THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR LARA
LARA could play night football at Bisinella Oval by next year after receiving funding for AFL-standard lighting to be installed.
The club was recently successful in receiving a $350,000 grant from the City of Greater Geelong as part of the council’s latest round of funding for sports clubs.
Lara grants officer David Clifford said one of the benefits of the project would be the prospect of night football.
Clifford said the club wanted to have night fixtures in 2021.
“Going down there on a Friday night or Saturday night watching night time GFL football has got its own attraction,” Clifford said.
“For us, having over 700 registered players across 23 grades from juniors right through to seniors, we need to spread that load.
“All of a sudden, if we can allocate some of those games to night time, that’s certainly going to help us.”
Clifford said the club and council were finalising a finish date for the project, which will involve installing new LED light towers. He described the current lighting as “substandard at best”.
“The grant money is allocated for this financial year, so I think there’s a want to try and get the works happening within this financial year,” he said.
“Whether that happens or not, I’m not 100 per cent sure.
“Our next step is to meet with council and work through what that timeline looks like.”
Clifford said the upgrade would provide a safer environment and improved energy consumption.
“Lara continues to grow in population and we continue to see more and more male and female senior and junior participants wanting to play at the Lara Football Club … which means an ever increasing demand on our existing training and game-day facilities,” he said. “The lighting upgrade to AFL standards on our main oval, allowing night games, will definitely help spread the load on this demand.
“We’re excited to see this upgrade come to fruition and allow us to implement improvements for our club and the broader Lara community.”