THE Knights, Jets and Northern NSW Football have been officially added as users of the highly sought after new No.2 Sportsground.
The $7million redevelopment of the Newcastle City Council-owned ground is on schedule and is expected to open in mid-April.
Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union club Wanderers will play their senior and junior home games at the 5000-seat stadium on Saturdays.
The council is aiming for an April 14 official opening to cater for the Two Blues’ game against bitter rivals Merewether Carlton.
The NHRU will use the offices at No.2 as its administration HQ.
The Knights will play some NSW Cup matches at the ground in winter and the Jets youth and W-League sides will call the ground home in the summer.
Northern NSW Football has been given permission to use the ground on Sundays and will allow its top-tier state league clubs to make submissions to host matches there.
When told yesterday that the Knights and NNSWF had been given permission to use the ground on Sundays, NHRU general manager Fenton Coull said it was ‘‘all news to us’’.
‘‘We were hoping to use it on the odd Sunday but at the moment we haven’t heard back from council,’’ he said.
‘‘For instance, there was a Sunday in late April we were hoping to host a junior carnival there and we’re just hoping that’s still OK.’’
The NHRU and Wanderers made financial contributions to the redevelopment and Coull said rugby contacts used in the earthmoving works had saved the council about $250,000.
Council recreation advisory committee chairman Nuatali Nelmes said the ground had to cater for all sports.
‘‘It was built not just for rugby,’’ Nelmes said.
‘‘It’s been the traditional home of rugby and Newcastle and Hunter Rugby will have their offices there, but that’s only part of it.
‘‘The ground was always built for the use of everybody, especially all those sports that don’t fit into Hunter Stadium.’’
NNSWF operations manager Alan Nisbet had hoped rugby and soccer could use the ground on alternate weeks.
NNSWF put in submissions to use the ground on behalf of its state league, top-flight club Hamilton Olympic, third-tier team Cooks Hill, Women’s Premier League outfit Merewether and the Jets.
But Nisbet said it would be ‘‘very difficult’’ to have the ground ready for top-grade soccer a day after rugby union matches had been played on it every week.
‘‘We don’t see it being as quite a viable option as we had hoped for,’’ Nisbet said.
Hamilton Olympic secretary Con Gounis said his club hoped to play some of its derby matches at the bigger-capacity ground and was still open to the possibility.
Wanderers are the only guaranteed tenants this winter. The use of the ground by other groups will depend on the growth of the new turf.
‘‘Probably for this winter season it will have relatively limited use, just to make sure we don’t destroy the ground in the first season,’’ Nelmes said.
‘‘That’s the advice I’m getting from our ground staff. Next winter it will be fully utilised.’’
Newcastle Rugby League has made a submission to host its final and grand final, depending on which teams qualify for the decider.
Hunter Sports Group said it was still awaiting confirmation on how much access Knights and Jets team would have to the ground.
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