TAMWORTH Regional Council is hoping the National Rugby League (NRL) stardust will rub-off on the city as it looks to sponsor the upcoming Tigers-Knights fixture for the sum of $20,000.
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Council will meet on Tuesday night to vote on the sponsorship spend.
The NRL is going bush this year with a number of games shifted to regional cities, including Mudgee, Bathurst, Toowoomba and Tamworth, among others.
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The April 21 fixture was secured after Wests Entertainment Group inked a deal with the Wests Tigers to bring a home game to Scully Park.
The council report said sponsorship would be worthwhile because of the “significance” of the game and the exposure it would receive.
“Sponsorship of the game also comes with a number of admission tickets,” the report said.
Council’s director of business and community John Sommerlad said in a statement it was a reasonably priced investment given the potential national audience on offer for Tamworth.
“NRL TV figures remain robust, with average audiences of just over one million per game when free to air and Fox Sports figures are combined,” Mr Sommerlad said.
“Online, rugby league is the game that never stops giving, with more than six million unique visitors consuming rugby league content at foxsports.com.au in 2017 – an increase of 155 per cent year-on-year.”
He said there would be a number of community engagement events around the game.
Acting Mayor Helen Tickle said the community would get return from the sponsorship which could materialise in “return visitation”.
“The national television coverage will showcase the capability of Tamworth to stage such an event,” Cr Tickle said.
“The community will get return on this in terms of more visitors and more money being spent in our town.”
Tamworth ratepayers’ association vice-president David McKinnon said there was a “big question mark” over the value of the sponsorship.
He said there were “no concrete figures” which justified the sponsorship spend.
“Not every TV event turns into an investment stream,” he said.
Mr McKinnon said the event was “already in train to operate” prior to council’s sponsorship and a similar sum could help communities like Attunga.
“It doesn’t mean it should cost the ratepayers when the same amount of money could go towards community problems, particularly in small communities.”