July 31, 2024

Statement on Finals Location

North Ballarat Football Netball Club acknowledges the BFNL's recent decision to host the 2024 Junior and Senior football and netball Grand Finals and Eastern Oval and City Oval.


It goes without saying that our club would have loved to have seen the grand finals back at Mars Stadium this year. Mars is the premier football/netball venue in western Victoria and it makes sense that the grand finals for the region's premier football and netball competition would be played there. Thanks to the significant investment of the State Government and the support of the City of Ballarat, Mars Stadium offers AFL-standard playing facilities for football, as well as two brand new state-of-the-art netball courts and dedicated change rooms. We are well set up to accommodate people with accessibility requirements and have ample parking in and around the precinct which means local traffic snarls are avoided. No other venue in the league offers all of that.


Contrary to popular belief, the North Ballarat Sports Club takes a hit to its revenue on grand final days, however, we have always accepted this comes secondary to ensuring Grand Final day is in equal parts a community success, a league success as well as a success for all clubs.


Our club has always been willing - and remains so - to work with the clubs who have catering rights to help them maximise their profits on the day. This includes us not selling alcohol from our can bar. What we can't do is breach our operating licence, which does place some restrictions on where others can sell alcohol from, but we have viable workarounds for this.


Ballarat is fortunate that it has numerous football grounds that are able to host football grand finals. However, Mars Stadium is the only venue that can do justice to both football AND netball at the highest of standards. For junior footballers in particular, the excitement of running up the same race that their AFL heroes do is second to none. We are disappointed for all the junior boys and girls who won't get to do that this year.


We will continue to advocate for what we firmly believe is the best location for BFNL grand finals for both football AND netball and look forward to welcoming players, supporters and sponsors from all BFNL clubs back to Mars.

Share This Article

Other articles you may like

June 27, 2025
This great man turns 75 today! Congratulations "Floody" (also known as “Floodman”, but christened "Ian" by his parents). Floody has been a fixture at our club for pretty much all of those 75 years – a very funny man and friend to all. He has a swathe of North honours – Hall of Famer, Life Member, 221 Senior Club Games, Best Clubman (1975), Reserves Best and Fairest (1979 and 1982) … the list goes on! He’s the living definition of a true Northie and we love him to bits. HAVE A RIPPER FLOODY! Thanks for all you've done for us over the years. Fun fact: Floody has a twin sister, Patricia Finn (pictured with him), so we send our best wishes to Pat from the North family today as well! See some images below - click them to view larger versions.
June 25, 2025
Enjoy our super Gallery of photos from this year's North Ball below. Click on the images for a larger view. You can also download the photos directly to your device using this link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/pyxficlu93eexdg12a8j4/AA_g-uEs6PTgNzhW1FOKiUM?rlkey=wywskre25favd2z79w9ca5bmy&st=ku5mgmxq&dl=0
Vale Wayne Strong
June 18, 2025
The North Ballarat family is sad to advise of the death of former Board Member Wayne Strong, who passed away recently at his home in Spain.
More Articles