A Victorian hotel has cancelled a planned event featuring former AFL player Ben Cousins following opposition from the Ballarat community.
Cousins was handed a 12-month prison sentence in 2017 for aggravated stalking and breaching a family violence restraining order.
The George Hotel has apologised and says it understands the "anger, disappointment and hurt expressed" from the community, which has been affected by high-profile cases of gendered violence in recent years.
The event, titled 'Raw', was scheduled to be held at the George Hotel tonight, with Cousins promising to detail his time in jail, exile from the AFL community and his "journey to redemption".
The George Hotel released a statement via social media this afternoon, a little over 3.5 hours before the show's scheduled start time, confirming the event was cancelled.
The cancellation followed an earlier post, which stated the venue had heard the "anger disappointment and hurt expressed" following the decision to host Cousins, and that it was sorry.
The statement said the hotel did not receive, hold, or process ticket-sale funds and had not generated any revenue from the event.
Tickets to the event were priced at $49, and for $99, guests could have had their picture taken with Cousins.
Promotional posts for the event from Z Entertainment, which had 20 confirmed attendees, labelled Cousins an "icon".
Crime statistics for the year ending December 2025 show there were 2,953 recorded family violence incidents in the Ballarat region, up on 2,926 incidents the previous year.
Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault manager Katrina Bevelander said she was relieved the event had been cancelled.