COVID-19 and planning delays had until now postponed upgrades to Oval 2 at the Katherine Sportsground, despite concerns the field is unsafe for players.

In a statement released this week, the Katherine Town Council said the oval will be out of action for up to eight weeks, leaving the start of the season for a major sporting group in Katherine up in the air.

Jimmy King, president of the Katherine Rugby League, said the field had been left in a state of disrepair for too long. "To put it straight, it needed to be done."

"But the timing wasn't optimal."

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 sports ground is used each week by hundreds of players participating in athletics, touch, rugby and soccer.

"We were putting top soil on the back of a ute and filling in holes before a game started," Mr King said. "At one stage the watering wasn't adequate and if a kid fell and hit their head on the ground, well that would have been dangerous."

More than 200 players are involved in the rugby league season, which typically starts in late March. And if the upgrades to Oval 2 are not completed in time, teams may have to source an alternative training ground, Mr King said.

"We'll potentially have to start using Oval 1, which will be heavily used, and that could impact some other sporting groups later in the year."

The Katherine Town Council received an $11.4 million grant from the NT Government in 2018 to upgrade the CBD, sportground and showground.

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.

Rosemary Jennings, Katherine Town Council's Executive Manager of Community Services said the upgrades are taking place during the oval's "lowest demand".

"This project has been in the works for over three years, and there has been extensive research into what needs to happen to bring that [oval] up to an acceptable level," she said.

The research revealed "it was a major redevelopment that needed to happen" which involves ripping up the soil, replacing the irrigation, and resurfacing.

"Initially with the project there was talk of putting plugs in it for the graphs, after the profiling [and] reshaping had been done. However, that would have extended the lead time out again on those clubs being able to use that field.

"But thankfully we were able to move forward with a recommendation to the elected members to actually turf the field and that has significantly decreased that timeframe so we're actually looking at a six to eight week turnaround on completion, as opposed to a six month turnaround on completion.

"So as much as it's not ideal that it will have an impact, it is, in terms of being able to complete the project, actually the only way we can do it with the least amount of impact."

According to the council's statement the project has been awarded to Darwin based landscaping company Sterling NT.

"To ensure the oval has had time to be established, Katherine Town Council will not be taking hires for Oval 2 until May 2021," the statement reads.

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