[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s early days but there’s a serious push to bring back the Magpies as a stand alone club in the NRL.
The details are a little hush hush, but we hear that the plan is for the Wests Tigers joint venture to divorce to pave the way for the Macarthur Magpies, as they would be known, with the Western Suburbs bit getting the chop in the new incarnation of the black and whites.
The district deserves a presence in the national league and now is the right time to push for that, given the situation with the Balmain side of the joint venture at the moment, say those behind the “bring back the Magpies’’ campaign.
They say the region has been a great nursery for footballers and sports generally and a full time and professionally run national team can only strengthen that.
If it ever came to pass, Campbelltown Council would be ecstatic as they could potentially have two tenants at the Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Macarthur Magpies and Macarthur United A-League soccer club.
As they say in the classics, watch this space for further developments.
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And while the Wests Tigers continue to basically ignore the region, Gino Marra, who now seems to be the main spokesman for the Macarthur United bid for an A-League licence, told last night’s business chamber meeting “we are committed to this region’’
As everyone knows Wests Tigers will once again throw the region some crumbs in the form of just three NRL games in 2019.
But if the region wins its bid for an A-League licence, the team’s home ground will be Campbelltown Sports Stadium. Even for would be blockbusters such as the local derby against Western Sydney Wanderers, Marra assured the chamber.
“We could sell 60,000 against the Wanderers, but we will sell only 20,000 tickets because we will be playing the game at Campbelltown Sports Stadium,’’ Marra told the chamber at Tabcorp Menangle.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“We have told Football Federation Australia (FFA) in our bid that Campbelltown is our home and we will be true to that,’’ he said.[/social_quote]
The new FFA board is believed to favour a decision in favour of expansion and is expected to choose the two successful bids as soon as possible.
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Speaking of the Campbelltown chamber of commerce, it plans to celebrate in style when it turns 70 early next year.
To be held at historic Eschol Park House on February 2, the chamber is already promoting it as the party of the year.
But wait, there’s more.
As part of the celebrations, the chamber is also turning back the clock, all the way to the year it was founded, 1949, and offering new memberships for just $7!
But only until February 2, so get cracking if you’d like to take advantage of this pretty good offer.
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This week’s announcement of a Water Wonderland to help us cool off during the height of summer heat received a big welcome from locals.
But one thing noticeably missing from the official statement was any mention whose idea it was to bring a giant inflatable water park to Campbelltown.
It was actually the mayor, George Brticevic, who suggested they look into it.
This is made clear in an internal memo from Jenny Franke, council’s newly appointed director of city lifestyles, discussing the Water Wonderland plan.
“At the request of the Mayor in 2017, our Events Team have been working to source an operator to provide an inflatable water park in Campbelltown,’’ Ms Franke wrote in the memo to councillors and senior council staff.
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Council is getting serious in its bid to help reduce so called urban heat around the region and has now teamed up with Western Sydney University to find out more about this concept.
Researchers will place 110 temperature sensors in Kentlyn and Wedderburn for three months.
The sensors will collect temperature information at 10 minute intervals, providing council with localised temperature maps.
They hope this will lead to a better strategy for reducing urban heat.
If you live in Kentlyn (pictured left is its main thoroughfare, Georges River Road) or Wedderburn, or know someone who does, and would be happy for a sensor to be placed in a tree on your property for the next three months, contact council’s senior sustainability officer.
The sensors will be placed in trees or on council infrastructure at a height of at least three metres throughout parks, laneways, median strips, roads and nature strips outside of private properties.
The sensors are housed in a white can and will be fixed to objects via a cable tie.
