The Western Bulldogs have started talks with the City of Ballarat and the Victorian government to renegotiate their deal to play home and away AFL games at Mars Stadium for the foreseeable future.
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The Bulldogs' current deal to play in Ballarat is due to expire at the end of the year, but the Sons of the West could be sticking around for another five years should talks progress.
Western Bulldogs chief executive Ameet Bains told The Courier the club hoped to extend the deal out to 2026.
"It's something where we absolutely love our relationship with the City of Ballarat and all of the different components of it, whether it's our community foundation, the community engagement, participation, schools, having the physical presence there on Mair Street, we think it's a wonderful partnership," he said.
"We've grown our support in the region and for us, Ballarat is a strong, strategic part of our future."
The renegotiations come as the ladder-leader Bulldogs play arguably their biggest game in Ballarat to date when they host the Brisbane Lions on Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 128-point drubbing of North Melbourne while the Lions will be riding the momentum of a thrilling one-point win over Collingwood.
With last year's Ballarat game cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it's the first time the Bulldogs have ran out onto the Mars Stadium turf since beating Adelaide in August 2019.
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Mr Bains said a deal could be reached as soon as the end of the year.
"We're just starting that out now but I think there's great support from both the state government and the City of Ballarat for the Bulldogs to continue playing games in Ballarat, so if we can formalise that support over the coming weeks and months, we should be in a position to announce that hopefully before the end of the year," he said.
"We see [Ballarat] as a big part of our future and of our backyard and we like to think that we command that region through western Melbourne, through western Victoria and Ballarat and the surrounding area's a really significant part of what we see as our community.
"We're just really excited to play at the venue and, as our players and football staff continue to say, it's one of the best if not the best surface in the country to play on, so from a players perspective, it's a privilege to come and play on the the deck out there at Mars Stadium."
City of Ballarat Mayor Daniel Moloney said talks were in the early stages and yet to be discussed by councillors or the executive team.
"The deals we have had in the past with the Bulldogs have been great, including the first year of the deal being the premiership year so that was a bonus having that align beautifully," he said.
"It's been great in a sense that it's not just about two games of football a year, but the discussions really would be about how we continue that it be a broader community benefit such as the programs that Bulldogs run with the Sons of the West and Daughters of the West."
Cr Moloney said council was also interested in hosting Bulldogs AFLW matches as part of a new deal.
"Obviously, the women's league is doing extraordinarily well, there's huge interest in it, we think we've got a ground that is the perfect size for women's games as well. We've had a couple of practice games here but it'd be great to see some for points as well," he said.
"It's definitely a partnership that we've valued over the the past few years but we will need to sit down and see what's on offer and then ultimately see if that's where we want to go for the next few years ahead.
"There's no suggestion we would ditch it at this stage... but the thing I do need to be careful on though is that it also hasn't been something we've sat down discussed as a councillor group, nor an executive team at council, yet because we don't yet have a full appreciation of the dollars or the deal itself, really."
A potentially renewed deal with the Western Bulldogs could play a large part in the revitalisation of the precinct around Mars Stadium.
"A masterplan will be done on that precinct later on this year and having a strong couple of anchor tenants and some good guaranteed ongoing events at Mars Stadium would probably be key to that," Cr Moloney said.
"There's the sort of more micro-discussions with the Bulldogs in terms of what a deal would look like and there's the broader discussions as well in terms of what the whole precinct would look like so how you can not just get good bang for the buck at Mars Stadium, but how you can get that entire precinct humming really well and delivering a whole lot of big events.
"For instance, this weekend, we have the Vixens in town, a stone's throw away over at the basketball stadium as well, so what I'm talking about is a range of events that make sure that Mars Stadium and the new basketball stadium, a couple of great local assets, are used by elite as well as local people."
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