Dawn of a new era for athletics in Victoria

The running of the Zatopek:10, Australia's greatest 10,000 metre race, has marked the opening of Lakeside Stadium, Melbourne's new home of athletics at Albert Park.

Officially opened the venue Victorian Minister for Sport and Recreation Hugh Delahunty said the opening of the news Stadium signalled a new chapter for athletics in Victoria, offering top quality training and competition facilities for elite and grassroots participants.

Minister Delahunty stated "there's no doubt there is a lot of tradition and prestige attached to the Zatopek:10, which boasts names such as Ron Clarke and Steve Moneghetti as previous competitors.

"That's why this event was a natural option to mark the official opening of athletics at Lakeside Stadium - it will be the first elite event to be held here at Victoria's new state of the art facility.

"Lakeside Stadium gives us another venue option to attract events big and small, while also providing excellent training facilities for the community and future champions.

"It also complements the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC), and this broader precinct which is now known as the Melbourne Sports Hub."

The Victorian Government has invested $67 million in the redevelopment, which has seen the construction of international standard athletics competition facilities, including an iconic blue track, a new natural grass pitch for soccer, new electronic video board, a new northern grandstand and an upgrade to the 1926 heritage grandstand, which is now the headquarters for the Victorian Institute of Sport.

Synthetic playing fields and a pavilion for community clubs in Albert Park were also completed during the first stages of the project.

Minister Delahunty added "earlier this year we discovered that this project was significantly under-funded by the previous Labor government, who provided insufficient funds to deliver some very crucial aspects to this terrific facility.

"As a responsible government, we took the steps to resolve this and provided the necessary funding of $15 million in the State Budget for the construction to continue - tonight's opening is testament of that further funding."

Minister Delahunty said Lakeside Stadium would strike a good balance between supporting our future athletics stars and delivering access to local people, schools and community sporting groups, concluding "as the Minister for Sport and Recreation, one of my key objectives is to see more people, more active, more often.

"This venue helps deliver this as it is designed to support grassroots sport, just as much as it caters for those who compete at the elite level."

The opening marks the start of a momentous week for the Melbourne Sports Hub with MSAC set to launch its FlowRider on Friday 16th December.

The rebranding of Albert Park's sport and recreation facilities as the Melbourne Sports Hub was featured in the July/August issue of Australasian Leisure Management.

4th October 2011 - VICTORIA’S NEW HOME OF ATHLETICS UP AND RUNNING

16th July 2011 - MELBOURNE FACILITIES’ RENAMING HERALDS THE RISE OF SPORTS HUBS