Geelong council to seek potential new managers of Geelong Arena following Covid-19 financial pain

Geelong council has moved to offload management of the Geelong Arena to help balance the city’s books following the financial impacts of Covid-19.

GEELONG council has moved to offload management of the Geelong Arena to help balance the city’s books following the financial impacts of Covid-19.

Councillors on Tuesday voted in favour of a confidential motion to launch a ‘request for proposal’ process, seeking bids for the conditional management of the facility for a maximum five year period.

Mayor Stephanie Asher said the council voted to explore new management for the Geelong Arena due to financial issues. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Conditions faced by prospective new managers include honouring existing licence and user agreements with current community groups under a “sponsorship rate”.

A city announcement of the decision on Friday noted it followed “a challenging two-year period for the Geelong Arena, which has been heavily impacted by an inability to host activities and events due to COVID-19 restrictions”.

“The constraints imposed by the pandemic have left the Arena in a position where it is financially responsible for us to explore alternative management models,” Mayor Stephanie Asher said.

“We want to bring all potential proposals to light, which will help us decide upon the best way forward for the Geelong Arena.”

Any new managers of the facility will have to wait until at least late 2022 to take over, with the city first moving to replace the roof of the arena as part of a $1.5m project.

“This will increase the load bearing capacity of the roof, which is essential to increase the use of the facility and to host major events,” sports portfolio chair councillor Ron Nelson said.

The works are expected to begin in the second half of 2022, and are likely to require a three-month closure of the entire site.

The Request for Proposal process is expected to begin in early 2022.

Originally published as Geelong council to seek potential new managers of Geelong Arena following Covid-19 financial pain