SANFL supports proposed Adelaide Oval hotel as Adelaide City Council seeks legal advice to stop it

Adelaide City Council is seeking more legal advice to try and stop the hotel development on Adelaide Oval, as the SANFL says the project is vital to underpin grassroots footy funding. TAKE OUR POLL

Adelaide City Council is seeking more legal advice to try and stop the hotel development on Adelaide Oval, as the SANFL says the project is vital to underpin grassroots footy funding.

At a committee meeting on Tuesday night, the council further refined the submission it will make to a parliamentary inquiry into the $42 million proposal, which will be funded through a State Government loan.

Earlier in the day, SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson told The Advertiser the proposed $42 million hotel at the Oval would help the non-for profit organisation invest significantly in football at all levels across the state.

Mr Parkinson said there were 170,000 participants across SA the hotel revenue would help to keep participation fees low compared to other sports.

SANFL CEO Jake Parkinson says a hotel at Adelaide Oval will help footy participants across the state through new revenue streams.

“The importance of diversifying revenue for us is that 65 per cent of revenue we invest back into football comes from footy games at the Oval,” Mr Parkinson said. “To keep football affordable for people of all abilities and from all areas of South Australia, we need to make sure that we have these revenue streams.”

He said the hotel provided such a stream for the Oval’s Stadium Management Authority (SMA) to invest in the stadium. “That revenue SMA has from the hotel means we won’t have to put money into the maintenance of the Oval and we can focus on funding football,” he said.

But the City Council’s anger at the way it said it had been treated throughout the process was writ large at on Tuesday night’s committee meeting, which was a precursor to the submission becoming the council’s official position at its full meeting next week.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Adelaide Oval hotel.

The Advertiser has previously reported that the draft submission from the council would argue the proposed 128-room hotel would risk the success of 77 “existing and planned” hotels. Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said the council also needed to make it clear it did not get a detailed briefing on the hotel plans.

“As far as I’m concerned it was very quick, it was just two colour print outs … we were not briefed on the plans,” Ms Verschoor said.

Councillor Anne Moran, who was chairing the meeting, said the response needed to update the inquiry on council legal efforts.

“It would be appropriate that we also add that we will be seeking further senior (legal) counsel advice on this,” Cr Moran said.

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Councillor Phillip Martin said by providing the committee with every time the Oval management had gone to the council seeking confidentiality around events “often after they had already started selling tickets” it would show “what the aspirations are for the SMA outside of the Oval”.

Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll has said the hotel was needed to counter a peak in patronage at the stadium.

SMA chief Andrew Daniels has said it would allow the organisation to do “consistence maintenance”, thereby ensuring a large-scale redevelopment like the one planned for Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium would not be necessary down the track.