| starcommunity.com.au
Page 12 Friday, 5 December, 2014
Connecting people and communities
$90m Cats project âset to startâ PLANNING and design on Simonds Stadiumâs stage-four expansion will start immediately following the election of a new state government, according to Geelong Cats chief executive Brian Cook. Key elements of the project will be the replacement of the Brownlow and Jennings stands to boost crowd capacity, Mr Cook said. âThis is an outstanding outcome for our club and the Geelong community, and ensures we continue to implement our vision of providing a world-class stadium for our region,â Mr Cook said. The $90 million stage-four redevelopment is set to proceed after Labor promised $70 million for the project during the state election campaign. The coalition failed to pledge funding for stage four. The stadium has struggled to fill with football patrons after the three earlier stages expanded capacity to 33,500. The largest crowd last year was 27,402 when the Cats hosted North Melbourne. Stage four will lift capacity to 36,000. The expansion comes after the Cats' first financial operating loss in 15 years.
LOSS: Cats chief Brian Cook.
CONCEPT: The entry to the new Brownlow and Jennings stands.
The club blamed falling attendances and a drop in commercial revenue for the $250,000 loss. Home attendances at Simonds Stadium, the MCG and Etihad Stadium dropped from an average of 36,649 in 2013 to 33,915 this year. Mr Cook said commercial revenue was down $1.1 million and football department spending in-
creased $200,000 to $21.6 million. A key task of the stage-four upgrade would be identifying the best timelines for commencement and completion of construction while minimising disruption to match-day and general club operations. âWe can however confirm that there will be no impact during the 2015 season,â Mr Cook said.
âOnce the key timelines for the project have been established, we will communicate these dates to members and stakeholders.â Mr Cook said the stadium's staged development added to the clubâs loss. âOver the past decade the club has invested all of our profits - over $13 million - back into Simonds Stadium. No other club has the same issues around stadium costs, and in addition to this investment we continue to pay the City of Greater Geelong for leasing the venue and office space at the ground. âThese stadium costs are fixed regardless of how many games we play at our stadium and so increasing the number of games we play at Simonds Stadium is very important to our financial outcomes. âPlaying two of our home games at Etihad Stadium in 2014 was very costly to us and we continue to seek AFL support for returning these games to Simonds Stadium. âWhile the overall result is disappointing, we continue to invest in our football department.â
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The Sands Torquay - 2014 Surf Coast Pro Am champion Ian Cover. Despite a morning of very wet weather, sponsors, professionals and celebrities hit the links with hopes high and played through some windy and testing conditions -- to find the course beautifully dry and very playable. The professional results for the day ended in a threeway tie with Jarrod Lyle, Carl Smedley and local Deyen Lawson carding 69 respectively to take out the winnersâ cheque. Amateur golfer Matt Stammers shot an impressive 39 points in the morning field to take out the daily prize. Following the evening meal and prize presentations, Ian Cover and Dipper proceeded to run the Challenge auction and raffle which raised more than $2500 for the charity and completed what was a fun day for everyone involved. Thank-you to the sponsors of the event including
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Jarrod Lyle and Robert Dipierdomenico at the 2014 Surf Coast Pro Am
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The Torquay Sands Pro Am recently offered Surf Coast golfers a great opportunity to watch or play with Australiaâs best players and well-known celebrities as they took on the championship Stuart Applebydesigned layout. While playing for a $10,000 purse -- and raising money for the Challenge Organisation to help kids with cancer -- the day had a festive feel. There with terrific product demonstrations, beautiful food supplied by Peppers The Sands Head Chef Stephane, and great prizes in raffles and auctions. This year saw The Sands Pro Am placed perfectly between the Australian Masters and Australian Open to capture some of Australiaâs biggest names in golf. These included Robert Allenby and Jarrod Lyle as well as other sporting and media identities such as AFL legend Robert Dipierdomenico, The Projectâs Lehmo, 888 Pokerâs Jackie Glazier and Coodabeen
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