A VISION to transform Blue Lake Sports Park into a nationally-renowned premier sporting facility is being driven by a newly-formed committee.
The future of the park appears bright after the Blue Lake Sports Park Advisory Group was founded by key stakeholders in an effort to ensure the upkeep and improvement of facilities at the site.
Group chair Tony Elletson said the group had representatives from all sports to drive the future of the expansive facility as a whole.
“While it is a great facility, it needs some refurbishment and I feel like we are a little bit behind in relation to other places around the area,” Mr Elletson said.
“We are the biggest city in the state outside of Adelaide, so why shouldn’t we have the best facilities going around?”
The committee will aim to provide the best possible place to play sport, which Mr Elletson said would start by improving facilities that are not currently up to standard.
“At the very minimum we want to make sure we are protecting everyone who is playing sport by providing them with facilities that are at least up to standard,” he said.
“For example we have female soccer players out on the oval who have no changeroom facilities and the South Gambier Football Club has expanded to a point where it requires a second oval.
“But all the sports I think would love to have their facilities improved, so this committee is designed to explore those options.”
By upgrading and improving the facilities, Mr Elletson hoped it would lead to the city securing more state and national sporting events.
“We would love to have elite sporting events national and state sporting events,” he said.
“We believe attracting state and national junior events that could all be held in the one place with world class facilities is not unachievable.
“Junior sporting events obviously bring families into the town and have economic benefits, so that’s obviously a goal, but first and foremost we just want to create a great place for our own residents.”
With the committee only recently formed, Mr Elletson said it was early days, but he was comforted by how it had been received by Mount Gambier City Council.
“They were really good in letting us come and present what we had done so far and we have given them an opportunity to help us,” he said.
“We will work really closely with them because they are obviously going to be a key stakeholder going forward.”
