A BIG crowd turned out to celebrate the completion of a project a long time in the making at Urana Road Oval.
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Albury MLA Greg Aplin and the city's mayor Henk van de Ven joined the New City Cricket Club and Murray Magpies Football Netball club to officially open the impressive $1.36 million project on Saturday.
The day was made all the sweeter after the Murray Magpies senior football side secured a 89-75 home-game victory over Rand-Walbundrie Tigers.
Player Zach Doyle, who also played his 100th senior game with the club, said it provided a social space for teams.
“The boys are loving it and it means we have a place we can call home,” he said.
“We all use it after training on Thursdays.
“It's good being able to go in there to have dinner and listen to the teams getting ready for a game.”
Senior cricket coach Anthony Baker agreed it was a great space for the club's social side. With training starting in two weeks, he said he hoped the new facilities would attract some new talent.
“We are trying to build the club up to be more successful and professional, now our aim is to get a couple of quality players alongside the young blokes,” he said.
“Our first game back will be early October, we will train harder and get these young guys going.
“We now have an area where we can set up a bowling machine inside the storage shed, which will help us work on technique.”
Mr Baker said that while the building was “brilliant”, he still hoped to secure more funding to put shelter over the training nets. The move would allow the cricket sides to train year-round.
Money for the building came from Albury Council, the NSW government, the AFL, Cricket NSW and Australia and the sporting clubs.
Mayor Henk van de Ven said it was a special project because the clubs, in agreement with the council, had taken on the construction of the building.
“This is a great example of community working together with government to make something happen,” he said.
