Lithgow City Council has deferred the decision to hike the price of Lithgow District Cricket Association's annual fee for hire of sporting fields after hearing passionate pleas from LDCA members at the council meeting on Wednesday, January 29.
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Council decided a meeting with the parties involved to work out a mutual agreement would be the best way moving forward.
Captain coach of the Lithgow District cricket team, captain and life member of Lithgow Valley cricket club and player for the Central West Wranglers team Ben Sheehan said that LDCA was already behind neighbouring councils in regards to facilities.
"The association doesn't make profit and barely breaks even each year after all the fees and registrations from clubs have been paid," he said.
"So with proposed hikes in ground hire the money would have to come from clubs and players."
Council gave three fee options based on the cricket seasons draw to the Association, with the cheapest option coming in at $7,751.50 and the most expensive ground hire for the 2019/2020 season being $16,707.50.
"As the changes in the hire prices are so great, regular cricket fees for each player would set to double, which would drive even more players away from the game that simply couldn't afford it or onto neighbouring associations with lower fees and better facilities," he said.
Sheehan said that he thought the prices for certain ovals had been 'plucked from thin air'.
"They are unrealistic and lack uniformity with discrepancies across grounds with the same facilities," he said.
"Marjorie Jackson Oval and Glanmire both have two synthetic wickets with no upkeep other than mowing, no change rooms available and toilets that are very rarely open, yet the asking price for these two grounds have a difference of $2903 per year.
"The turf wickets in town are at Tony Luchetti and Conran Oval and the difference between these two grounds is also $2903 per year, with the latter being more expensive yet only having half the turfs of the former."
Sheehan said the prices they will be paying for sub par facilities compared to other sporting bodies was unfair.
"A game of hockey on a turf worth a few hundred thousand dollars with immediate access to a canteen, change rooms and toilets costs $220 per game and yet cricket is being asked to pay $260 per game for some grounds that don't have access to any of these things and a synthetic wicket is only a slab of concrete with some fake grass on it that is worth approximately $10,000 and that's being conservative."
Sheehan who has been lucky enough to play cricket in Sydney and around the Central West said he had seen the standards of other facilities.
"Charging this much for sub-par grounds I believe is unfair," he said.
"I believe these changes have been implemented with blatant disregard to the future of Lithgow District Cricket Association and the repercussions of these charges if not thoroughly addressed."
LDCA secretary and president of the junior cricket association Mark Wren said that the cricket association had been an active member of the community for 120 years.
"Over the last few years we have seen a decline in participation numbers and now only have 10 teams, six clubs and 195 registered players, 30 of those being juniors," he said.
"On average most clubs pay fees of $150 or $60 for the juniors but increasing the ground fees would make it non viable in this community."
Wren said that unlike other sporting clubs they don't have a gate fee, canteen or make any money through the season.
"What do you tell a family who say the dad and two children are playing senior cricket together that it will cost the family $700 to play cricket plus junior fees on top?" he asked.
Wren also brought up the concern that the fees for Wallerawang Oval and Kremer Park weren't included because they weren't available at the time of hire for the season, which once added could again see another price rise.
"Lithgow hasn't changed the way they booked grounds in a very long time and to get told this isn't how we do it anymore...it just would have been nice if we had some more communication on the matter," he said.
Long term president of the Lithgow and Portland Cricket Associations, Danny Whitty said they appreciated the options that were given to them.
"Even the third and cheapest option of $7751.50 which doesn't include the fees for Wallerawang and Portland...Well when all the fees are added, this would be in the vicinity of around $16,000, this would put an extra burden of $1600 per team," he explained.
"This extra amount would see Lidsdale Lions, Portland and Hartley teams become defunct."
According to Whitty this would then leave the untenable situation of having a two tier competition with three first grade teams and three second grade teams.
"This just isn't a viable concept," he said.
Councillor Joe Smith said that council was about looking after all the sporting teams in the community.
"We are certainly not going to let cricket go under, we are not about that,"
"We are here to look after you and we are here to make sure everyone gets a crack at playing."
Mr Smith did query with all the sporting facilities in the region why the sporting bodies couldn't approach other sporting bodies for access to toilets.
"But let's make a good resolve out of this, we would love to see cricket go for another 100 years."
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