SA Footy

Heard a quick report on the radio saying that North Melb FC have received a Govt grant in order of $2m to build a new training facility north of the city. Their CEO apparently has said that, because of that, any talk of relocation is off the agenda.

So the AFL need to find another team to move or just grant a 17th licence if they are to meet their goal of a Gold Coast based team by 2010.

All based on what I heard on the radio ....

news header
Federal grant for Roos
1:59 PM Thu 5 July, 2007 | Back

By Jason Phelan

Exclusive to AFL BigPond Network

News Text
THE KANGAROOS have moved a step closer to building a state-of-the-art facility at their spiritual home at Arden St with the announcement of a $2 million funding grant from the Federal Government on Thursday.

The grant brings the total investment in the new facility to around $8.5 million with the AFL committing $1.5 million, the City of Melbourne $2 million, the Victorian State Government $2 million and the club itself putting in $1 million.

The extra funding means the facility, which is still in the design phase, will be larger than initially projected and will include office space, an elite level gymnasium, improved training and administration facilities, multi-purpose sports facility and meeting rooms.

"The Federal Government's support will allow us to ensure that our local community and club representatives have Melbourne's most elite training and administration venue to utilise," club chairman Graham Duff said at the announcement at Arden St.

"We expect this centre to be the community sports hub of the inner northern suburbs and will give our club a much stronger presence in our local community."

Duff expressed the hope that the new facility, which will begin construction later this year and be completed midway through 2008, would help the club bridge the gap between it and wealthier interstate clubs making it a more attractive prospect for potential recruits.

The local community will have access to the gymnasium, weight training and multi-purpose sports facility areas as well as the new function and meeting rooms and the oval when not in use by the Kangaroos.

"This area of inner Melbourne has been bereft of such a facility and this project will rectify that for the local residents as the development will have strong community programs," Duff said.

Coach Dean Laidley echoed his president's sentiments and was relieved at the progress of the project after experiencing a few false starts in the past.

"It's wonderful. It's been an ongoing process and it's difficult when you're dealing with lots of different corporations to bring things together, but it seems to be going ahead really well," Laidley said.

"It's going to be great for our footy club, it's going to be great for the community and we're really pleased that it's going forward."

"There's been players who have been around here for 14 or 15 years and it's not the first time that this sort of stuff's happened but it's never gone this far down the track and had all these different organisations coming together to be able to pull it off."

When asked if moving out of the Kangaroos' current spartan accommodations could harm the famous Shinboner spirit he quipped: "We've got plenty of jars of it out the back so we'll just take them over to the new facility and make sure the players drink it before they run out."

Well unless they can diversify their supporter and sponsorship bases maybe Port Power should be relocated.

1980 Tassie Medalist wrote:Well unless they can diversify their supporter and sponsorship bases maybe Port Power should be relocated.

LOL....fair point though, while our fan base is small, at least it isnt reducing at an alarming rate!!

Sounds like the right decision, Southport need to go it alone to be the 17th team, they have their own team and their own culture, what they dont need is another club being foisted upon them and being told that is who they now are.

Instead of making it 17 teams I would go the whole way and let Tassie enter the competition at the same time and make it 18, then let it be survival of the fittest, the two sides that cant fund themselves drop back to their respective state competition.

excellent news, but this project has been in the winds for some time

people need to remeber this project is focused and key driver is to provide a sporting hub for the community, yes the Kanga's will benefit from this project, but it wont necessary be the catalyst to ensure their long term future in Melbourne