Finally a fair suck of sauce bottle

Usain Bolt’s much-anticipated first training run with the Mariners at Central Coast Stadium will gain international exposure.

Usain Bolt arrives at Sydney airport on the weekend. Picture: Jenny Evans.

On any given training week during the A-League season, the Central Coast Mariners would struggle to get more than one media outlet turning up.

And as the club has languished near the bottom of the table over the past couple of seasons they have gone for weeks without any media attention whatsoever. Their popular media manager Tyson Scott has permanently scarred knees from pleading with local media for any sort of coverage. No one, it seems, likes reporting about losers.

But all that will take a dramatic turn for the better today when local and world media descend on Gosford in huge numbers to focus on Usain Bolt’s much-anticipated first training run with the Mariners at Central Coast Stadium amid the picturesque backdrop of palm trees, Brisbane Waters and inflatable and flying sauce bottles.

An undoubted eye-opener will be the distinctive, much-talked-about and much-maligned, MasterFoods sauce bottles — BBQ, tomato and mustard — behind the goal at the scoreboard end and the electronically operated one that glides around just above the pitch. The Mariners’ sponsor will be among many of the club’s financial supporters to receive ­remarkable local and international exposure.

While fans will be locked out of the event, the media will get their first look at sporting superstar Bolt going through his paces — on his 32nd birthday no less — as he bids to prove he is good enough to earn a professional football contract.

Make no mistake, the media circus has come to town with the club bracing for as many as 100 print, television and radio journalists from here and overseas prowling the sidelines watching the eight-time Olympic gold medallist’s every move.

Bolt won’t be able to scratch his backside without myriad television cameras and photographers’ lenses zooming in.

Understandably, no one has been more in-demand than Scott, who has fielded constant calls seeking information and accreditation. Scott has had his mobile glued to his ear day and night, but is loving every minute of this unusual phenomenon for the Mariners.

Such is the interest that Fox Sports news will broadcast the entire training session live as well as covering Bolt’s first official press conference from the Central Coast Leagues club at 12.30pm. Reporters will live blog the training session and media conference.

Just what Bolt will make of the leagues club remains to be seen. Who knows if he might be tempted to duck in for a quick feed at the Peking Garden Chinese restaurant or the daily roast at the bistro? Perhaps a fling on the pokies?

The Mariners are hardly gangbusters material when it comes to television ratings — they struggle to get past 20,000 for many of their games — but that is about to change as well. Fox Sports is considering a live broadcast of the Mariners’ trial match against a local side on ­August 31.

Naturally it will be dependent on Bolt and whether he has made enough progress at training to take any part. Given he only arrived in Australia on Saturday and the trial is just 11 days away, it is unlikely the Mariners will rush him for that game. But Fox is keeping its options open and will decide in the next couple of days.

While Fox doesn’t have the international rights to the match — Football Federation Australia owns those — it is understood the game could be showcased to as many as 30 countries. Publicity stunt or not, few can deny the stunning impact already of Bolt’s association with the Mariners.