With cost pressures mounting from every quarter Sporting Clubs are probably feeling the pinch more than most. This makes it pleasing that we could help one of our own and signal to the rest of Unley’s sporting clubs the opportunity that exists for them.
The Sturt Lawn Tennis Club, one of the tenants of Unley Oval, have shown the way by applying for a grant for funding the GAP connection from Council and from the Office for Recreation & Sports (ORS) Active Club grant funding program, which is currently offering up to 50% of the total value of projects on a dollar for dollar basis.
GAP stands for the Glenelg to Adelaide Pipeline water that Council was able to secure for many of it parks and gardens a while back. This water originally was only available for open space, meaning clubs operating behind a fence missed out.
A successful application will see this clubs second biggest expense of would you believe $ 6,000.00 reduced to $ 2,500.00 per annum. So this is a project which if funded will go a long way to ensuring the sustainability in the long term.
Converting to the GAP water comes at a large up front cost of over $ 20,000.00 but the ORS is offering 50% of this if council meets 25% of $ 5,000 approx. Council has approved the grant requested of it. Now the club awaits ORS to provide their share, more likely now that Council has made their commitment.
So for the club they need to meet the cost of not quite one year of water to reduce their long term annual commitment.
This keeps club membership down and provides an opportunity for more people to feel they ca afford membership.
We now await the ORS approval and if it is forthcoming then there are a number of other clubs who should look at putting in similar applications and committing to a like share of the costs that Sturt Tennis have made.
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