Noble Park prepares to light up the night

– Marc McGowan
NOBLE Park Football Club will stage the first Eastern Football League (EFL) night match for premiership points when it hosts Blackburn at Pat Wright Oval on Saturday night.
The idea is the brainchild of Noble Park president Kevin Wright, who expects the event to be a financial windfall.
“We are hoping to make $3000 at the gate when we normally make $1000,” Wright said.
“The reasoning behind it is to give our local community a look at the standard of EFL footy when they otherwise might not get the opportunity.”
It has taken the club a while to get the juncture off the ground as they struggled to find an opponent willing to play the match.
“We are sharing part of the gate with Blackburn, just to give the club more incentive to play,” Wright said. The club hopes to play three or four night matches at Pat Wright Oval next year and is also looking at playing a Sunday game, possibly on the Queen’s Birthday weekend when there is normally no EFL play. Interleague matches used to be played on that weekend but have been scrapped, leaving the date open.
“We’ve had lights for three years now and all we’ve been able to play is practice matches,” Wright said.
The Sunday game would potentially be played at one of Noble Park’s night match opponents’ grounds and serve as an incentive for other clubs to be involved in the night matches.
“They basically don’t want to play under lights,” Wright said. “They know that we’ll benefit financially and they want something in return.”
Noble Park is hoping to attract a crowd of 2500, a figure usually solely reserved for the blockbuster matches.