Fight of their lives
League tackles venue crisis head-on
PLANS are in place to ensure a Cairns junior sporting facility remains in rugby league’s hands, but the state’s governing body has warned it won’t be without its challenges.
Jones Park has been the central base for grassroots rugby league in the Far North for more than 50 years, but the multimillion-dollar sports venue is going through an unprecedented crisis.
Usually a bustling hub of junior footy every Friday and Saturday during a normal season, the home of junior rugby league in Cairns hasn’t been used since March.
With no footy on, the venue is facing the brunt of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Queensland Rugby League northern division manager Scott Nosworthy said the state’s governing body was working with the Cairns District Junior Rugby League, which owns Jones Park, to plot the facility’s future.
“We’re liaising with the CDJRL and looking at what our options are to make sure the facility stays in the hands of rugby league,” he said.
Nosworthy said Jones Park was “part of rugby league’s history in Cairns”.
“We certainly don’t want it to be sold off,” he said.
“A lot of people have invested a lot of time and money into the facility.
“We’re going to put some plans in place moving forward to ensure the facility stays there and is a viable option for our game into the future.”
Last week, Pat Bailey, who has since stood down from her role as chairwoman of the Jones Park board of management, said the venue was in a tough spot.
“It’s really hard with no games at all, no registrations, no money coming in,” she said. “It takes a lot of money to run a complex like that.”
Nosworthy said he didn’t believe the venue to be “in danger”, but there was work that needed to be done to make sure it remained in the hands of the CDJRL.
“There’s going to be challenges,” he said.
“You can’t plan for COVID-19 and they were in a position where they had done some work at the facility and they were banking on the season starting – getting people through the gates, the canteen, the registrations – to cover some of that.
“It’s unfortunate what’s happened, but we’re fully appreciative of everyone’s efforts to get to where we are.
“We are going to work together to make sure that the facility stays in our hands.
“Things need to change nowadays, facilities need to become multipurpose, and we’re certainly looking at that as a game, to see what we can do to drive some new income into the facility and keep it to a standard where we can expand and look at other sports and higher levels of our game participating at the venue.”