Council kicks in support for Warriors FC

THE North Geelong Warriors secured an off-field win last week when the club convinced the City of Greater Geelong to chip in funds to maintain its facilities.

At their September 27 meeting, councillors backed a motion to authorise $47,000 to the football club to help pay for the up keep of its three pitches at Lara’s Elcho Park.

“We’d spend $200,000 a year on basic maintenance for the club and services, that’s just the general costs of opening the gates each year,” the club’s Kruno Madjeric said.

The Warriors board member responsible for infrastructure and grants was one of an estimated 80 people from the club who turned up to the meeting as a show of support for the result that’s been three to four years in the making.

While welcoming the decision, Mr Madjeric said the outcome did not alter the fact the club was being excluded from an equitable playing field that sees the city play an ongoing role in the maintenance of grounds for estimated 200 other sporting clubs in Geelong.

The issue is that while the Warriors’ Elcho Park home is on private land, other sporting clubs are on council-owned land, which ensures their grounds are maintained by the city under its Fair Play Strategy.

“We pay for rates, insurances, rubbish removal, all the things that other clubs don’t pay because they’re located on council facilities…it’s just been a very unfair system,” Madjeric said.

Last week’s motion instructed the city’s chief executive officer to work with the club to review its financial viability and to provide a report to council by March 2023 on options available for it to consider ongoing financial support under the Fair Play Strategy.

“The key goal is to restore equity, and that we’re treated the same as every other sporting club in Geelong,” Mr Madjeric said.

“You can’t have one club paying all its bills, while 200 other clubs pay nothing. We don’t really want any more council funding, we just want them to do the same for us that they do with everyone else.”

Cr Eddie Kontelj said the club had helped the city avoid decades of maintenance costs because its been self-funded since it moved to Lara in the 1980s, in a deal that was facilitated by the city.

“It’s really saved council by funding itself, buying its land…where council has been spending millions of dollars on other clubs.”