Wynnum Manly Seagulls CEO Hanan Laban addresses concerns over new stadium plans

Controversial plans for an iconic Queensland rugby league club to move away from its spiritual home has sparked mixed reactions. We sat down with the Wynnum Manly Seagulls CEO for an exclusive Q&A to address concerns from the community.

One of Queensland rugby league’s most iconic clubs could be in store for its biggest change in its decorated 71-year history.

The Wynnum Manly Seagulls revealed plans earlier this month for a potential move away from the spiritual home of rugby league on the bayside, Kougari Oval, where legends of the game such as Wally Lewis, Gene Miles and Lionel Morgan donned the green, red and white.

Kougari Oval, home of the Wynnum Manly Seagulls Rugby Club. (AAP Image/Richard Walker)

As part of the plans, the Seagulls would build a regional scale stadium, with a capacity of up to 15,000, and a high performance centre at Kitchener Park – the current home of the Wynnum Manly Junior Rugby League.

Wally Lewis in action for Wynnum Manly in the 1980s.

But the potential move has received mixed reactions from the bayside and rugby league community with some legends of the Seagulls also teaming up to start the ‘Save Kougari’ group, which heavily oppose the plans.

Seagulls legend Gene Miles at Kougari Oval in 2016. Picture: Peter Cronin

The main concerns coming from those opposing the plans include the belief a move away from Kougari Oval would be disrespecting the history of the Seagulls, concerns over the future of the Wynnum Manly Juniors as well as claims the Wynnum Manly Leagues Club were trying to push the football club out of its current home.

But a joint statement from Wynnum Manly Seagulls chairman Tom Solah, Wynnum Manly Juniors president Adam Lipke and Wynnum Manly Leagues Club chairman Peter Smith was released today addressing those concerns.

In the statement, Smith said the current board of directors and management at the Leagues Club have had no discussions and have no plans to develop Kougari Oval.

Wynnum Manly Seagulls CEO Hanan Laban at Kougari Oval in 2019. (AAP Image/Richard Walker)

The statement also said the plans included investigations into moving the juniors away from Kitchener Park to a more expansive location after the club had grown to more than 750 members.

“Unfortunately, these increased numbers do not follow through with increased volunteer hands, and the committee members are giving excessive number of hours each week to see the kids get on the paddock safely,” Lipke said.

“The club has battled financially over the past few years due to Covid and no fundraising, which helps pay the running costs of a junior club.”

Solah said in the statement, the proposal was created out of the need to deliver better facilities across the men’s and women’s rugby league program, as well as an improved experience for fans, particularly to cater to families.

Wynnum Manly Seagulls CEO Hanan Laban also sat down to answer the Wynnum Herald’s questions to try and clear up some of the concerns from the community.

Wynnum Manly Seagulls CEO Hanan Laban. Picture: John Gass

Q: What is the vision behind this project?

A: The great news is the project is being driven by the massive popularity of rugby league in the Wynnum Manly area.

Wynnum and Manly are undergoing a massive period of transformation, with new businesses and residential developments. On the back of that is a lift in population and, thankfully, more and more people wanting to become involved in rugby league in our community.

The Wynnum Manly Juniors, under their President Adam Lipke have done fantastic job developing the game for young players. Wynnum Juniors now have 750 registered players spread across 40 teams. But the Juniors have done such a good job, they have now reached capacity with their facilities at Kitchener Park.

With the facilities they have, there is just no room to grow. Rather than have the prospect of having to turn away a boy or girl who wants to play rugby league with Wynnum Manly, in collaboration with the Juniors we have begun investigating moving to a bigger venue to better accommodate their numbers.

At the same time, the game is booming at senior level as well, with the Seagulls now having six elite-level statewide teams across the men’s and women’s programs.

But because we are at capacity of our facilities at Kougari Oval, two of those teams have to train at Capalaba because we just can’t fit them in at Kougari.

On top of that is the facilities for our members and fans. We haven’t upgraded these for some time, and they are overdue for improvements. At our AGM two years ago, we had members quite upset at the quality of our facilities and what we are providing to families. They rightly complained that other Clubs were playing out of quality stadiums, and the Seagulls were being left behind.

Our field runs east-west instead of the traditional north-south, which is a requirement for all sporting fields. Our lights have reached their expiry date and need a major upgrade, which means we no longer can play night games at Kougari for fear they fail mid-match.

The spectator facilities need an upgrade because they are breaking down and need repairs. For years the Chook Pen has asked for female amenities, as the ladies have to walk to the toilet block on the other side of the field. That’s not acceptable. We need more room for playing and training fields.

With Brisbane Easts and Central Queensland about to complete significant upgrades, in a year or so more than half of the Hostplus Cup will be playing out of stadium infrastructure. We risk falling short of our competitors in the Hostplus Cup and the Queensland Rugby League’s requirements to participate.

