Mayors Message Friday 18 February 2022

This week, I was at Mars Stadium for the announcement of a two-year extension to Mars Wrigley’s naming rights for our flagship sporting stadium. 

We first entered into a five-year naming rights agreement with Mars in 2017, which has been a fantastic partnership between the City of Ballarat, Mars Wrigley and the Western Bulldogs Football Club. 

Mars has not only called Ballarat home for more than 40 years but it is also one of our city’s biggest employers so it seems appropriate they are able to stamp their name with pride on this stadium for a further two years. 

Mars Stadium is not only home to grass roots sport within Ballarat and region, but it also hosts elite sport, including the Western Bulldogs in both the AFL and AFLW, Western United A League soccer games and Melbourne Storm pre-season NRL games. 

Mars Stadium delivers very significant economic and sporting benefits to the Ballarat community and will continue to do so for many years to come. 

And having such an iconic and well-known name as Mars associated with this stadium for at least another two years will only further enhance its already excellent reputation. 

It was also with great pleasure that I launched the 70th Begonia Festival. 

This year’s 10-day free event from 11-20 March will showcase not only Ballarat’s signature rare begonia collection but also its creative community with an exciting new program being held in both the Ballarat Botanical Gardens and the CBD. 

The estimated economic impact for the Ballarat Begonia Festival is $3.445 million based on data from last year’s festival and, up until 2020, it attracted more than 60,000 visitors to Ballarat every March long weekend.  

I’m looking forward to crowds at this year’s event getting back to those same levels, as one of our most loved festivals bounces back post COVID.