--- title: "Facility Plan and Usage Schedule for NZ Sports Clubs" url: https://tidyhq.com/blog/facility-plan-usage-schedule-new-zealand-sports-clubs date: 2025-10-08 updated: 2026-04-21 author: "Isaak Dury" categories: ["Governance", "Comparisons"] excerpt: "Most NZ clubs use council reserves or share with other codes. A facility plan keeps your access secure and your council relationship strong." --- # Facility Plan and Usage Schedule for NZ Sports Clubs > Most NZ clubs use council reserves or share with other codes. A facility plan keeps your access secure and your council relationship strong. ![Composition No. IV, with Red, Blue and Yellow by Piet Mondrian, illustrating Facility Plan and Usage Schedule for NZ Sports C](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/bp0k7h82/production/b301a9d4f656b29b832dceb3918be5727b389a1c-633x634.jpg?w=1200&fm=webp) ## Key takeaways - Most NZ clubs use council-managed reserves - your continued access depends on being a good tenant and having a documented plan - The Reserves Act 1977 governs how local authorities manage recreation reserves - understanding it helps you protect your ground - Sport NZ's facility planning resources guide how councils allocate sport and recreation assets - understand the process and you understand your club's future - Usage schedules prevent sharing conflicts and give councils evidence that facilities are being used effectively A cricket club arrives for their Saturday fixture to find the outfield has been mown to rugby length\. The council's parks team did it on Friday \- nobody told the cricket club, nobody checked the booking calendar, and the wicket block hasn't been prepared because the groundsman assumed it was a rugby weekend\. The opening batsmen are standing on a pitch that's been cut to two inches with a set of rugby line markings still faintly visible at mid\-wicket\. Or this: a rugby club's licence to occupy is due for renewal\. The council asks for evidence of facility usage, maintenance records, and a plan for the next five years\. The club secretary rifles through three years of committee minutes, two former presidents' personal email accounts, and a filing cabinet in the clubrooms that hasn't been opened since 2020\. They can't produce anything coherent\. The renewal gets delayed\. The club panics\. Rumours start about the council converting the reserve to housing\. These aren't hypothetical scenarios\. They happen every season, across every code, in every region\. And they're almost always preventable \- with a facility plan that someone actually maintains and a usage schedule that everyone agrees to before the season starts\. We've written the [Australian version of this guide](/blog/facility-plan-usage-schedule-australian-sports-clubs), and while the principles of facility management are similar, the NZ context is different in important ways\. Your relationship is with your territorial authority, governed by the Reserves Act 1977 and the Local Government Act 2002\. Sport New Zealand's facility planning resources shape how councils think about sport and recreation assets\. Development contributions under the Resource Management Act can fund facility improvements\. This guide is written for those realities\. ## How most NZ clubs access their facilities Before we get into planning, it helps to understand the landscape\. The way your club accesses its ground shapes everything about your obligations and your negotiating position\. **Council reserve, club licence to occupy\.** The most common arrangement\. Your club holds a licence to occupy \- sometimes called a lease or ground licence \- on a council\-managed recreation reserve\. The licence specifies what you can and can't do, who maintains what, and under what conditions it can be terminated\. If you haven't read yours recently, read it this week\. Seriously\. Most committees have never seen the actual licence document\. **Council reserve, seasonal allocation\.** A step down from a licence\. Your club is allocated ground space seasonally through the council's parks and recreation team\. You have usage rights for specific times, but no security of tenure beyond the current allocation period\. The council can reallocate your ground to another club or withdraw it for maintenance\. If this is your arrangement, working towards a formal licence should be on your committee's agenda\. **Shared\-use agreements\.** Multiple codes sharing a single reserve \- cricket and rugby on the same ground is the classic New Zealand arrangement, with the season handover happening roughly in March and October\. These agreements should specify who gets priority when, how shared spaces like the clubrooms and pavilion are managed, and who pays for what\. In practice, many are informal understandings that work until they don't\. **School partnerships\.** Some clubs train or play on school grounds, particularly where a school has an artificial turf or indoor facility\. These partnerships are often informal, which makes them fragile\. A new principal or board of trustees can change the arrangement at short notice\. Document everything and, where possible, formalise with a written agreement\. **Club\-owned facilities\.