Given Kougari’s location, upgrading the existing facilities to the proper standard is not possible, so the Seagulls football club set up a subcommittee at the end of 2021 to explore if there was an alternative venue in the area to manage growth and run things properly.

As I said previously, at the same time the juniors were looking for a bigger home to fit in all their teams and players, so the most logical thing was – if the juniors were leaving Kitchener Park – for the seniors to move into the bigger space there.

It ticks a lot of boxes. For a start, it was the Seagulls’ first home ground when they joined the Brisbane Rugby League competition in 1951, until they moved to Kougari in 1967.

It’s closer to the Wynnum CBD, so better for local businesses, closer to the train station meaning more convenience for fans.

Most importantly there is enough space to build a real community asset, with a high-performance centre and a 10,000-15,000 capacity stadium to make the most of the opportunity of the Olympics coming to Brisbane in 10 years’ time.

With government infrastructure funding available, now is the right time to start talking to governments about a project like this that will not only become a leading facility in the Queensland Cup and rugby league, but hopefully become a training and warm-up base for Olympic soccer and Rugby Sevens – as well as a new home for sports, music, arts and culture in our community.

Circumstances have forced us to explore this opportunity, but we want the entire community to be able to benefit from it.

Q: Why not upgrade Kougari Oval?

A: We love Kougari Oval, but it is just not possible to create the facility we need with the space that we have.

Kougari is landlocked by residential properties, which means you have restrictions in place regarding noise and the use of the floodlights.

As you know in recent years, we investigated turning the field to face north-south like every other major rugby league field in the world. With people’s houses so close to the field, it just wasn’t possible.

The field is bordered by a flood plain at the back, and the creek at the front, so town planning is an issue for building or expanding.

Unfortunately, expanding Kougari is just not an option.

The idea of leaving Kougari is not a decision that has been taken lightly. There is an enormous amount of history here. But it comes down to whether it can sustain the growth the club needs to survive for future generations. Quite simply, it can’t.

With the Juniors also needing to move to find more room, the idea of moving the seniors to Kitchener Park made sense.

It has its own long history, with the Seagulls starting there in 1951 and the fact that a lot of the local juniors who have gone to represent Wynnum at senior level would have done so by coming through the system with the Juniors at Kitchener.

For our local juniors who became seniors, Kitchener Park has been their home ground for most of their lives.

This proposal with the juniors and for Kitchener Park will ensure that every kid who wants to play rugby league can get a game. And when they get to senior level, they will have a fantastic facility to play out of, and where their families and friends can come to watch them.

We want the rugby league to be the main sport on the bayside for generations to come. We are that now, and that growth is driving this change. If we don’t change now to cater for that growth, we risk losing that.

Q: What will happen to Kougari Oval if the plans for a new stadium and relocation go ahead?

A: There is a very clear direction with Kougari Oval.

Firstly, the Wynnum Manly Leagues Club has no plans to develop the field, as some have speculated.

Kougari Oval will remain as a rugby league facility, which we will use as a training base with the existing field and gymnasium, as well as the administration building. Kougari will always be a part of the club.

We will continue to host selected matches at Kougari, even if this project goes ahead as we hope.

And the things that make Kougari Oval great will be coming with us to the new facility.

First and foremost, our fans and members. But also the iconic parts of Kougari like the Chook Pen, the Mitch Cronin Hill, the Arthur Lovell Stand, the Arch Geary gate – they have all been listed for inclusion in our design plans.

Starting with the design of a new facility, we are able to transplant the history, culture and traditions of Kougari Oval into the new stadium. We will take the best bits of what we have, and incorporate them into a new home that is better for everyone.

Q: If the new stadium goes ahead and your current home remains a training facility, will it still be named Kougari Oval?

A: The idea of changing the name of Kougari Oval has not been discussed at all. The Leagues Club will remain here, the field will remain here. It will still be Kougari Oval, and still be part of the Seagulls.

Q: What will happen with the Wynnum Manly Junior Rugby League?

A: As I said previously, due to the great work being done by Adam Lipke, and all the coaches, staff and volunteers, the juniors are now at capacity with 750 kids playing in 40 teams at a venue with just two full-sized fields.

Because of the demand, the Juniors believe they can take their junior registrations to between 1000-1200 kids. So without a new venue, that is 400 kids we have to turn away because they can’t fit them in. The risk then is they go elsewhere, or to another sport.

We’ve had conversations with local clubs and conversations with Brisbane City Council to find an area where the juniors can go so they can have the best quality facilities, more fields and the ability for them to grow and look after the members they have.

They’re a massively important part of the plan, they’re not a side thought. The future of the Juniors is at the heart of this, any potential move to Kitchener Park for a stadium is predicated on the Juniors finding land where they can grow and expand.

