Inspiration for Reid Oval upgrades lies in fellow Victorian regional hub

Brown's Bottle Greens side traveled to the city on Saturday to play against Ballarat on the AFL-standard Mars Stadium for its AFL Victoria Community Championships match.

Ballarat has had eight of its football ovals - including Mars Stadium, North Ballarat's number two field, Lake Wendouree, City Oval, Sebastopol, Ballarat, East Point and Buninyong - upgraded in the past.

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Brown said stakeholders in the Reid Oval redevelopment, which upgrades are expected to begin in 2020, need to travel to the western Victorian hub to see the quality of fields the south-west is capable of.

"The whole Ballarat football infrastructure is something the region needs to aim for," he said

"There is no excuses for the Reid Oval surface not to be like it is here in Ballarat. We are a major regional hub and our headquarters needs to be in better shape as well as some of the other grounds.

"It's just a basic expectation so I think it could be our next aim as a community to aim for that. I know there are a lot of different stakeholders there so you can't just put it on the Hampden league.

"The community, the council all need to work hard to produce that."

Former Western Victoria MP James Purcell secured $7 million in state government funding for the redevelopment ahead of last year's state election.

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