With more than a thousand players and hundreds of games of tennis a week the Maroochydore Tennis Club is in need of a little TLC and the Federal Government has come to the party with $151,868.
“When we received this information from Ted O’Brien that we were successful, I personally just couldn’t speak, we just couldn’t believe it and it’s such a marvellous thing for the club because the courts are in very poor condition,” declared Club President Eric Smith.
The investment is part of the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant program which is upgrading local facilities across Australia to help drive increased participation in sports and physical activity.
Member for Fairfax Ted O’Brien said the funding would help upgrade courts at the well-used facility.
“In particular the court surfaces need repair to ensure they remain safe for players, so this funding will allow for resurfacing or even replacing some court bases,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The Liberal National Government is supporting local grassroots sports because we recognise the wider health, social and community benefits that come from greater activity and participating in sport,” he said.
“It is a key priority of our government to promote the social and health benefits of physical activity and sport. We hope our investment to upgrade facilities and infrastructure will provide a real encouragement for those local residents not currently active.”
Mr Smith is also hopeful the upgrades will encourage more players to join the club.
“We may be able to install some new LED lighting, which means the running costs are a lot less and also we may be able to replace some of the fencing. So you can imagine this money is going to make an enormous difference to the quality of the centre and the quality of the courts and everything that goes along with it,” Mr Smith said.
“We think that people who haven’t played here before and are interested in playing social or fixtures or whatever, that when they see the quality of the centre, are going to want to play even more. That’s what we’re feeling, that we’re going to get a lot more people wanting to play tennis.”
Mr O’Brien said only the Liberals and Nationals have a strong plan for regional Australia that puts locals first.
“The Liberal National Government is able to make these important investments in community sporting infrastructure because of our responsible economic management that will deliver a budget surplus,” Mr O’Brien said.