By Mikayla van Loon
While the long term future of Mount Evelyn’s futsal stadium remains unknown, the more immediate future is clear.
Confirming the Hereford Road sporting facility will stay put at least until the end of the year, Pro Futsal director Steven Campbell and centre manager Tervel Atanasov said this was a positive outcome at least for the next few months.
“It means at this location, futsal keeps going, and we’ve definitely got until the end of the year,” Mr Campbell said.
“We’ll be able to update the market really soon about our future endeavours, whether that be at Hereford Road or somewhere close by.”
Uncertainty around the length of time the futsal stadium would remain came into question after a proposal was put forward for a McDonald’s and a childcare centre to be built at the site late last year.
Mr Campbell told Star Mail in February he expected the lease would be guaranteed until mid-September and was hopeful for the end of the year.
But with the refusal of the permit application in early July, the end of the year extension became a definite.
“We just want to give out some reassurance that the game’s still there, that futsal is still alive in the area,” Mr Campbell said.
“We’ll find some other bits and pieces to keep it going into 2025, regardless but I think deep down, our big hope is just to keep the big blue floor of Mount Ev going for a bit longer. So that’s what would be best, I think, for the community.”
Although trying not to focus too heavily on 2025 and beyond, Mr Campbell said Pro Futsal is “trying to find a home, that’s what we’re working towards”.
“One of the challenges we are facing at the minute is the opportunity for us to take a slot in a high school or something within the region is minimal,” he said.
“It’s booked out every night by basketball, mainly. So we’ve got a little bit of a fight in our hands there in terms of the high school representation.”
And as the search for a home or another location continues, Mr Atanasov said futsal is also heading into its busy period, in what they’re terming a “futsal festival”.
“We’re getting ready for the busiest season that we’re going to have. The next junior season starts in October,” he said.
“We’ve already had the best part of five or six new folks inquiring about our new social season, so all the adults will start midway through August, so we reckon that’ll be quite busy as well.
“And then we’ve got a bunch of other competitions that are all going to start. So we’ll be pretty much seven days a week.”
Despite running futsal throughout winter Mr Atanasov said the stadium itself has been a sought after space for wet weather timetables from other codes.
“There’s a lot of AFL people who have been using the facilities we have at the minute to get indoors from the wet, horrible weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks. There’s been a lot of games postponed and grounds flooded around the Yarra Valley,” he said.
“As much as we’re trying to promote our own sport, we’re becoming a haven for a few other ones now, because, again, they can’t get into anywhere which puts a bit more emphasis on the building itself and how important it is,” Mr Campbell said.
On a whole, seeing the growing participation of young people in futsal, and sport in general, Mr Campbell said was positive for the region.
“We do some stuff in Healesville as well and the more we talk to the families, the more they’re delighted that their kid is in sport,” he said.
“We’re seeing so many of those players, especially from the under 15s, from six to under 15, play other sports, playing outdoor, playing cricket, playing footy, playing anything, because they’ve got that hunger for competition.
“That’s driving a whole generation of kids back into what I always associated with Australia, that competitive sporting background. So the more we stick to that, I think the more it’s going to have positive effects and these kids are on the rise.”
Mr Campbell said the futsal competition will continue as normal until the end of the year and “we hope to release some more news towards the end of the year about what we’re doing next”.
