Football club kicking retail property goals

Western Sydney Wanderers is set to become one of a handful of Aussie sporting clubs to generate commercial revenue streams.

Western Sydney Wanderers chairman Paul Lederer, left, and Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali open the Western Sydney Wanderers Centre of Football on Monday. Picture: Getty

A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers will build a retail precinct to underpin its $30m training and community precinct in Sydney’s Blacktown, becoming one of a handful of Australian sporting clubs to generate commercial revenue streams.

The Wanderers, part-owned by billionaire chairman Paul Lederer, opened stage one of their 11 hectare project in Sydney’s west on Monday, including three elite training pitches and an administration centre housing change rooms, physiotherapy and gym facilities, and an office block.

While the club is in partnership with the local Blacktown council, the Wanderers — who will move back to the revamped Bankwest Stadium for the upcoming A-league season — will also make money from an adjacent business park which will be ploughed back into the club and the precinct.

“This has taken a lot of work and investment by the owners and we think it will be the best sporting club in Australia when everything is finished,” Mr Lederer told The Australian.

“It has been five years in the planning. We will have a service station and commercial buildings with a 7/11 and outlets like that, and we are also looking at a licensed club. But all the money we will make will go back into the club — it is very important to us.”

Mr Lederer, who has a fortune estimated at $1.23bn on The List — Australia’s Richest 250, has partly funded the project along with fellow Wanderers owners Jefferson Chang and Glenn Duncan and director David Slade.

“We have planned, paid for and delivered a facility in western Sydney that in my opinion is unrivalled,” Mr Lederer said.

“And it will help us develop our own (playing) talent. We are also not charging anyone to come play here, boys or girls. We have to nurture our own players. For western Sydney, that is very important.”

Mr Lederer said the Wanderers, who have had several disappointing seasons on the field, should be aiming to have more than 20,000 members each season. Members could also join the licensed club in the future and community facilities will be built on the precinct.

The Wanderers will be one of a handful of A-league clubs with their own purpose-built training and administrative centres, with only the Central Coast Mariners also deriving revenue from a nearby commercial building.

Meanwhile, another member of The List, Larry Kestelman, the Melbourne property investor and owner of the National Basketball League, unveiled plans for a mixed-used project in Hobart with a refurbished 5000 seat indoor stadium as its centrepiece.

Mr Kestelman plans to ­purchase the Derwent Enter­tainment Centre from the ­Glenorchy City Council to host a new NBL team as part of a new sport and community precinct at ­Wilkinsons Point.

It could also incorporate a 4.5 star hotel, retail and hospitality buildings and a leisure and sporting centre.

“This is a re-imagining of Wilkinsons Point that will breathe new life into the precinct and have significant economic benefits for Tasmania and promote jobs and tourism,” Mr Kestelman said.