MILDURA councillor Liam Wood summed it up well when he said it is not just the kids of Sunraysia who are excited about the new Mildura Sports Precinct.
“I am part of a basketball team and we are 40-year-old blokes, a bunch of hacks who are slowly falling apart, but we’ve got a Facebook page and the guys are trying to register now,” he said this week.
“They are itching at the bit. It goes from kids right up to all ages who are excited about the space.”
As a fellow old hack, after touring the facility this week, I say he is right. This is our community’s shiny new $44 million plaything, and today we should all feel like kids again.
After decades of planning and lobbying, the Mildura Sports Precinct will have its first piece of official sports action on Sunday night when badminton players hit the courts.
Volleyball will begin next week, with the basketball and netball summer seasons to get rolling in mid-November.
Other sports will follow suit, with footballers from South Mildura hitting the new AFL-standard oval for pre-season in January ahead of the 2022 season.
Stage 1 is complete and there is plenty of work to go before the enormous project is complete.
But, from this moment forward, the facility is open for business.
Sunraysia Daily was given a tour by precinct manager Don Harley, Mildura Rural City Council acting chief executive Martin Hawson and Cr Wood this week. Initial concerns around spectator viewing have been addressed, and while some of that will have to wait for stage 2, the positive news is that sporting organisations and the council now seem to be on the same page.
Mr Harley said plenty of work had been going on behind the scenes with user groups, and the overwhelming emotion from them now was simply “excitement”.
“They can’t wait to get started,” he said.
“There is a real buzz about all those sporting groups.”
Mr Hawson, who has been involved in the project throughout, admitted it was “immensely proud moment” to see the doors opened.
“It’s testament to a hard-working team of people who have been on a significant journey,” he said.
“People are excited. Sometimes we come out here and see the South guys having their lunch and just looking at the oval, so I think that may be some sort of indication that they’re raring to go,” he said with a laugh.
While teething problems are to be expected with the new facility, with multiple sporting groups coming together under the one roof for the first time, Mr Harley was confident the staged opening would be “pretty smooth”.
“I hope so,” he said.
“The community has been really good with COVID management so far but we are still very much in it, so we just ask that everyone be excited to use the stadium, but also to be COVID-safe in the manner that they do it.
“We will have staff to hopefully facilitate that but to make it really easy for the sporting groups.”
Mr Harley was also confident sport would bounce back strongly after so many COVID-19 interruptions.
“The football season got cut short for a lot of footballers and netballers so there has been a long break between the winter season finishing and now the summer season starting, so to be able to reconnect with friends will be one aspect for a lot of people,” he said.
“To be able to get back moving will be a second aspect and for parents to be able to watch kids play sport will be exciting as well.
“With those three elements combined, I’ve got no doubt that sport will pick back up quickly.”
The temperature inside the indoor stadium will also remain stable all year, due to high-tech airconditioning systems, which will be welcomed by players and spectators alike in Mildura’s extreme weather.
Mr Hawson said the community should be proud of what they could now boast in their backyard.
“It has been a long journey but I think it will be worth it,” he said.
“We look forward to that first big national championships or event where we can showcase that we are on an equal footing with not just the rest of Victoria, but the rest of Australia.”
As for Cr Wood, well he was still grinning like a kid.
“We are excited to get out here because the bounce in the floor feels like we can jump a bit higher,” he laughed.
Time to play, Sunraysia. Let the games begin.
