Naracoorte's new town entrances will be on show for all to see in 2014 when the SA Masters Games roll into town again. Naracoorte Lucindale council director of planning, environment and community development Steve Bourne, mayor Erika Vickery and community services officer Jan Bittner are all smiles at last week's news that the town's bid was successful.
IT'S coming back! - Naracoorte has won the right to host the SA Masters Games for the second time.
After hosting a hugely successful 2011 games, Naracoorte is more than prepared for when the 2014 games come to town on April 4-7 of that year.
With the 2011 games drawing over 1200 participants across 21 sports - a record for the four-day event - the 2014 games are expected to be even bigger with dragonboating and possibly swimming to be added to the list.
Soccer is also likely to be added after being pulled from last year's games due to a clash in scheduling with a Western Border carnival.
Naracoorte Lucindale mayor Erika Vickery firmly believes the town is well-placed to host the games for a second time in four years.
"Very much so," she said. "There's a lot of processes already put in place that will work really well again.
"Registration of players beforehand and also on the day, the opening and closing ceremony have already been done once and we take experience from those."
Mrs Vickery said the opening ceremony worked particularly well last year, and would probably follow a similar format in 2014.
Before the 2011 games there were upgrades to sporting venues around town to prepare them.
"We did quite a bit of upgrading before the Masters Games last time," mayor Vickery said "I think that would hold us in really good stead - there are things that have happened in the last couple of years that will really be very beneficial for these games."
Council director for planning, environment and community development Steve Bourne agreed: "Using table tennis as an example, the hall was painted out and a disabled-access toilet was put in," he said.
Further upgrades to infrastructure before the 2014 games are possible, Mr Bourne saying the council was working with sporting clubs "as part of the planning process" for the games.
Lighting upgrades to the sports centre and an extension of the basketball stadium are two recent works at the sports centre that will enhance the town's ability to run a successful event.
"Every sporting club has the next thing that they'd like to do - at times something like this pushes that along," Mr Bourne said.
While the success of the 2011 games was a catalyst for Naracoorte's successful bid, there will be changes to how the games will be run in 2014. The most important of these is the allocation of $50,000 in the council budget which Mr Bourne said would in part go to employing a project manager/coordinator to oversee the games.
This paid project manager position - half-time for the 12 months leading up to the games - comes after the committee was purely a volunteer-run body last time, which put immense strain on the organisers.
"We surveyed all the groups, all the sporting groups were interested in being a part of it," Mr Bourne said. "But they indicated that the volunteering was at a very high level and that some additional support would really help them."
Mr Bourne described the project manager as "a point of contact for the volunteers and someone to drive the event".
Further detailing the organisational structure proposed for the games, Mr Bourne said: "How it will be is there will be a steering committee if you like - which includes councillors, businesspeople.
"And then there's the actual project team themselves - they'll really deliver the whole event, they'll do the legwork."
He said the project team would comprise coordinator and representatives of the sporting clubs. Club representatives will then go back to their clubs and run their event.
Mr Bourne said council would seek expressions of interest for the positions next month.
Mayor Vickery said the project team would be vital to the success of the games.
"You need someone like that, don't you?" she said. "It gives that support to the volunteers who are giving up their time to do all the little bits and pieces."
Before last year's games there were some fears - which turned out to be unfounded - about a lack of accommodation within the town.
Mr Bourne felt it wouldn't be an issue in 2014, either.
"We've got a reasonable capacity with the holiday park, with the various hotels and a lot of people did know people down here (last time) and stayed with them," he said.
Mayor Vickery said accommodation was among the issues organisers would need to look at before the games.