** Less common, but some established clubs \- particularly bowling, tennis, and cricket clubs \- own their grounds outright or hold long\-term perpetual leases\. Ownership gives you control and security but also gives you every maintenance bill, every compliance obligation, and every repair cost\. Most clubs reading this will fall into the council licence or seasonal allocation categories\. The rest of this article is written with that in mind, but the principles apply regardless\. ## Why you need a facility plan A facility plan is not a wish list for a new pavilion\. It's a document that records what you have, the condition it's in, who's responsible for maintaining it, and what you'd like to improve over time\. It matters for five reasons\. **It protects your access\.** When your licence comes up for renewal \- or when the council reviews its reserve allocations \- they'll look at whether you've been a responsible occupier\. A facility plan with maintenance records and usage data is the strongest evidence you can put forward\. **It strengthens grant applications\.** Every Sport NZ, gaming trust, and Lotto NZ grant asks some version of the same question: what's your plan for this facility? Grant assessors aren't just evaluating the project you're proposing \- they're evaluating whether you can manage it once it's built\. **It gives you standing in the planning process\.** When a developer proposes building on or near your reserve, the territorial authority considers objections more seriously when they come from a club with a documented facility plan, usage evidence, and a relationship with the council\. A club with nothing on paper is easy to dismiss\. **It prevents sharing conflicts\.** When cricket and rugby share a ground \- and the rugby club wants pre\-season friendlies on the block in March, and the cricketers want their outfield back \- the only thing that resolves it without damage is a written schedule everyone agreed to before the season started\. **It demonstrates responsibility to the council\.** Councils manage hundreds of community reserves and facilities with constrained budgets\. The clubs that come to them with a plan, with evidence of maintenance, with a clear picture of usage \- those are the clubs that get their calls returned\. That's not cynical\. That's how stretched organisations make decisions\. ## The Reserves Act 1977 and what it means for your club The [Reserves Act 1977](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1977/0066/latest/whole.html) is the primary legislation governing how territorial authorities manage recreation reserves\. If your club plays on a council reserve \- and most do \- this Act shapes your relationship with the council whether you know it or not\. Key points for clubs: - **Recreation reserves** are classified for the purpose of providing areas for recreation and sporting activities\. The council is required to manage them for that purpose\. - **Leases and licences** on recreation reserves can be granted for up to 33 years \(with some conditions\)\. If your current licence is shorter, it may be worth discussing a longer term with the council at renewal\. - **Reserve management plans** are documents the council prepares \(or should prepare\) for significant reserves\. They set out how the reserve will be managed, developed, and used\. If your ground has a reserve management plan, get a copy \- it affects what improvements you can make and what activities are permitted\. - **Changes of purpose** \- converting a recreation reserve to another use \- require a formal process including public consultation\. This is a layer of protection for your ground, but it's not absolute\. Understanding the Reserves Act doesn't mean you need to become a lawyer\. It means you know the framework your council is operating within, which makes your conversations with them more productive\. ## The facility audit: what do you actually have? The first step in any facility plan is an audit\. Walk the site\. Document everything\. Take photos\. Rate the condition\. Note who's responsible for maintenance \- your club or the council\. Cover everything: playing surface, artificial turfs \(if applicable\), practice nets, pavilion or clubrooms, changing rooms, showers, kitchen and catering facilities, storage, car park, fencing, floodlighting, scoreboard, PA system, toilets, spectator areas\. For each item, record three things: current condition \(good, fair, poor\), who is responsible for maintaining it \(club or council\), and any urgent issues that need attention now rather than next season\. This audit becomes your baseline\. Update it annually\. It takes one committee member half a day \- a small investment for the document that underpins your entire facility relationship with the council\. ## The usage schedule A usage schedule is exactly what it sounds like: a document showing who uses the facility, when, where, and for what purpose\. It sounds obvious\. Most clubs don't have one\. Here's a basic structure: | Day | Time | Area | User | Purpose | |\-\-\-\-\-|\-\-\-\-\-\-|\-\-\-\-\-\-|\-\-\-\-\-\-|\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-| | Monday | 6:00–7:30pm | Main ground | Senior rugby | Training | | Tuesday | 4:00–5:30pm | Main ground | Junior rugby \(U13s\) | Training | | Tuesday | 7:00–9:00pm | Clubrooms | Committee | Meeting \(monthly\) | | Wednesday | 6:00–7:30pm | Main ground | Senior rugby | Training | | Thursday | 4:00–6:00pm | Practice nets | Cricket nets | Training \(summer\) | | Thursday | 6:30–8:00pm | Clubrooms | Walking netball | Pay\-to\-play session | | Saturday | 10:00am–5:00pm | Main ground | Cricket club | Match day \(summer\) | | Saturday | 1:30–5:00pm | Main ground | Rugby club | Match day \(winter\) | | Sunday | 9:30am–12:00pm | Main ground | Junior rugby | Matches \(winter\) | | Sunday | 10:00am–12:00pm | Main ground | Junior cricket | Coaching \(summer\) | Include every user: your