Melbourne Cricket Club to call time on struggling MCC Kew Sports Club

The Melbourne Cricket Club spent millions of dollars to keep its struggling sports club in Kew afloat. But now members could be counting down its final days unless a white knight can be found.

A financially struggling sports club owned by the Melbourne Cricket Club is set to be sold off despite $5 million being spent to keep it operating.

About 600 registered users — including bowls, tennis and bridge players — could be forced to relocate after the MCC announced its intention sell the MCC Kew Sports Club, which has hosted lawn bowls for 139 years.

And the club’s volunteer caretaker, Ray Jansen, who lives in a cottage on site, has been told he must move out by the end of the year.

The MCC Kew Sports Club has had a drop in visitor numbers in recent years,

The MCC bought the club in 2012 amid rising debts, squaring off money owed to creditors and pouring millions of dollars into upgrading its ageing bowls and tennis facilities.

It also added a new bar and bistro to the clubhouse.

Despite the revamp the club’s then-independent board put it into voluntary administration in 2017, prompting the MCC to take over operations at its own expense.

MCC spokeswoman Sophie Henderson said more than $5 million was spent trying to get the flailing club back on its feet, but a review found “ongoing financial challenges” meant it was “no longer financially viable”.

Visitor numbers dropped in recent years, she said, and the club was expected to cease operating on March 31 next year, the same date annual access agreements were due to expire.

MCC president Michael Happell said the priority was to find a buyer willing to continue operating the site as a community centre.

MCC administration assistant Katharine Mullins said Boroondara Council was among one of the community groups the MCC hoped would buy the site.

She also said members had yet to be formally informed of the MCC’s decision when she spoke with Progress Leaderearlier this week.

Boroondara Council director of community development Carolyn McClean said the council had not given consideration to the proposal and could not comment further.

The MCC put $5 million into the club.

Mr Jansen said it was disappointing to see the previously thriving club forced to close, and despite the MCC’s best efforts to invest in it, it failed to “get it going”, he said.

Boroondara Stroke Support Group vice-president Brian O’Meara said he’d been playing bowls at the club for the past 15 years and ran bowls sessions there every week.

He said he’d received no communication from the MCC about its decision to sell the site, and finding another location for bowls players would prove difficult.

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Some stroke survivors struggled with mobility issues, he said, and while the Kew site was perfectly set up for them, other sites weren’t as well equipped.

“Apart from the exercise, it (playing bowls) is a social thing,” he said.

Vida Tennis director Kane Dewhurst said coaching programs would need to be moved if the site was shut down, but they operated services from a number of schools as well as other MCC sites.

Kelly Sports runs a school holiday program from the club’s Barker’s Rd location, while Melbourne Bridge Club also hosts meetings at the site.

Ms Henderson said the club was no longer in debt and no money was owed to the MCC.

The MCC Kew Sports Club was previously known as the Kew Heights Sports Club, which was an amalgamation of the Kew Bowling club, established in 1880, and the Auburn Heights Recreation Club established in 1904.