‘More likely to gamble than play’: The grassroots question over Melbourne’s sporting future

On Wednesday I was back in Melbourne, where I grew up, for the final day of The Age’s Melbourne Assembly, talking sport, the arts and healthy cities.

I shared a story from home. Our Council went head to head with a cashed-up data centre operator over 7,000 square metres of open space, and paid $70 million to secure it for a public sports ground. Steep, but worth it: the people in the towers next door wake up looking out onto a park, not a data centre. With all the money in the world, community sport is where I’d put it, because it brings everyone together.

Kieren Perkins from the Australian Sports Commission warned that new suburbs in Melbourne’s growth corridors are missing out on sporting facilities, and that people are now more likely to bet on a game than play in one.

My message: don’t let perfection get in the way of the good. If there’s a small local fix, like a bike track so kids can ride to the shops, grab it. And whatever Melbourne becomes, I hope it never loses its grit. It makes the city feel real.