WAGGA City councillors unanimously voted to carry a strategy aimed at boosting advertising dollars to counter sportsground maintenance at last night's ordinary meeting.
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The sportsground sponsorship signage strategy will allow corporate advertising to help bridge the gap between what it earns in sports ground user fees and what it spends on ground maintenance.
The gap was more than $1.4 million in the 2012-13 financial year.
Councillor Garry Hiscock was vocal at the council meeting, speaking in favour of the recommendation.
"It's very important clubs don't feel as though they are being robbed by council," he told the chamber.
"I don't believe that's the case."
He foreshadowed the strategy would promote better use of sportsgrounds, noting Equex wasn't as well used as Jubilee Park.
"Equex is not being utilised," he said.
"It's an exhibition centre that has the potential to bring (in money).
"Council needs to grab this by the throat."
"There's a lot of dollars out there for the right sponsorship."
All nine councillors present at the meeting voted to adopt the recommendation, after council received no submissions during the exhibition period of the draft strategy across a 28-day period.
While council has not sold sportsground advertising before, it has allowed sports clubs to sell space on perimeter fences of Robertson Oval (including Bolton Park Tennis Centre), Jubilee Park (including Conolly Rugby Complex) and Wagga Exhibition Centre (including McDonald's Park, Parramore Park and Netball Centre).
The report prepared for council indicates all revenue generated by advertising will be used for improvements at the venue at which the signage is displayed.
If there are no identified projects for the allocation of funds at the venue, the revenue will be consolidated into a recreation serviced budget reserve for use on other capital works items at other sportsgrounds, as approved by a council resolution.
Under the strategy, user groups will be given the opportunity to identify suitable projects for the potential prioritisation and allocation of funds.
Sponsorship signage that involved tobacco, illegal drugs, sexually explicit items, or any other item that council considers inappropriate for display at a public recreation facility, will not be permitted.
