Council is "urgently" contacting the NT Government on whether it can use the old Katherine Sports and Recreation Club oval on Giles Street.

The sports oval has not been used for five years.

Multi-million dollar upgrades to the overused playing fields at the Katherine Sportsground have been long delayed because of design criticism, planning delays and cost blowouts.

With the work yet to begin, at least one sporting club fears the work will start just in time to upset the busiest time in the Katherine sporting calendar - the dry season.

Katherine Junior Rugby League treasurer Annette Schefe has asked council to further delay the work to September.

Her letter was read aloud at the council's monthly meeting last night by Mayor Fay Miller.

"We have great concerns our field will not be available," the letter stated... "It will have a major impact on our club."

"We were advised work would start in 2019... our season runs from March to September and we use field 2 extensively."

Council received a $11.4 million grant from the NT Government almost 18 months ago to upgrade the CBD, sportground and showground.

Mrs Shefe stood alongside Katherine MLA Sandra Nelson and Mayor Fay Miller when the grant was announced in July 2018 not knowing then how long it was to be for the work to start.

Of that, $4.4 million was allocated to the sportsground, mainly to upgrade the Don Dale Pavilion.

But concerns over the condition of the fields prompted the council to allocate $200,000 from its own reserves to fix Oval 2.

Council documents state Oval 2 "is constructed on a rocky surface with a minimum coverage of topsoil. It has no proper drainage system and the surface is undulating".

During the dry season, the sportsground ovals are used by hundreds of players participating in athletics, touch, rugby and soccer each week.

But it is the Junior Rugby League which will be impacted the most by the drawn-out upgrades.

"We are a big club, we use [Oval 2] every day for training," Mrs Schefe said today.

"If council goes ahead we will have to look at cancelling this year's season, which would ruin our club.

"We would lose volunteers, kids would go to other sports, it would be very difficult to get it up and going again."

Ms Schefe said there are no other field options in town for the junior club.

She has already looked into the old Sport and Recreation Club on Giles street, last used five years ago before it became insolvant due to poor governance and a decline in patronage, but it did not have the required facilities needed for training and matches.

The club would need working lights, change rooms and a score board, as well as a place to store sports gear for the season, she said.

"Oval 2 at the sportground is sound to use for the next couple of months for the junior matches. We have filled all the holes... to shut us down because there is no field to use would be horrible."

Council says the delay to work on Oval 2 lies in revamping the lights, which are not compliant to the size of the field.

While council is under mounting pressure to move the upgrades forward, sport groups say work should have started last year.

At the council meeting last night it was alderman John Zelley who put forward the idea to ask the government to use the Sport and Recreation Club oval.

While the building is believed to be built with asbestos, Mayor Fay Miller said the council would be "urgently" contacting the NT Government, the owner of the Sport and Recreation Club, for permission to use the field and bathroom facility.

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