The region’s biggest professional athletics event has requested funding to help cope with resurfacing works at Eastern Oval.
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The Ballarat Gift will be hosted at Wendouree reserve in 2018 while the works are completed.
Ballarat Athletics Club has requested a $10,000 tourism grant from Ballarat City Council to cover the cost of gift next year.
Council will vote on the grant request at its ordinary general meeting on Wednesday night.
Athletics club Co-president Peter Emerson said although the re-surfacing works were necessary, they were costing the club sponsorship dollars.
“We are extremely grateful for every cent council gives us, because they do a tremendous job preparing the track,” he said.
“But our sponsor was promised a certain amount, which we will not get now due to the fact we are moving the gift.”
“It will no longer be around the corner from Freight Bar, which was the attraction for them.
“They have been a brilliant sponsor for a long time and we want to continue that.”
It could be an uphill battle to receive the full $10,000 however, with council recommending the gift for $7500 instead.
Council’s report on the motion said the grant request was impacted by an insufficient marketing plan to demonstrate the gift will achieve attendance targets.
It also said the event lacked management documentation and had a limited marketing reach to visitor spectator audiences.
Ballarat City mayor Samantha McIntosh said council only had a finite amount of funding to hand out in grants.
“We have a budget and we need to stick to it,” he said.
“We have made the process very transparent and hence people are seeing these items in the chamber.
"We will be fine tuning the process more, because it is still fairly new, and we have already made some little changes
“The important thing for us is to see consistency.”
Council voted to delay a decision on the grant request at its meeting on September 27.
The gift was recommended for a $3300 grant at that meeting, but councillors agreed to give the athletics club more time to prepare its case.
Cr McIntosh said the city’s new grants policy ensured funding requests were debated in the council chamber and transparent.
