City in talks on new sports at Skilled

Andrew Mathieson
CITY officials are in talks to lure several oneoff sporting fixtures to Geelong in an ambitious plan to increase the use of Skilled Stadium.
The stadium’s ground manager and a Geelong councillor confirmed initial negotiations with administrators of cricket, soccer and both rugby codes.
The city’s biggest sporting ground was forced to dump home games for Geelong’s VFL and under18s Falcons sides to protect its surface.
Geelong Football Club plays eight senior games at Skilled Stadium in 2007.
However, Skilled Stadium hosted two under18 national championships games yesterday and will stage a Melbourne Victory trial match against Newcastle Jets on July 29.
Skilled Stadium manager Adrian Burns said Geelong’s firstever Aleague encounter was a sweetener to demonstrate the ground’s versatility.
“The hope of hosting this game is to show that the stadium is more than an AFL venue and encourage other sports, including more soccer games, to the ground,” he said.
“We’ve already had an expression of interest from those other sports.”
Council’s sport and recreation portfolioholder, John Mitchell, agreed Skilled Stadium was underutilised considering recent funding to developments at the ground.
A new Reg Hickey Stand on the eastern side of the ground cost of $13 million and plans are on the drawing board for a second multimillion dollar facelift of the stadium’s ageing Ross Drew Stand.
“We want the stadium used for a multitude of sports and for a community to get as much benefit out of it as they can,” Cr Mitchell said.
“Obviously, we’ve got contractual arrangements with Geelong Football Club but there’s not a great deal of point in having this ground sitting dormant.”
Cr Mitchell remained tightlipped about specific details but remained ambitious.
“One day we’d love to have a soccer game down here for premiership points or a Melbourne Storm game down here, too,” he said