MILDURA Lawn Tennis Club (MLTC) has long known its plans for a $3 million redevelopment of its hardcourts would largely be put on the backburner until the Mildura South sporting precinct was completed.
What it didn’t bargain on, though, was being shut out of talks between Mildura Rural City Council and Tennis Victoria over the past year on how the project should look.
The council has earned a reputation for not listening to the ideas and concerns of key stakeholders in recent times.
I’ve heard it from several land owners, developers and various sporting clubs.
None of this makes any sense to me.
Whether it’s the developers of the proposed $150 million Pinnacle Estate, on the corner of Sixteenth Street and Ontario Avenue, or two of the key future tenants of the Mildura South sporting precinct in football and basketball, surely they should be getting a good say on what’s going into their new homes?
The same goes with the MLTC.
I spoke this week with club president Reg Arney about it.
Reg is not one to rock the boat. However, he made it clear the club – which has about 300 members – is frustrated by not getting a seat at the planning table.
The groundwork for this redevelopment dates back to a 2012 feasibility study that worked out it would cost $2.4 million to put in 12 new top-class hardcourts.
The cost is now estimated to be close to $3 million, but Reg said that “eight courts is all we want” instead of 12.
It’s an important project that will be a major economic stimulus to the region through the increased number of top-line tournaments the club can host each year.
It needs to be a funding priority by the council after it delivers the Mildura South sporting precinct, and MLTC needs to have a greater say on how it looks.
On a brighter note for local tennis, I also spoke this week with local tennis coach Bill Madafferi, who revealed that planning was under way for a new “money” tournament at MLTC on the weekend before the Melbourne Cup, which is run on the first Tuesday in November.
It’s possibly going to be called the Sunraysia Cup and, depending on the number of open entries and level of local business support, it could have prizemoney of about $1000 for the men’s and women’s singles winners.
It sounds exciting and Sunraysia Daily will let you know more when the plans have been firmed up.
I also asked Madafferi what the acrylic hardcourt (or Plexicushion) redevelopment would mean to MLTC.
He said the club could host four major winter tournaments (when the grass courts are closed), with the biggest economic impact coming from the junior ranks when families travel to the region.
“We have the best weather in the state at this time of year and we’d be well placed to host good winter tournaments, especially with the juniors,” he said.
Madafferi also said it was time for the six local tennis clubs – MLTC, Red Cliffs, Nichols Point, Sacred Heart and St Andrews, Merbein and Alcheringa – to come together and work on a strategy that grows the sport as a whole.
“The problem is, though, you’re fighting a lot of history (of each club) to make it happen,” he said.
He said the “best scenario” was to make MLTC the region’s tennis hub.
For me, this make sense.
Instead of all the local clubs fighting for a slice of the same funding pie, make sure the bulk of it is directed to the premier facility and grow the sport from there.
