OPPOSITION was expected when Stonnington Council decided to bulldoze Chadstone Bowls Club – Beyonce wasn't.
Members of the 59-year-old club have used a Facebook video featuring three elderly women members – the oldest aged 82 – singing a protest song to the tune of Beyonce's Single Ladies to bring attention to their plight.
Posted on Saturday evening, by 7pm on Sunday the video had had 300,000 views.
Terry Foster, one of the three stars of the clip, said the club was worth fighting for.
"I'm only 82, but for some of the older members this is more than a bowls club, it's their connection with their community," Ms Foster said.
Stonnington councillors voted almost unanimously late last year to back a report recommending razing the bowls club to build much-needed netball and basketball courts.
A report by council officers recognised that there was "opposition likely to be encountered from the Chadstone Bowls Club".
"They didn't see this level of opposition coming," says Alan Jolly, president of Chadstone Recreation and Civic Club, which takes in the bowls club and an attached tennis club.
"And it's opposition not just from the bowlers and the recreational club, but from the residents as well," Mr Jolly says.
The site for Stonnington's proposed $25 million indoor sports centre in Chadstone is 400 metres from Australia's biggest shopping centre, and the club argues this makes it unsuitable for indoor courts likely to generate extra traffic.
By Sunday opponents of the plan included Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle, who tweeted that the fight to save the bowls club was "a cause and video I can get behind!".
Stonnington Council says it has an overwhelming need for more indoor netball and basketball courts so that women in particular will be more able to play the popular sports.
Its December report found that for every 5190 residents in the council area that wanted to play these sports there was one indoor court.
In comparison, there was one oval or pitch for every 724 residents who wanted to play Australian rules football or soccer. And, the report found, for every 255 bowlers or tennis players there was one bowls green or court.
The need for a new indoor sports arena was, council officers found, "a priority".
To that end, it selected the Chadstone Bowls Club – the council owns the land and the club is only on a month-by-month lease – as its preferred site.
"We're not buying their statistics at all," says the club's Mr Jolly. "That report [in December>[/embedp>