Adelaide United’s future at Hindmarsh Stadium in doubt over feud with Sport Minister and venue managers

ADELAIDE United is refusing to discuss leasing Hindmarsh Stadium beyond May amid a worsening feud between the club and Sport Minister Leon Bignell.

Calling Adelaide United fans — where are you? Empty seats were evident at the Reds’ game against Newcastle Jets at Coopers Stadium this season. Picture Sarah Reed

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ADELAIDE United is refusing to discuss leasing Hindmarsh Stadium beyond May amid a worsening feud between the club and Sport Minister Leon Bignell.

Mr Bignell’s comments suggesting the Reds do not deserve a new venue because they don’t attract enough fans saw tensions escalate this week.

Adelaide Venue Management chief executive Anthony Kirchner — who is in charge of managing Hindmarsh Stadium, officially known as Coopers Stadium — accused United of inflating its attendance figures this season.

Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin has hit back, saying the club would weigh up all options before the Hindmarsh lease is up next year and refusing to rule out walking away from its long-term home.

“To suggest Adelaide has doctored crowd figures is preposterous,” Mr Griffin said.

“The crowd figures are provided by the stadium, not us.

“They do not want us at Hindmarsh. The relationship with the Minister’s office is beyond repair.

“We do not accept it in any way we can but hope for the future of football in SA that there is a change of sports minister at the next election and that new minister supports Adelaide United in managing the stadium on its own account.”

Mr Bignell told The Advertiser on Thursday the State Government would look at expanding Hindmarsh when United get bigger crowds.

“We’ve got plans to put another level on Hindmarsh but there’s no demand at the moment,” Mr Bignell said. “We’d love to see bigger crowds.”

He said the State Government has contributed $23.5 million building grassroots soccer infrastructure over the past two budgets and $5 million developing Hindmarsh Stadium.

Mr Griffin said Adelaide United was happy to co-manage with the Stadium Management Authority — which he called “an ideal replacement”.

“But why would you want to stay in a venue managed by an entity that has no respect shown to the only tenant?” he asked.

“We can but hope that we do not have to deal with Mr Kirchner going forward.

“The previous Minister for Sport, Tom Kenyon, said to us if there was a naming rights payment made (Coopers currently has the naming rights to Hindmarsh) it would be shared between us and the venue.

“When AVM was appointed they ignored that position and have taken the entirety of the sponsorship, which is unheard of in any stadium in the world.”

Adelaide United's Ryan Kitto celebrates his goal against Western Sydney Wanderers at Coopers Stadium, Hindmarsh, last weekend. Picture: Cathy Davis

Mr Bignell oversees the structure of AVM, which runs Hindmarsh.

He told a journalist last week there is no chance of a new soccer stadium being built in Adelaide because fans can’t even fill Hindmarsh.

Adelaide has attracted an average of 9438 fans to its three home games at Hindmarsh this season.

After 19,416 watched the Reds and Melbourne Victory at Adelaide Oval in round three, 11,689 fans turned up for the Melbourne City clash while a season low of 8210 fans saw United beat Western Sydney 2-0 last Sunday.

It’s understood Hindmarsh has 14,500 seats and room for about 400 corporate visitors, with standing-room tickets taking the capacity up to 16,100.

It’s believed AVM sells limited standing room tickets due to occupational health and safety issues.

However, AVM on Thursday afternoon said it was happen to sell standing-room tickets in general admission areas and there were no OHS issues “whatsoever”.

“The capacity of Coopers Stadium is approximately 16,100,’’ Mr Kirchner said.

“However, the stadium’s capacity has been completely irrelevant as average attendances this A-League season at Coopers Stadium have been approximately half that level despite Adelaide United football club giving large quantities of tickets away free of charge.

“We’ve got nowhere near the stadium’s capacity to AUFC’s home matches this season — not even close.

“AUFC takes responsibility, independently of Adelaide Venue Management, for publicly announcing attendance figures at its home matches, which includes a very sizeable number for players, officials, contractors, stadium staff etc.

“It is not an accurate reflection of the number of people attending in terms of members, general admission or AUFC giveaways that have entered through the gates.”

AVM controls all the catering at the venue.

United claims AVM takes four corporate box facilities during Reds home matches and charges the club about $300 just to open up a corporate box for players’ partners and squad members that aren’t part of the match day squad.

AVM says it has access to three boxes and that it charges AUFC a $173 cleaning fee only for players and friends access to a suite.

Adelaide United pays an average of about $64,000 per match to hire the venue (plus GST), which includes costs for ticketing staff, security and other event-day staff.

AVM charges a venue hire fee of less than $25,000 per match.

Corporates are charged about $80 for a plate of potato wedges during matches.