AS part of its bid to secure the 2025 Australian Country Championships, Hockey Ballarat is looking for support to develop its facilities.<\/p>\n
Hockey Ballarat president Tony Ford said that although the current pitch and change rooms at Prince of Wales Park have served them well, they have outgrown them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the game is growing in this city, we need a second pitch and new changing facilities, just to keep up with that expansion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the few sports in the city that can boast equal numbers in men and women, as well as boys and girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur change room facilities, in particular, just aren\u2019t keeping up with what people expect these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the national Country Championships involving 12 teams from around the nation, the event holds potential to bring in over $2.8 million in economic benefit to the city based on Shepperton\u2019s experience hosting in 2019.<\/p>\n
Hockey Ballarat\u2019s senior competition committee chair Jeff Sly said they are pushing for two pitches side-by-side and an upgrade to the changing rooms before they can facilitate the championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that Shepperton did that Ballarat couldn\u2019t do bigger and better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really pushing because we\u2019ve seen a push for changing facilities in football and netball and our facilities are just not up to scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cA greenfield site is something we\u2019re really looking for and we think it could be done for $6 to $7 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although hockey has previously been included in the City\u2019s master plan for the Prince of Wales Park precinct, the work is still yet to be commissioned.<\/p>\n
Candidates running for the local elections joined hockey players and staff on the pitch to investigate the needs for future developments into the facilitates and the sport itself.<\/p>\n
Current North Ward representative Cr Daniel Moloney said it\u2019s a sport that\u2019s growing in numbers and that a new, green field site would make sense as the next step forward for the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old sale yard has awesome potential \u2026 you could easily fit in two hockey pitches and changing rooms there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other option is out in Miners Rest, we\u2019ve just purchased some land on the corner of Cummins and Howell street, there\u2019s room there for two footy fields and hockey fields as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge for the young people, \u2026 these events expose young kids to national grade competition and having country-based championships here is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ford\u2019s granddaughter and avid hockey player Vera Stapleton said it would be an eventual goal of hers to play at the national championships here in Ballarat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely need another pitch so then we can host games here,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s around 70 teams who want to come but we couldn\u2019t because we only have that at one court.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be so nice to have a new pitch all to ourselves and not have to share with other groups.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AS part of its bid to secure the 2025 Australian Country Championships, Hockey Ballarat is looking for support to develop its facilities. Hockey Ballarat president Tony Ford said that although the current pitch and change rooms at Prince of Wales Park have served them well, they have outgrown them. \u201cThe way the game is growing […]<\/p>\n