By Michael DiFabrizio
LET’S not overcomplicate the Mildura Sporting Precinct seating mess.
The answer is obvious — all it needs is the right conversations to take place, sooner rather than later.
We know the indoor stadium’s seating arrangements haven’t lived up to even Mildura Council’s own expectations.
Both in Future Ready documents and the actual planning amendment lodged for the site, the council declared: “Plans include a 3000-seat capacity entertainment centre.”
What eventuated was a capacity not even fit to host Mildura Heat Big V basketball games, let alone major events.
More recently, Mildura Mayor Liam Wood sought to temper expectations by floating the possibility of getting to 1000 seats.
That’s not at the level to host an NBL game — not even close.
But Mildura, too often, makes a sport out of dwelling on things. So let’s move past that and put ourselves back in the solutions game.
Cost was one of the reasons given for the seating dilemma.
A quick scan online reveals Chinese manufacturers can push out 3000 seats of retractable seating — able to be folded up against the wall when not in use — for about $400,000. Pricey.
But here’s the thing, in the not-too-distant future the state of Victoria is likely to have a bunch of stadium seating, probably the exact kind MSP could use, looking for a home.
The Commonwealth Games are being held in regional Victoria in 2026.
Not in Mildura, of course, we were snubbed out of an active event hosting role in favour of the now-five host cities (Shepparton has joined Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland — not to dwell or anything).
Hosting all the events of a Commonwealth Games is going to require seats, and lots of them.
For athletics, Mars Stadium in Ballarat was set to add 18,000 temporary seats — on top of 5000 new permanent seats.
In terms of indoor sports, events such as squash and 3×3 basketball in Bendigo were among those likely to require temporary seating.
Where do all these seats go after the Games?
The case needs to be made now, before venue planning becomes too advanced, for some of them to end up in Mildura.
Outdoors at the MSP, a bit of grandstand seating next to the oval could be the finishing touch needed to ensure events like the successful AFLW fixture last month can continue into the future.
And indoors, the venue could finally become what it was meant to be, for the benefit of local sport, such as the Heat teams, and for the local economy, which gets such a boost out of events.
The government planned to spend $150 million on Mars Stadium and $292 million on new sporting infrastructure in Geelong.
It claimed the Commonwealth Games would contribute $3 billion to Victoria’s economy.
Mildura has every right to share in some of this.
It’s also worth noting, though, the government was also talking a big game about the event leaving a “legacy” for the entire state.
It even appointed a Minister for Commonwealth Games Legacy, Shaun Leane.
We seem to be missing out on the legacy of hosting actual competition events in our own backyard.
We seem to be missing out on the legacy of our region being beamed to the world (three of top six countries for tourist arrivals into Australia compete at the Games, but drone shots of the Murray won’t be what their fans at home see).
We seem to be missing out on the legacy of much-needed housing that the four athletes’ villages will provide Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and the Latrobe Valley.
A few seats? That’s the least we could ask for as a Games “legacy”.
