health, because making sure we have the green space needed, as we continue to grow, will only become more challenging,” said NRF CEO Laura Menzies.

 “It’s been an incredible collaborative effort, Auckland Council have been involved at every level, from start to finish. The biggest issue is flood-lit training space – we need reasonable lit training facilities so teams can train mid-week, then have a fabulous time playing at the weekend. It’s about equitable access to facilities, with men’s and women’s teams all having great fields to play on, there’s work we can do in that space.” 

This plan is 18 months in the making. The close collaboration with Auckland Council and NRF clubs means the plan is based on comprehensive data, along with a clear understanding of the current state, future goals and the challenges to get there. 

“The challenge is that we’re growing so rapidly that it’s hard to cover what we need now as well as plan for the future. There are competing priorities for a very small amount of investment. We developed the plan to make sure we get the biggest bang for the buck so that we do have places to play,” said NRF Head of Clubs and Community Engagement Carl Fenton.  

“Football is a huge user of our grounds, it’s around 60% of usage, with both winter and summer programmes. The more of this kind of work we do the better, because we get to see the football perspective and where they’re heading, their goals and aspirations. It’s also a chance for us to talk about some of the restrictions that we have,” said Auckland Council Regional Sports Park Manager Scott Malcolm.  

The plan, developed by Visitor Solutions, includes advice from Sport NZ Ihi Aotearoa and Aktive, and is created with the big picture in mind, guiding decision making and best use of resources for the entire network. 

From here, the plan will be used to guide discussion with Auckland Council and Local Boards to make sure football gets optimum value from future investment, that benefits as many Aucklanders as possible. 

Article added: Wednesday 24 September 2025