Civic Reception For City's Heroes

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday February 26, 2008

By KYLIE WILLIAMS and GREG WENDT

NEWCASTLE will pay tribute to the victorious Jets on Thursday with a civic reception, followed by a public ceremony on the steps of City Hall.

The 2008 A-League champions will attend a civic reception with about 150 invited guests inside City Hall from about 2.15pm.

At 3.30pm, the rest of Newcastle will be able to congratulate their team with a public ceremony to be held on the steps of the building.

Lord Mayor John Tate said the Jets would meet their fans and sign autographs after the ceremony.

"They're very keen to get out there and sign T-shirts," he said.

"It will be great."

Cr Tate said Newcastle City Council had decided to hold the public ceremony at a time when school children could attend.

"It's an opportunity to acknowledge what they've achieved," he said.

"This is the A-League, the national competition in Australia, and they've won."

He expected thousands of Novocastrians would turn up on Thursday to congratulate their team.

'We had about 2500 at Adamstown (Oval) on Sunday night and that was fairly late," he said.

King Street will be closed between Auckland and Birdwood streets during the public ceremony.

Hunter Business Chamber president Karen Howard said yesterday there would be many flow-on effects from the Jets grand final victory.

Mrs Howard said that, most importantly, the Jets had put Newcastle and the Hunter on the international football scene.

Following their success in this summer's A-League, Newcastle Jets qualify for inclusion in the Asian league.

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