Anthony Albanese has visited Northern NSW again to announce further Federal Stimulus Grants for local sports facilities.
Following a recent announcement of a $2.6 million re-development of Ellem Oval/ Fisher Park in Grafton, the Minister announced today a Grant of $2.2 million for a lighting upgrade at BCU International Stadium, Coffs Harbour.
The lighting upgrade will allow the lighting to be modified up to 1500Lux making possible the digital television telecast of night games from the Stadium.
With a surface quality comparable to any ground in Australia, a Council that supports major sporting events and a large regional airport we hope this gives great impetus to the possibility of NAB Cup or NAB Challenge games in coming years.
AFL media manager Patrick Keane said the lighting upgrade made Coffs Harbour an attractive and viable option when it comes to fixturing venues for these competitions.
“We’ve played a couple of practise matches as part of our pre-season in Coffs Harbour but with the capacity for lights that obviously enables us to play at night which in the pre-season is a major benefit for us because we’re avoiding the potential for heat so this is a great result,” Keane said.
The AFL representative said that Coffs Harbour has been on the League’s radar for another pre-season match for quite some time. Keane added that there will be another match here soon, he’s just not exactly sure when.
“Usually that is a discussion we have each year with AFL NSW-ACT as the one or two matches that we play in the pre-season we move them around different parts of the State,” he said.
“We haven’t yet had a discussion about the pre-season for next year but if it’s not next year it would be the year after.”
With this said, a great benefit would be flow-on effect to recruitment opportunities for local junior clubs as currently experienced in the area with the South Sydney Rabbitohs playing a pre-season game each February.
Congratulations go to Mark Heaney, Jim Woodlock and others who have worked tirelessly in conjunction with the Council and other sporting groups to build momentum for such an announcement.
Last Modified on 05/06/2010 10:21