Cade Lucas
Werribee Football Club will continue to play their home games at Avalon Airport Oval for the foreseeable future, with the two parties recently extending their long standing partnership.
The continuation of the partnership means Avalon Airport retains the naming rights to Werribee’s home ground at Chirnside Park, an arrangement that has existed for more than a decade.
Avalon Airport chief executive Tony Brun said the agreement was about more than just having their name adorn a football ground.
“The reality for us is that something like the Werribee football club is not a commercial agreement, it’s a community agreement,” he said.
“We see the impact footy has on the community and we’ve keen to support that and get involved in that.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Werribee chief executive Mark Penaluna.
“The synergies between us and them are much more than just the naming rights, they’re extremely community focussed and so are we and we’ve grown together over the journey of our partnership.”
From the football club’s point of view, that growth has involved Werribee becoming a stand-alone VFL club that competes against and often beats those with AFL alignments. Last season Werribee celebrated the 30th anniversary of their only premiership by almost winning their second, narrowly going down to the Gold Suns in the grand final.
For Avalon, it’s become an international airport and while long considered closer to Geelong than Melbourne, Tony Brun said their partnership with Werribee was about making them synonymous with the western suburbs too.
“It’s not just Geelong’s airport,” he said.
“Within a 60 minute drive of Avalon, 3.3 million live. The big base of that population is Wyndham Hobsons Bay and the western suburbs and they’re by far our biggest users of the airport.”
