The City of Ballarat will push to have some of its most prominent sporting arenas used at the 2030 Commonwealth Games, should a regional Victorian bid get the green light.
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Council representatives will meet with representatives from the 2030 Commonwealth Games taskforce on Thursday morning for the first time, ahead of the official meeting of mayors from across the state in a fortnight.
The potential bid, which was unveiled in Shepparton last week, will seek to host events across 11 regional Victorian local government areas.
City of Ballarat mayor Samantha Mclntosh said while it was too early to say what sports council would like to see hosted in Ballarat, the city would hope to have elite facilities such as Lake Wendouree and Eureka Stadium considered by the taskforce.
In the initial proposed events listing Ballarat was due to host just netball and badminton, with the majority of events listed for Shepparton, who are leading the bid.
“The reason we have put the visionary planning into our events centres to attract and host successful national and international events,” Cr Mclntosh said.
The taskforce will aim to gain federal and state government funding for the project while also attracting corporate investment.
Taskforce chairman Adem Karafili the initial meetings with council would be to emphasise the collaborative nature of the project.
He said the location of each sport was far from settled and he expected cities across the state to compete for marquee events.
“We’d be disappointed if there wasn’t healthy competition for each of the events, but one thing people in the regions enjoy is seeing all of the regions prosper, not just the big smoke,”