US giant backs funding for A-League club Western United’s property and stadium project

Melbourne-based A-League club Western United has clinched a deal with a NYSE-listed property technology business that will create a commercial and residential sector, and new stadium.

Craig Ryan of Johnson Controls, Western United’s US international Hannah Keane, Western United Group’s Jason Sourasis, men’s team captain Josh Risdon, and YourLand’s Robert Kissane and Dean Gold.

Funding from a deal with a $US38bn ($56bn) New York Stock Exchange-listed giant should finally get major work under way within a year on an ambitious $2bn sport and property project in Melbourne’s west.

Building technology group Johnson Controls will help provide the funding for the owners of A-League soccer club Western United to undertake a $2bn commercial and residential property project to be built around a new 15,000-capacity stadium.

A $50m debt facility will help unlock a public-private partnership deal with the local Wyndham Council for the land to construct the stadium, and then the entire 62.5ha precinct that will eventually be built under an already-approved masterplan managed by Melbourne developer YourLand Developments.

Western United players celebrate after winning the A-League Women’s semi final in April 2023. Picture: Getty Images

The deal for the privately backed Western Melbourne Group with Johnson Controls, which will be the technology partner for the project, and YourLand, which will also take an equity stake in WMG, should alleviate some pressure on the soccer club owners, which have promised to build their own stadium since gaining an A-League licence in 2018.

WMG, headed by executive chairman Jason Sourasis, has spent $70m running Western United and funding preparatory work on the project in the past six years, and needed another $50m to get the next stage of the development locked in.

Johnson Controls has worked on large US stadiums and areas in cities including Las Vegas, Milwaukee, San Francisco and Cleveland. YourLand has undertaken and managed projects in Melbourne’s west including residential housing lots, commercial buildings, town centres and wetlands – all of which are planned for the Western United development.

Mr Sourasis told The Australian that plans now called for his club to play out of its brand new stadium at some time during the 2026-27 A-League season – a timeline that has already blown out by several years.

But Western United should be playing home games by March this year at a 5000-seat future training facility that is being built next to the land earmarked for the main stadium.

Western United’s Benjamin Garuccio is challenged during the December 30 match against the Newcastle Jets. Picture: Getty Images

“We will be playing in Tarneit, in the City of Wyndham before the end of the 2023/24 A-League men’s and women’s seasons and we look forward to our fans having a place to permanently call home,” Mr Sourasis said.

“It has been a hugely challenging period for Western United for several years, for a range of factors, including Covid and the complexity of this project. But we have made a significant investment in Australian football and sports infrastructure, that will benefit the broader community and the state of Victoria. And that will continue.”

WMG has been trying to pull off what would be the biggest deal in Australian sports business history, with a 15,000 seat outdoor stadium the centrepiece of a 62.5ha project that is now expected to take up to 10 years to complete.

The outdoor arena will be surrounded by several new apartment blocks up to seven levels high, housing subdivision lots, a hotel, commercial office space, an indoor sports arena, training and medical facilities, shops, bars and parkland under plans that have been approved by the Victorian state government.

Sourasis and his group have already spent about $70m raised from investors, who include wealthy Melbourne families and athletes such as Collingwood star Scott Pendlebury, tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis, and Australian Olympic basketballers Dante Exum and Chris Goulding.

WMG sent an information memorandum to prospective investors and partners last June.