Lavington Sports Ground: Stage two of redevelopment complete
It was a long and bumpy road, but finally Stage 2 the controversial Lavington Sports Ground redevelopment is complete – and it’s pretty impressive. Here’s a sneak peek.
Albury Wodonga
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Kick off at Lavington’s controversial new stadium is a step closer.
The works, including a 300-person grandstand extension, four change rooms, umpires’ rooms, new kiosk, function room, coaches’ box, media area, enhanced field lighting and new carpark are part of the $10m stage two redevelopment.
Albury City mayor Kevin Mack described the upgrades as “quite stunning”.
“Regionally this is a premium stadium which will be somewhere were elite sport will come, but more importantly where we’ll be able to host junior carnivals and junior sport under a variety of codes - football, soccer, rugby league,” Mr Mack said.
“That’s our focus, to attract people to the region, and post COVID-19 this sort of infrastructure has come along at the right time.”
The project hasn’t come without its speed bumps after it was discovered the grounds had an unsuitable soil type for the development.
With an original budget of $10.1m, it cost the council a whopping $5.5m extra to investigate and fix the issues with the soil.
But despite the extra costs, Mr Mack said he believed it was all worth it.
“If we had perfect outcomes we’d deliver it on time and we’d deliver it under budget,” he said.
“But look what we’ve got here, it’s a wonderful stadium, wonderful facility, two lots of change rooms, and the other pavilion on the other side to cater for the second ground.
“It was worth the struggle.
“We apologised to the ratepayers for the overruns, but as council we couldn't foresee that would be the case when we purchased the ground and what was underneath it.
“It’s just one of those things when you build and you strike bad soil.
“I think we can see $20m here, I think when the community gets to come here and see it they will say it was worth it.”
Cr Mack said he believed there was an opportunity for the major codes to hold more games regionally, and the Lavington Sports Grounds were one of the best stadiums around.
“With the next three years being critical to their fundraising and their liability, there’s an opportunity to host more games regionally,” he said.
“With the hub model, its something they’ve got to live with because the stadium deals are too expensive. The MCG and Telstra Dome are too big and too expensive for what they can fit in it now, unless they relax the spectator numbers then they’ve got to look for alternatives and I think this is a great alternative.
“Not a knock on Ballarat, but this is 10 times better than Ballarat.”
The $19.6m investment is still in construction mode with more elements coming at part of stage three of the development.
The budget for stage three was $4m with $3.153m of funding coming from the NSW Government Regional Sports Infrastructure Program.
Albury City council team leader leisure facilities Michael Stanton said the council was about to put out a tender for some new terrace shading and seating, new time keepers, and a ticket box entry between the two grounds.
“We’re working with the Lavington football Netball Club on some netball upgrades,” Mr Stanton said.
“We’ve got a new score board which has been commissioned and fabricated sitting in a warehouse in Melbourne ready to come here when the contractors can get here.
“We’ve got some synthetic surface which will be a strip around the outside of the ground about 100m long.
“Then we’ll have some tree planting and landscaping around the whole site.”
Mr Stanton said he hoped stage three would be finished in mid to late 2021.
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Contact Cassandra at cassandra.glover@news.com.au
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