Ewen McRae
Bacchus Marsh Soccer Club president Liam Kiely said the club’s decision to sever ties with Maddingley Brown Coal was “sensible.“
The Scorpions terminated their sponsorship arrangement with MBC on March 5, ending a three year partnership. They have since re-paid the sponsorship dollars to MBC.
“At the end of the day, we’re a community sports organisation promoting health and well being, and we couldn’t continue to accept sponsorship from MBC,“ Mr Kiely said.
“We met as a committee, did our research on this, and I’m not going to say that there wasn’t plenty of debate, but we decided this was the right thing to do.
“We have contacted MBC and given them a chance to talk to us, and their only response was to send us their bank account details.“
The $3000 sponsorship made up roughly 40 per cent of the club’s sponsorship for the 2020 season, however the club has since been inundated with offers from other residents and businesses, as well as Bacchus Marsh Grammar, with offers to sponsor the club in some way.
“Typically a Facebook post for us would reach 200 people, but our post about ending the sponsorship has reached over 7500,“ Mr Kiely said.
“We’re now pretty close to announcing a new sponsor, and we’ve been amazed by the support we’ve received from the town. After the rally I can understand more why people are angry and it just reinforces that we’ve made the right decision.“
Mr Kiely said he hoped more groups in Bacchus Marsh followed the soccer club’s lead.
“It’s a very hard decision,“ he said.
“They sponsor a lot of things in the town, whether it’s sporing clubs, the hospital, whatever, and each organisation is going to have to make their own decision, but personally any other organisation that I’m involved with I will be pushing for the same decision as the soccer club.“
Ewen McRae
