Junior football is bucking the Dunedin trend and reporting thriving numbers this season.
The increase in junior playing ranks over the last three decades is more than 100%, according to numbers provided by Football South.
In 1989, there were 95 junior teams (1000 players) in Dunedin. There are now 202 junior club teams (2072 players) plus 16 secondary schoolgirl teams (208 players) and 33 secondary schoolboy teams (429 players).
There were also 385 teams (2700 players) in junior futsal - a sport that did not even exist in 1989 - at the Edgar Centre in the first school term.
Junior football had one of its biggest hikes in participation in the last year. In 2014, there were 183 junior teams, and the jump to 202 teams represents a 10.4% increase.
Senior men's and women's team numbers from 1989 to 2015 have been relatively stable, a positive sign for football, given the trends in other team sports.
Good numbers at the grass roots, plus the boost the sport will get from the Fifa Under-20 World Cup - no wonder local officials are rather happy.
Football South chairman Matthew Holdridge believes the increase in playing numbers is no accident.
''What we are seeing here are the local fruits of a five-year investment in a new national approach to junior football,'' Holdridge said.
''It focuses on age-appropriate player development, along with games [small-sided for the younger players] that enhance their enjoyment of the game.''
Football South had ''worked tirelessly'' to promote and develop the sport but it also owed a huge amount to clubs and volunteers, Holdridge said.
''At the end of the day, it is the club administrators, coaches and team managers - many of them parents - that get out there and turn this approach into reality through their work with all of the kids and teams.''
Outside organised football, club-run skills programmes for children aged from 3 to 5 were also popular, Holdridge said.
Futsal, rather than detracting from football, had complemented the sport.
''This is through providing kids with access to a more free-form type of the game, where they can develop individual skills and, in many cases, grow an interest to move on to the more traditional form of the game.''
Football South general manager Bill Chisholm said New Zealand Football's ''Whole of Football'' plan had been a huge boost for the sport.
''It has given football a unity and purpose to go with the passion that has always been there,'' Chisholm said.
The big focus now was on establishing the facilities to help the No 1 global sport continue to thrive in the South, Chisholm said.
''To help us sustain the growth the sport has been experiencing, we need playing and training facilities to grow and develop as well.
''A permanent, dedicated, year-round home of football is a priority. Not only will it help to grow the sport in Dunedin, but it can be a regional centre for the South, and even attract national and international coaching and playing events and teams.''