Q: What’s your response to the rumours the Wynnum Manly Leagues Club is behind this potential move and that something is being hidden from the community?

A: First thing is, those claims are absolutely false. This is being driven by the Football Club and the Juniors. I know it is a part of modern society that some people want to believe there is a big conspiracy at play. The reality is, it is literally two clubs trying to ensure we have a sustainable future and two clubs trying to do the best for the community – the seniors and the juniors. The juniors want to make sure every kid gets a game, and the seniors want to make sure we remain part of the Queensland Cup by having better facilities for players and fans.

The Wynnum Manly Leagues Club has been supportive of us, and if we’re not able to achieve this project, we’re not going anywhere. If we can’t secure funding from three levels of government, then we’ll stay here and the Juniors will stay at Kitchener Park.

We have a licence to occupy here, we have a wonderful relationship with the Leagues Club, but we’re doing this to think for the future. Claims that the Leagues Club is trying to kick football out of Kougari Oval are simply not true.

Q: What’s your response to some fans saying you are disrespecting the history, such as a group which put up their houses for the Seagulls to move back to Kougari in the early 1990s, by leaving the spiritual home of Wynnum Manly rugby league?

A: I think the response from the community including the Save Kougari group, shows the level of commitment and pride the Wynnum community has for its club – to me, that’s a really special thing. We have the best fans in the competition by a country mile, and they care about the club. If we made the statement about these plans and we had no response, we would’ve thought ‘does anyone even care about what we do?’.

What’s evident is there’s a lot of people who do care about what we do. I think it’s disappointing a small group of people have misread our intentions and jumped the gun on some of the things they think are going to happen, but I think the vast majority understand why we’re doing it.

The history of the club, and the commitment and sacrifices made by many people over many years made the football club what it is today.

At the moment, there are some differences of opinion because they don’t have all the information just yet. The reason for that is that we wanted to get all of the information together to present to our members and fans, rather than drip feed it or present it before we knew answers to questions they want to ask.

But essentially, we are all on the same page. They are voicing their concerns because they love the club, and care deeply about it and only want the best for it. They are the same motivations for us in finding ways for the club to grow.

Those families that mortgaged houses so the club could survive in the 1990s did so because they wanted the club to have a future. This proposal is also being made to take make sure the club has a future, and their commitment and generosity is not lost.

They support the club and put up their homes because they want the Seagulls to be the best club it can be. We will be able to deliver that for them with more kids playing the game, and better facilities for every player, member and fan.

Q: There’s been some concern for that these plans would heavily impact other sporting clubs at the precinct at Kitchener Park, can you address those concerns?

A: We’ve already engaged with the clubs onsite at Kitchener Park – Wynnum Golf Club and Wynnum Tennis – and we’re reaching out to all other clubs in the area. We’ve been upfront and transparent in what we’re trying to do, and we have no intention of impacting the operations of those clubs that already have leases. The intended site of the stadium will be on the current lease of the Juniors. We are having conversations with clubs in the area on what the flow-on effects may be and those conversations are continuing.

Q: Some members of the community say they believe these plans have been ongoing for longer than just the end of last year and they have been left in the dark, what’s your response to that?

A: I can say categorically, the subcommittee was only set up at the end of last year – that is a fact. The ideas around improving the Seagulls’ facilities at Kougari have been happening for years. That’s not new. Where people will think the timeline isn’t correct is the club has always, over the years, looked at different models. But because of the restrictions mentioned earlier, they never went beyond the concept stage. When we set up the subcommittee last year, and had the six teams here, is when this became real. We sat down with our coaches to plan pre-season and said ‘we can’t do this at Kougari’. That is when it became real. We did not formally start engaging levels of government, architects and other people until the end of last year.

Q: Are the Seagulls positioning themselves to become an NRL team?

A: No. The Seagulls want to be the best rugby league pathways club in Australia. We believe that this new facility at Kitchener Park will help us elevate our program to another level and continue our recent success for future generations.

Q: What’s the process now?

A: What was important was first, did we have a concept that we thought had merit? As a Board and management team, we thought we did. We then moved to the next phase of ‘let’s get plans and see if it can happen, how much it’ll cost – which we still don’t know – and whether it is feasible economically. We’re still going through that process. Because if the answer to one of those is no or if we cannot find a bigger and better venue for the Juniors, then it’s dead in the water.

We’re not holding anything back or hiding anything. We genuinely don’t have all the information just yet. A very important part, as we said in the initial statement, is community consultation. We have every intention of meeting with the community, our stakeholders, sponsors, fans and getting their feedback and being upfront about why we’re doing it.

We want everyone to have all the information and be fully informed. Once we have that, then we would love to hear their opinions on the concept.