Port Adelaide has Alberton Oval redevelopment and AFLW entry in its sights
Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas says there is a new “highest priority” for the Power and they need to find some cash to prepare for it.
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Preparing for entry into the AFLW has become Port Adelaide’s “highest priority”, chief executive Keith Thomas says as the club engages a “sports facility advisory firm” to help find funds for its ambitious Alberton Oval redevelopment plans.
In March last year the club revealed its final plans for a major redevelopment of the Alberton Oval precinct.
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The redevelopment, which was initially given a $35 million price tag and earmarked to be up and running by 2020, involves the expansion and redesign of the High Performance Centre, the creation of an Aboriginal Centre of Excellence and Boarding facility and an upgrade of the Port Club.
But while rivals the Adelaide Crows have been given $15 million by the Federal Government towards their plans to move to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre and establish a new training base and headquarters, Port only has $4 million from the Feds allocated to the Aboriginal Leadership Centre component of the redevelopment.
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Federal Labor did announce it would invest $5 million towards the Centre of Excellence during its ultimately unsuccessful election campaign earlier this year.
Thomas, who recently announced he will step down at the end of the club’s 150th Anniversary Season, told The Advertiser the first phase of the Port Club redevelopment would be completed next year - funded by the club and “its connections”.
Funding for the rest of the plans will still need to be found.
“A total precinct plan is being developed in consultation with all three levels of government, to ensure that any development that we do at Alberton Oval is consistent with the broader needs of the community that we operate in,” Thomas said.
“Phase one of the Port Club Re-development will be completed in 2020 and is being privately funded.
“The High Performance Centre is in (a) design phase. The funding plan for this project will be completed in the first half of 2020.”
Thomas said the expansion and redesign of the High Performance Centre to prepare for an potential entry into the AFLW competition was vital for the club.
“This has become our highest priority,” he said.
The Power did not choose to apply to be a part or the AFLW competition, instead focusing on its China plans and would have to wait until at least 2021 to join the burgeoning league.
The revamp involves a swimming pool and gymnasium, and when it was announced chairman David Koch said Alberton Oval would be slightly realigned to enable vacant ground behind the oval to be incorporated into a secondary training and rehabilitation field.
Thomas told The Advertiser a rehabilitation space would still form part of the plan, “but whether that is outdoors or indoors is still to be determined”.
In an attempt to make up the funding shortfall for the project Port Adelaide’s board has turned to the company that helped the West Coast Eagles establish a new $60 million training base by “overcoming perceptions that the club could afford to develop its facility without government support”.
Waypoint, who claim they are a leading stadia and sports facility advisory firm and have secured funding for projects valued at over $600 million over the past three years, have also worked with Hawthorn on its $130 million plan to move to a new training facility in Dingley and also with Geelong to redevelop its Kardinia Park home on multiple occasions.
While the High Performance Centre is still in its design phase, the club has completed a business plan for the Aboriginal Centre of Excellence.
Thomas said it would be a “industry leading community facility” and the club was in “ongoing discussion” with multiple funding partners.