Mayor’s Message - Friday 20 December 2024

It’s been a great month for sports announcements!  

This week we announced our fruitful partnership with the Western Bulldogs has been extended for another three years, bringing our partnership with the club up to 10 years.  

The partnership offers so much more than just football matches, with many valuable community programs in Ballarat, like Bulldogs Read and Sons and Daughters of the West.  

Over the years, these programs have been well attended and well regarded by our community.  

But of course, they bring football games too, and next year we will see two AFL matches played at our Mars Stadium.

Over the years, we’ve seen great attendances and last year across the two games almost 20,000 people enjoyed the spectacle.  

This year, the Western Bulldogs AFLW side also saw a healthy crowd of 2,000 people attend.  

Also in December we announced a new partnership with netball club the Melbourne Vixens to expand their regional pre-season events to Ballarat.  

As part of the significant sporting events program, Ballarat will host annual pre-season events over the next three years, for fans to enjoy exhibition matches, training seasons, workshops and junior clinics for our budding sports stars.  

Next year we will see three interstate Suncorp Super Netball teams play Melbourne Vixens in Ballarat. Stay tuned for more information on dates!  

And rounding out the exciting announcements from the State Government was the head contractor for the massive upgrade of our Ballarat Major Sports and Events Precinct.  

Congratulations to Kane Construction and Nicholson Construction Joint Venture which will deliver works to increase seating at Mars Stadium, build the new athletics facility and improve amenity and accessibility across the whole site. We look forward to the development getting underway in 2025.

- Mayor Cr Tracey Hargreaves