THE chances of Colwyn Bay playing the FAW Premier Cup in the future were enhanced this week with the club receiving a £6,000 donation from Colwyn Bay town council towards upgrading their floodlights.
Club chairman Geoff Cartwright, who received the cheque for Colwyn mayor Laurette Danson, says that is now a priority, especially with the news of a broadband TV deal between the Unibond League and cable TV company Invision limited.
The new agreement, which will see NPL TV linked to clubs' websites and opening up the service to 200,000 potential users, will feature highlights of one UniBond league match every week, in addition with up to two midweek games shown 'live' each month for a subscription fee of £3.95 per match.
Invision also plan to begin broadcasting to pubs and clubs around six UniBond clubs by the start of next season and to increase that figure by up to five clubs a month over the next two years.
"The TV deal is very important news and provides a big commercial opportunity to sell advertising boards around the ground which could be exposed to TV coverage," said the chairman.
"Consequently we need to upgrade our lights to 250 Lux as soon as possible so that we can accommodate the TV cameras for evening games."
That will also open the door for participation in the FAW Premier Cup if they can qualify ahead of Newport or Merthyr Tydfil, as their previous inclusion in the competition has been prohibited by BBC Wales because their lights were not strong enough.
The council's donation will help to correct that and the chairman adds: "We are very grateful to the council for their continued support of the club. It is important we give something back to the community in return and we fully intend to do that."
More on this and other football stories are in this week's Weekly News, along with a full report and pictures of the Ryder Cup Wales Seniors Open golf tournament at Conwy and a round-up of all the local cricket, bowls, darts and pool reports.
The junior sports page features pictures of Mochdre Panthers Under-13s girls football team, Conwy Borough JCT Under-8s team and the Colwyn Bay and Llanrwst Under-11 cricket teams.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit