Club RydeX site on Victoria Rd in the sites of a developer

NORTHERN DISTRICT TIMES: This Sunday, financial members of Club RydeX will decide whether to sell a large chunk of the site to a developer

Club RydeX

THE fate of Club RydeX will be decided by its members this Sunday when they vote on whether to sell off a large chunk of the Victoria Rd site to developers.

Financial members would vote on whether to reclassify 8,800sqm of their 10,000sqm block of prime land — bounded by Victoria Rd, Cowell St and Eagle St — to “non-core” which would pave the way for the sale of land to a developer for the construction of units up to 15.5m-high, or four storeys.

RydeX started as the Ryde Ex Servicemans Club but now has 4000 members and includes sports groups including Phoenix lawn bowls, the Ryde RSL youth club and the Bulls Basketball Association.

Concept images of what Club RydeX could look like. View from Victoria Rd

RydeX CEO Brad Browne said the club had to find more revenue sources to survive, in a climate where 60 per cent of registered clubs were facing financial difficulties.

“The club can’t make money and it hasn’t made money for 15 years so the long term business plan for the club is lets leverage our asset ... and use that money to make more money and then invest that back into the community,” Mr Browne said.

“At this stage, if we keep relying on poker machine revenue, we are going to go out of business.”

The Club’s gaming revenue had declined about $8 million from pre-2000 levels and it is facing about $1 million in costs for building works and renovations to the current building.

“The club doesn’t have money in the bank to do all these work on its own,” Mr Browne said.

If members approve the plan, 1200sqm would be kept on the site for the redevelopment of the club building into 3500sqm multi-storey building.

The two bowling greens, sports hall and car park would be lost to the development.

Mr Browne said the sale of the land could be put towards building these facilities elsewhere and the bowling club could potentially be amalgamated with neighbouring clubs.

“We can invest the money back into the community but we need to invest in stuff that makes us money,” he said.

RydeX member Dave Howell, whose grandfather Jim McKenzie served in world war one and was a founding member of the club, was concerned the deal was “too wide-eyed.”

“I’m concerned we could lose a big footprint of this valuable community asset which started off as a club for ex serviceman, in a year that we are supposed to be commemorating the centenary of world war one,” Mr Howell said.

“I urge all financial members to be there and vote no on Sunday until a better outcome can be sought.”

Mr Browne gave members an assurance the club would never forget its roots.

“The board have said a long time ago that we will always be an RSL club.”

The meeting is this Sunday, November 23, in the sports hall at 10.30am.