EXCLUSIVE
Eagle Stadium was not among residents’ top names for the redeveloped Werribee Sports and Fitness Centre, a leaked report has revealed.
The confidential report seen by Star Weekly states that IronBark was a clear favourite among the community for the redeveloped stadium, parts of which are due to open this week.
The Mondo, Hive and Barracker were also popular choices.
The report stated that IronBark resonated with focus groups and when people saw the design of the stadium, they felt the IronBark name would make the building easily identifiable.
According to the report, shortening IronBark to ‘the Iron’ or ‘the Bark’ would sound appealing. It would also give the stadium a name that the community could own.
Barracker resonated with sports fans, while young people liked the sound of The Hive.
The Mondo appealed to residents who thought it captured the grandness of the centre, the report stated.
As first revealed by Star Weekly on April 8, the council has faced a significant backlash over its decision to name the centre Eagle Stadium, with many questioning the choice.
The centre’s main users reacted angrily to the new name, believing it has no relevance to any sport, club or team that uses the centre.
Others have labelled the decision as a “major blunder”, pointing out that several junior basketball teams across Melbourne already have ‘Eagles’ as their nickname.
But the council stood by its decision, saying the name was chosen after community consultation, including surveys and focus groups during summer.
This week chief executive Kerry Thompson failed to answer Star Weekly’s questions about what other names were considered for the centre.
She also would not comment on why Eagle Stadium was judged the more popular name.
Instead, she said that many names were considered and that council had created a short-list.
This shortlist took into consideration a range of criteria, including building features, use of the facility, marketability and more, Ms Thompson said.
Last month, councillor Gautam Gupta failed in his bid to release the council’s confidential documents about the Eagle Stadium naming process.
An attempt by Cr Glenn Goodfellow to rename the stadium as Werribee Sports and Recreation Centre was also thwarted.
Cr Goodfellow said there was no harm in the council saying it had got the name wrong.