club, co\-tenant clubs, schools using the facilities, casual hirers, council bookings\. If someone uses the facility and they're not on this schedule, you've got a gap\. The schedule prevents double\-bookings, gives the council a clear picture of how intensively the facility is used \(which matters when they're deciding whether to invest or divest\), and helps you identify underutilised time slots that could generate hire revenue\. Update it every season\. Circulate it to all users before the season starts\. Get agreement in writing\. "We've always had the ground on Saturdays" is not an agreement \- it's an assumption, and assumptions collapse the moment someone else makes the same one\. ## The cricket\-rugby handover This deserves its own section because it's the most common source of facility conflict in New Zealand grassroots sport, and it happens twice a year\. The outfield that was a rugby ground until September needs to become a cricket ground by October\. The wicket block that was hibernating under the outfield needs to be prepared\. The rugby posts need to come down\. The cricket sight screens need to go up\. And both clubs think they should have the pavilion that weekend\. A written handover protocol \- agreed before the season, not during the argument \- should cover: - **Exact dates\.** When does the rugby season end and the cricket season begin on this ground? Specify to the day\. - **Block protection\.** When does the cricket block become off\-limits to rugby? \(This is usually several weeks before the cricket season starts, to allow preparation\.\) - **Shared spaces\.** Who gets the clubrooms on overlap weekends? Is there a rotating priority? - **Equipment\.** Who is responsible for moving goalposts, sight screens, boundary markers? Who stores what and where? - **Communication\.** A named contact from each club who speaks to each other when something comes up\. Not a committee\-to\-committee exchange of formal letters \- two people who have each other's mobile numbers\. If your council manages the allocation, they may have a standard handover process\. If they don't, create one yourselves and send it to the council as evidence that you've got it sorted\. ## Maintenance planning Your licence almost certainly specifies maintenance responsibilities\. The split usually looks something like this: **Club responsibility:** day\-to\-day cleaning, minor repairs, litter and waste management, kitchen and catering area upkeep, storage management, reporting issues to the council promptly\. **Council responsibility:** structural repairs, major works, playing surface renovation, compliance upgrades \(accessibility, fire safety\), major equipment replacement\. But if your licence was signed fifteen years ago, the maintenance split might be vague \- or it might not reflect what actually happens in practice\. Some clubs quietly take on tasks that are technically the council's responsibility because waiting for the council to act means waiting until the changing room roof leaks through\. That's understandable, but if you're spending club money on council\-owned assets without a documented agreement, you have no recourse when the council refuses to reimburse you\. Get the split in writing\. If it's in your licence, pull it out into a simple table your committee can reference\. If it's ambiguous, ask the council to clarify\. A short email exchange now beats a heated argument about who was supposed to fix the hot water\. Keep a maintenance log\. Every repair, every issue reported to council \- date, description, who did it, cost\. This log is evidence of responsible occupancy, it supports grant applications, and it means the next committee doesn't have to guess what was done and when\. ## Development contributions and the RMA When housing developments receive resource consent, the territorial authority can require the developer to pay development contributions under the Local Government Act 2002\. These can include contributions towards reserves, community infrastructure, and recreation facilities\. If there's significant housing development happening near your club, there may be money earmarked for sport and recreation that nobody has told you about\. This isn't hypothetical \- it's how many clubs have funded floodlight upgrades, artificial turf installations, and clubroom refurbishments\. The process: check your council's Long\-Term Plan and infrastructure strategy for reserves and recreation\. Contact the council's parks and recreation team\. Ask whether any development contributions have been collected or earmarked for sport and recreation in your area\. If they have, make the case that your club's facility should benefit\. Having a facility plan makes this conversation dramatically easier\. ## The facility improvement plan This is the forward\-looking part of your facility plan\. What do you want to improve, in what order, and how will you pay for it? Structure it simply: 1. **Priority** \- rank each improvement by urgency and impact 1. **Description** \- what's the work? 1. **Estimated cost** \- get quotes where possible, rough estimates where not 1. **Potential funding sources** \- council contribution, gaming trust grant, Lotto NZ, Sport NZ, club reserves, fundraising 1. **Timeline** \- when would you realistically like this done? An example: - **Priority 1:** Upgrade floodlighting to NZR training standard\. Estimated cost: $80,000\. Funding: 50% gaming trust grant, 30% council contribution, 20% club reserves\. Timeline: before next winter season\. - **Priority 2:** Accessible changing rooms