Bipartisan boost for Burwood FC
Burwood Football Club is set to reap the benefit of a bipartisan commitment to a major upgrade of facilities at Centenary Park in Croydon.
Liberal Member for Strathfield Charles Casuscelli and Labor candidate Jodi McKay have both pledged their support towards the project in the lead up to next month’s state election.
“This is now my number one priority on my wish list to my government in terms of a recreational sporting facility,” Mr Casuscelli said.
If a Labor Government was to be elected; “I am pleased to commit half a million dollars to this project. This is such a popular park, not just for football but also cricket and you have change sheds that are completely inadequate,” Ms McKay said.
The existing amenities block was built in 1972, the change rooms now have to be used for storage; “Some of our over 45s players were juniors with us and have been living with this shed all that time and we want to make sure their children don’t have to live with this shed for too much longer.” Burwood FC President Andrew McVeigh said.
There was a false start to this project after the last Federal election; “We developed our plans based on the fact that we were getting some money from the Federal Government and that unfortunately fell over. We still want to proceed with it,” Ashfield Mayor Lucille McKenna said.
While promising to pursue the Federal Government to contribute, Mr Casuscelli also moved to allay fears the NSW Government was only committed to renovating large stadia; “We’ve made some announcements on some great tier one sporting stadiums but we need to look at tier two because this is the breeding ground for the champions that go to the tier one stadiums at a later time.”
The estimated total cost of a new amenities block, lighting and fencing is $1,800,000 but for all levels of government it’s an investment in the future; “A lot of facilities were built prior to females being involved in the game, from little girls right through to our over 30s competition, so to us it’s extremely important that we get this funding,” Canterbury Football Association CEO Ian Holmes said.
As 8 year old Burwood FC player Genevieve Hannah said “My dad asked me if I wanted to play football and I said yes because I thought it was a good way to get exercise.” And it’s the community’s responsibility to give her a safe environment to do that.
-By Mark Chester
