Grease me up woman!

Day old media release which by now every man and his/her dog have seen and commented on.


Media Release from Martin Foley's Office - State Member for Albert Park


Wednesday 7th May 2008

IMPROVING SPORTS FACILITIES FOR THE COMMUNITY IN OUR FAVOURITE PARK

The future of the Lakeside Oval and the South Melbourne Football (Soccer) Club was today secured with the State Budget Announcement of $50.3m for a package that includes for the biggest makeover the old oval will have seen.

State Labor Member for Albert Park, Martin Foley welcomed today’s budget announcement by saying "This is great news for the Lakeside Oval, great news for athletics in Victoria, great news for the South Melbourne Football Club and great news for local community sport. Best of all, this is great news for Albert Park, delivered without any loss of open space."

Albert Park is already home to many local community and sporting groups including golf clubs, rowing clubs, walking and cycling clubs as well as boating and fishing enthusiasts.

PREMIER ATHLETICS FACILITY IN ALBERT PARK

Mr Foley said "The package includes relocating Athletics Australia, Athletics Victoria, together with the Victorian Institute of Sport to the Lakeside Oval. It will make the Oval the premier athletics facility in the State. It will be the home of the state-of-the-art training and competition facilities - bringing most Olympic athletics sports in Melbourne to Albert Park alongside the existing Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre."

SOUTH MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB: A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

“More importantly, the project will allow the South Melbourne Football Club the opportunity to consolidate its community links and operations locally by bringing junior and women's club activities back to the club base. It will also allow a modern and accessible set of club facilities to be developed - something the club has been crying out for" Mr Foley said.

Currently the club is spread across three locations. The men are at Albert Park, the women are in St Kilda and the juniors are out at Caulfield. The new development will provide the club with an opportunity to bring all of these clubs together at a completely redeveloped facility.

South Melbourne Football Club President, Leo Athanasakis welcomed the commitment from the Brumby Government saying "This is great news for our Club. The announcement will help us secure our future as not only Melbourne's Premier Community based Football Club but will also allow us to become an even more integral part of Our Local Community.”

Mr Athanasakis said “By the program of building a new state of the art pitch in a revamped standium, plus new all weather and turf pitches in the park we will not only secure our senior team, but we will build football links with our juniors and our women's team. Our new club facilities and function areas will help make us a viable and strong club for the future."

For more information contact South Melbourne FC, Bob Jane Stadium, 9645 9797; the office of Martin Foley MP on 9699 6755; or visit www.budget.vic.gov.au.


It all sounds good, but where are the plans? Devil's in the detail, and we haven't seen them yet. So far it's been drip, drip, drip, and not enough to drink. Are we being buttered up? Would we abandon our Caulfield junior base and relocate to Albert Park, or have a split system? And where is everyone going to end up without a loss of open space? All a seems a bit suss at my end, to be perfectly honest. Somehow it all seems too easy. You let us put a running track in and here's a whole bunch of stuff just falling into our laps. I'm also concerned by all this South Melbourne FC love all of a sudden, local community, police, government, all against us for ages, and now we're flavour of the month? Wait and see people, interesting times ahead.