and toilets\. Estimated cost: $120,000\. Funding: council accessibility programme plus Lotto NZ grant\. Timeline: 18 months\. - **Priority 3:** Solar panels on clubrooms roof\. Estimated cost: $15,000\. Funding: club reserves plus EECA grant\. Timeline: 2–3 years\. This is what you take to the council, to gaming trusts, and to Sport NZ when asking for support\. It turns a vague request \- "we need better facilities" \- into a costed proposal with identified funding sources\. Grant assessors want to see this level of planning\. Councils want to see it\. It makes their decision easier\. ## Further reading Geoff Wilson covers facility management in detail in his book on running grassroots sports clubs\. If you want a deeper treatment of the practical and political realities of managing shared community sport facilities \- especially the relationship with your local authority \- it's worth reading\. We've reviewed the book [here](/blog/leading-grassroots-sports-club-geoff-wilson-book-review)\. For the Australian perspective, see our [facility plan guide for Australian clubs](/blog/facility-plan-usage-schedule-australian-sports-clubs) \- the Crown land and council lease structures work differently, but the principles of documenting what you have and planning what you need are universal\. ## How TidyHQ helps Your facility plan, licence agreement, usage schedule, and maintenance log all need to live somewhere the entire committee can access \- not in the secretary's personal Dropbox or buried in a Gmail thread from 2022\. TidyHQ's document storage gives your committee a single place for these files, with access controlled by role\. When the committee turns over \(and it will \- that's healthy\), the documents stay with the club\. For the usage schedule specifically, [TidyHQ's event management tools](/products/events) let you build a booking calendar that all users can see\. You can set up recurring bookings for training and match days, manage casual hire requests, and avoid the double\-booking disasters that happen when scheduling lives in someone's head\. It won't resolve the annual cricket\-rugby handover argument \- nothing short of a second ground will do that \- but it gives everyone a single source of truth about who's booked where and when\. And when the council asks for evidence of facility usage at your next licence review, you can produce it in minutes rather than weeks\. ## FAQs **Do we need a facility plan if we just get seasonal ground allocation through the council?** Yes \- arguably more so\. Seasonal allocation gives you the least security of tenure, which means you need to work harder to demonstrate your value\. A facility plan shows the council that you're organised, that you take care of the facility, and that you're thinking about the long term\. That's the kind of evidence that helps when you're negotiating for a more secure arrangement \- like a formal licence to occupy\. It also strengthens any grant applications, because assessors want to see that you can manage a facility responsibly\. **Who should be responsible for the facility plan on the committee?** Ideally, create a facilities officer or grounds manager role\. In practice, it often falls to the secretary or president\. The important thing is that one person owns it, it gets reviewed annually, and it doesn't disappear when that person steps down\. Keep it in a shared system \- not a personal hard drive, not a personal email account\. The plan belongs to the club, not to the individual\. **Our ground might be under threat from development\. What can we do?** Three things, in order\. First, check the reserve classification under the Reserves Act 1977 \- if your ground is a classified recreation reserve, any change of purpose requires a formal process including public consultation, which provides some protection\. Second, get a copy of your council's Long\-Term Plan and check how your reserve is categorised \- if it's identified as needed for meeting community recreation demand, the council will find it harder to justify disposal\. Third, make formal submissions to the council with your facility plan, usage data, and membership numbers\. A club that can demonstrate it serves 200 families in the community is much harder to displace than one that can't articulate its own value\. If development pressure is serious, contact [Sport New Zealand](https://sportnz.org.nz/) for advice \- they have expertise in facility planning and advocacy\. ## References - [Sport New Zealand \- Facility Planning](https://sportnz.org.nz/resources/facility-planning/) - [Reserves Act 1977 \- New Zealand Legislation](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1977/0066/latest/whole.html) - [Local Government Act 2002 \- Development Contributions](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0084/latest/whole.html) - [Regional Sports Trusts](https://sportnz.org.nz/about/who-we-are/regional-sports-trusts/) \- Local facility and club development support - [EECA \- Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority](https://www.eeca.govt.nz/) \- Grants for energy efficiency improvements - [Geoff Wilson Consultancy](https://geoffwnjwilson.com) --- Header image: *Composition No. IV, with Red, Blue and Yellow* by Piet Mondrian, via [WikiArt](https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian) --- Canonical: https://tidyhq.com/blog/facility-plan-usage-schedule-new-zealand-sports-clubs | Retrieved from: https://tidyhq.com/blog/facility-plan-usage-schedule-new-zealand-sports-clubs.md | Published by TidyHQ (https://tidyhq.com)