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THE Bendigo Gold will not renew its licence at the end of the season, bringing to an end Bendigo's VFL involvement.
The Gold's playing group and staff were told at the QEO tonight of the board's decision to call it quits at the end of the season.
Wednesday night’s announcement comes less than a year after the Gold’s successful survival campaign late in the 2013 season when the club put its future on the line seeking more support.
"We've been going through the planning with what's involved with the licence renewal at the end of the year, but the one thing we've come to as a board is we can't see VFL football is sustainable longer-term in the town," Gold chairman Tim Dickson said.
"One of the reasons is the VFL is becoming much more competitive. An average club ran on three quaters of a million dollars a few years ago. That's probably up near around one million dollars now, so it's moving forward fairly quickly."
Bendigo has been part of the VFL since 1998 when the Bendigo Diggers were introduced as a stand-alone club.
The Diggers competed from 1998 to 2002, before aligning with Essendon in 2003 to form the Bendigo Bombers.
After the alignment ended in 2012, Bendigo again went stand-alone as a VFL club under the name the Gold.
Since going back to stand-alone last year, the Gold haven't won a game.
More to come.
