Bunbury's answer to the Stawell Gift green lit

Council agreed to provide $60,000 in funding towards the Bunbury Geographe Gift on the condition event organisers including businessman Colin Piacentini, former deputy mayor Tom Dillon and event organiser Jo O’Dea matched their contribution with a further $60,000.

The additional $60,000, which the Mail understands would be raised through corporate sponsorship, would need to be raised by June this year to meet the city’s conditions.

Event organiser Jo O’Dea said they were already working on securing funds from sponsors now the event had the city’s confidence.

The group would like to host the event in conjunction with the 2018 Commonwealth Games and have worked with WA Athletics to find a date that would suit the national racing calendar in a move to attract the nation’s high-profile athletes.

“The athletes we want to attract will be looking to build their profile as potential Commonwealth and Olympic games athletes,” Ms O’Dea said.

Jo O’Dea also said the Bunbury Geographe event’s sizable prize pool of $100,000 would help secure the event’s success.

Councillor Joel McGuinness expressed his confidence in the project at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We put the challenge out to the community to bring bold and exciting ideas to us as a council that will benefit our community and I believe this is one such proposal,” he said.

“We’ve been working to bring events to the city that promote excellent media coverage, support our CBD and work in partnership with other organisations.

“It’s considerably low risk, if the organisers don’t find matching funding then the event won’t go ahead.”

Councillor Michelle Steck was the only councillor to vote against the city providing funding and said the event hadn’t earned the title of iconic.

She also argued other ‘iconic’ events like the Krikke Boys Shootout never asked council for funding.

“Don’t label this event as iconic, that title is earned over time by patronage of the people,” Ms Steck said.

Should the event proceed, it will be held at the Bunbury Recreation Ground across the weekend of April 28 and 29, 2018.