The Geelong Lawn Tennis Club celebrated the upgrade of its old lighting system this week with a Switching On ceremony at the Belmont complex.
The upgrades saw all of the club’s existing lights, old metal-halide lamps, replaced with new LED lighting.
The project was partly funded by the club ($64,000) with significant assistance from the City of Greater Geelong through its Community Grants program to the tune of $128,000.
The installation of the new LED lighting system is primarily to help the club increase its night participation rates for both competition and coaching.
Club vice president Andrew Alexander said the whole club was excited about the new lights switching on.
“The lights that we had were quite old and dated and the amount of light output they produced was pretty poor,” he said.
“So it’s a dramatic improvement to the quality of lighting to allow young members but also older members to play tennis, especially in winter months, during the night time.”
He said in addition to driving night participation, the lights would also increase safety and deliver savings to the club’s power bill.
“(The system is) also just really to operate; there’s an app the manager and staff can use to turn lights on and off, and whereas the old lights used to take half an hour to work properly, these LEDs are literally instant,” he said.
Mr Alexander encouraged members of the public to come down and try out the courts for themselves, as they are available for use at a nominal fee.
He also thanked former committee member and local architect Bill Hunter for his tireless work in preparing the club’s application for the grant over many months.
