Melbourne Rebels will take a major stride closer to playing a Super Rugby home and away fixture in Ballarat with a pre-season game at Mars Stadium in February.
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The Rebels play Queensland Reds on Friday, February 1 in their last hit-out before the season proper.
This will also be the first non-AFL elite sporting event played at the stadium since its multi-million dollar redevelopment, which lifted it to AFL home and away standard.
Rebels rugby and pathways general manager Nick Ryan said getting a game of this stature to Mars Stadium was all part of the groundwork needed in making a full-scale game a possibility sometime down the track.
He said it was the next phase in getting the traction the Rebels and rugby needed in developing a supporter base and increasing participation level in Ballarat and its greater region.
Ryan said there was every possibility that the Rebels would one day play for premiership points in Ballarat, especially with what Mars Stadium had to offer.
He said the Rebels had been “blown away” by the facility.
Ryan reinforced that the Rebels considered Ballarat as their “spiritual” home, given their name had been drawn from the Eureka Stockade rebellion.
They played a practice match against Fiji in Ballarat in the lead up to their first Super Rugby season in 2011.
Ballarat mayor Cr Sam McIntosh, in announcing the Rebels’ game at Mars Stadium, said getting a high profile rugby fixture was the way of the future for the venue.
She said just having AFL games at the ground was not enough.
“We need to see a lot more there.”
The mayor said the City of Ballarat and Rebels were hopeful the game would attract 2000 spectators.
The practice game is in addition to a partnership between the Rebels and St Patrick’s College, with the parties having developed a memorandum of understanding, which extends until the end of 2020.
Two weeks before the practice game, the Rebels will again have a training camp at St Pat’s.
The Rebels will also use the February 1 visit to promote female participation in the sport as part of their holistic approach.
This will include a pre-game touch football come-and-try session on Mars Stadium.
Ryan said Super W Rugby was taking off and the Rebels were committed to growing the sport for females of all ages through various means of engagement.