Upgrade needed: Darren Humphries and Christian Trotter are the presidents of two of the biggest sporting clubs in Knox. Picture: Rob Carew
TWO of the biggest sporting clubs in Knox want to see their fair share of sport funding delivered to them in next year's council budget.
Eildon Park Cricket Club and Rowville Hawks Junior Football Club presented a petition with 1015 signatures at a recent council meeting.
Cricket club president Christian Trotter and football club president Darren Humphries are leading the charge and hope to receive between $700,000 and $1.2 million to revamp their facilities.
The cricket club has 400 members and 22 teams — the biggest in Knox — and the football club had 438 members and fielded 20 teams in the past season, making it the biggest club in the Eastern Football League.
"By sheer weight of numbers we're the biggest clubs in the area and our facilities are way behind," Trotter said.
Carrington Park in Scoresby received almost $1 million from the council in this year's budget to build a new pavilion, including female change rooms. "We hope for the same further south in Knox," Humphries said. "We are growing clubs, not declining."
Both clubs have committed to raising a joint $120,000 to put towards the extensions and also recently forked out $64,000 for new floodlights.
The clubs want to extend the existing clubrooms, as well as build female change rooms and a community social area. When boys are changing inside, girls must use the female toilets that are reached from outside.
"We want a girls' competition but there aren't enough change rooms for them to participate in a safe environment," Humphries said.
Both presidents said a community social area at the front of the building would be suitable for game-day events as well as for other community groups during the week.
The teams were unsuccessful in their bid in 2005 to secure council funding but are more hopeful this time around. "We're confident the submissions meet council's own figures and requirements," Humphries said.
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