Royal Croquet Club director Roberto Cardone says investors willing to put $1 million towards the Adelaide Fringe event

THE Royal Croquet Club would have been snapped up by interstate buyers if the Adelaide City Council did not give the Fringe event a long-term lease, say its new owners.

Roberto Cardone, new director of the Royal Croquet Club and owner of Joe’s Kiosk, said the Adelaide Fringe event is important to keeping young people in SA.

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THE Royal Croquet Club would have been snapped up by interstate buyers if the Adelaide City Council did not give the Fringe event a long-term lease according to the new owners of the popular event.

CIBO Espresso principal founder Roberto Cardone and businessman Jason Di Iulio have taken ownership of the RCC and on Tuesday night brokered an exclusive five-year licence with Adelaide Council to host the event at Pinky Flat.

Mr Di Iulio, director of Adelaide investment firm 1835 Capital, told The Advertiser in an exclusive interview that the RCC would have been bought by an interstate consortium if he and Mr Cardone did not save the business.

“If we didn’t step into this two things would’ve happened — there would’ve been a loss of the activation, which means 250,000 people no longer connected to the CBD, and secondly it would’ve gone interstate,” he said, adding that the RCC was a “profitable” event.

“What we’ve done here is kept it in South Australia and kept the engagement with the millenials, which is what the state needs to do, to grow and for the state to prosper.”

Stuart Duckworth, who relinquished control of the RCC which he started with Tom Skipper, will be employed as a creative director of Mr Cardone and Mr Di Iulio’s company 1835 RCC Pty Ltd.

Mr Di Iulio also confirmed that he had threatened to cancel this year’s event and withdraw in excess of $1 million in funding if the council did not grant a five-year term

“Fringe and the council know that multi-year licences are necessary to run these size of events,” he said.

“I said (to Mr Cardone) if I wanted to get involved that I wanted a five-year licence.”

Mr Di Iulio is previous director of defunct investment company Assist Finance, which won a Federal Court battle brought by investors who had sought the repayment of $10 million invested with his company.

Mr Cardone said he approached Mr Di Iulio in December for support after a potential overseas investor withdrew its interest in bankrolling the project because of short notice.

Mr Di Iulio said he was confident that corporate sponsorship and co-contribution from his investment firm would be enough to fund the event.

Mr Cardone said the RCC was too important for SA to lose and cited the increasing growth of the rival Perth Fringe as a threat to the Adelaide Fringe.

“If it hadn’t gone through last night (the lease) Perth (Fringe) would have said we’ll take RCC tomorrow,” he said, adding it would have been a “disaster” for the council and the state.

“That was the scariest part to me ... that they would become the biggest event in Australia.

“As new owners of the new Royal Croquet Club, we will bring management experience to a highly creative and innovative concept.”

Mr Duckworth said he and Mr Skipper would honour obligations to creditors as part of the voluntary administration process of their former company, which collapsed with debts of $1.5 million last year.

“We thoroughly appreciate the support we have been given during this time, which has given us the necessary motivation to continue to work as hard as ever,” he said in a text to The Advertiser.

In December, creditors agreed to stave off liquidation of the company by voting for a proposal by the RCC to pay $500,000 into a deed fund which would be used to repay creditors.

DuncanPowell administrator Andrew Langshaw said that he “fully expected” Mr Duckworth and Mr Skipper to comply with the terms of the agreement.

“I expect a material amount (of money) to come in by the end of the month to be of the benefit to creditors,” he said.