THE Bendigo Football Netball League will plan for the Queen Elizabeth Oval being unavailable for all of the 2011 season.
The QEO is finally set to undergo its much-needed surface upgrade, with work on the project earmarked to begin in October.
City of Greater Bendigo recreation manager Pat Jess this week told the Bendigo Advertiser that if work was to start in October, football could return to the QEO in June next year.
However, BFL chief executive officer Steven Oliver will take a conservative approach to the 2011 fixturing in relation to the QEO and plan for the worst-case scenario.
“There’s a number of options we’ve got, but we will actually plan for football not being played on the QEO for the whole year next season,’’ Oliver said yesterday. “We would hope the QEO is available by the end of June, but we’re preparing for the worst-case scenario of not having it for the year, which would include finals.’’
Oliver said discussions had already been held to determine how to best cope with the QEO – which is home to Sandhurst and South Bendigo – being unavailable for at least the first half of next season.
“We’ve discussed at league level how we may need to look at alternatives from a scheduling perspective, as well as a little bit of give and take with some of our other venues.’’ Oliver said.
“We may also get out and talk to other venues in the region that may not be utilised for whatever reason, so we will have a number of plans.
“For us, the first point of call was to see whether the ground was going to developed, so as yet we haven’t gone and spoken to any district league clubs, such as a White Hills, YCW or North Bendigo, about using their grounds.
“But all of those venues make sense, plus we’ve got Raywood sitting without any use, and Epsom has been raised again.’’
Two new ovals are being built in Epsom, with Jess saying this week he expected they would be ready by the start of the next football season.
The new ovals are likely to be used as training venues, but there is the possibility temporary infrastructure could be installed next year to provide an alternate ground while the QEO is off-limits.
“There could be something done in a temporary fashion at Epsom to be able to host a BFL game, so we would certainly look at that as well,’’ Oliver said.
“It’s certainly not out of the question by any stretch.’’
As far as alternate scheduling, Oliver hinted possibilities could include the return of double-header matches.
“We’ve certainly got a lot of options we can explore,’’ Oliver said.
Oliver met officials from South Bendigo last night to discuss their preferred fixturing options, while he will meet with Sandhurst next week.
“We’ve asked them to come to us with a number of their preferred scenarios and how it may or may not work,’’ Oliver said.
Once the surface upgrade is completed, the next issue for the QEO will be establishing a suitable level of usage.
“It’s a fine balance between having a valuable asset and never actually using it, so that’s the other catch-22,’’ Oliver said.
“We want to see football there in winter, we want to see cricket there in summer, but that has to be balanced with the over-use factor.’’
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