THE Ovens and Murray Football-Netball League will fast track the tender process to host this year’s grand final due to the Lavington Sportsground redevelopment placing the venue off limits.
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Major construction activity is expected to be taking place at the ground when the grand final is played in late September even though the overall project has been delayed by Albury Council late last year dumping plans for an amenities building on the secondary sportsfield under construction.
Councillors will be presented with revised designs for the amenities building at a workshop next month when it’s also expected to be decided whether to combine it and the main oval grandstand works into the one tender as floated by Cr Henk van de Ven last month.
O and M chairman David Sinclair said the league was resigned to Lavington not hosting the grand final for the first time since 1994.
‘We will be looking for a new venue and it’s something that we’re keen to sort early given that whoever does host it won’t have had any past experience in hosting this event,” he said.
“It’s important they’re given plenty of time to prepare.
“Selection of the 2018 grand final venue will be via a tender process and we’re hoping to have this announced by the end of May or earlier if possible.”
Wangaratta’s Norm Minns Oval, which is hosting the Richmond-Essendon AFL practice match this month, and Albury Sportsground will be in the mix.
Mayor Kevin Mack said the council was unable to pinpoint other impacts including the potential of moving regular season matches away from Lavington.
“Any impacts on user groups and events are being considered in project scheduling options,” he said.
“However at this stage we do not envisage any major impact to the 2018 O and M home and away season.”
Tender documentation for the outstanding works will be finalised following the March workshop.
The $9.5 million project was scheduled to be completed by March 2019.
Cr van de Ven said last month council could achieve major savings by bundling up the two major works to be completed into a mega-contract.
He led the charge for the secondary sportsfield amenities building to be dumped by stating the original concept drawings differed greatly to the design presented to council for approval.
