By Charlene Macaulay
A multi-million dollar 15,000-seat stadium has been earmarked for Tarneit as part of an ambitious bid to base a new A-League soccer club in Wyndham.
Dubbed Wyndham Stadium, the privately-funded sports mecca has been flagged for a Wyndham-council owned parcel of land at 1160 Sayers Road and will include training pitches, sports medicine facilities, a gym, recovery spaces, community sports and residential and commercial development for the surrounding area.
The plans include a university offering, believed to be Deakin University, being part of the sports science precinct.
The grand plans are the brainchild of Western Melbourne Group Holdings, which is bidding for one of two new team licences as part of a Football Federation Australia expansion of the A-League.
Wyndham council has provided in-principle support to the bid by offering the land.
Maurice Bisetto from the Western Melbourne Group said the bid had been more than a year in the making.
“Thanks to the support from the council, the dreams and the vision are now real,” he said.
According to reports, there are 15 bids currently on the table for the two licences, including four from Victoria, four from New South Wales, three from Queensland and one each from Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital
Territory.
The winning bidders are expected to be announced in October.
Wyndham mayor Peter Maynard said that if successful, Wyndham would become a destination for the world game.
“It will bring people from across Australia right here to Wyndham to watch on as the nation’s best football players battle it out,”
Cr Maynard said. “The value of this landmark deal for our community will be massive, positioning us as a destination of choice, and putting us on the national and international sporting stage.”
