WACA members get $163m of shell of stadium

Chief executive Christina Matthews says the WACA will ultimately save money by sourcing cheaper contractors for the final fit-out.

An artist's impression of the redeveloped WACA Ground in Perth.

The board of Western Australia’s famed cricket ground has signed off on a $163m redevelopment plan that will see the builder deliver a largely empty shell and almost no permanent seating on the northern side of the ground.

WACA chief executive Christina Matthews said the decision would ultimately allow the organisation to save money by sourcing cheaper contractors who would deliver a final fit-out.

The redevelopment plans have become the latest source of tension between the WACA administration and its membership, with the organisation’s recent on-field success failing to placate those concerned about the direction of the historic ground.

The development approved by the WACA board on Tuesday night, in a vote that is understood to have split 7-3, allows only for the bare-bones construction of a level 2 administration office and a level 3 function area that would be used by WACA members on game days.

The level 3 area previously attracted headlines over plans to not install urinals inside the men’s toilet facilities, and for the men’s and women’s toilets to share a mixed gender basin area.

That level will now be delivered as a concrete shell, with the ­toilet and bathroom facilities and other internal features to be sourced separately.

Ms Matthews said it would be more cost-effective for the WACA to source other contractors for the final fit-out, although she said the ultimate cost of those extra works had not yet been ­determined.

“We’ve taken it out of the main construction because we believe we can do it better and cheaper outside of the main construction contract,” she said.

“The shells will be there, it’s just that we think we can do the fit-out better.”

Seating to either side of the sight screen at the northern end has also been removed from the original plan and will be replaced instead by grass banks.

A new childcare centre at the ground – one of a host of extra services originally earmarked as part of the plan to increase the WACA’s engagement with and use by the community and open up new revenue sources – has been deleted from the approved redevelopment for cost reasons.

The redevelopment still includes a new six-lane community swimming pool, a large gym facility and a high-performance cricket centre.

The board decision comes just days ahead of the WACA’s annual general meeting, where the ground redevelopment is set to dominate discussion.

Ms Matthews said she was aware many members were reluctant to embrace the change, noting that other major ground redevelopments across Australia had attracted similar backlashes.

“It‘s no secret there’s always been resistance to change in this, and it’s been the same whether it was the Adelaide Oval, the SCG or whatever – there are always people who resist change,” she said. “The people who sit down and really have a look at the plans and what it is going to bring are gobsmacked by how good it is.”

The lack of permanent seating on the northern side of the ground, Ms Matthews said, would give the WACA the opportunity to be flexible with its seating ­configuration.

The average attendance at the WACA – which hosts domestic cricket matches, some WAFL matches and community sporting events, and which could potentially host Test matches between Australia and lower-­drawing nations – is in the hundreds rather than thousands.

Despite some elements of the plan being deleted or deferred, the total cost of the project had crept up slightly from $154m to $163m amid ongoing cost pressures across the WA construction industry.

The WACA has promised to put $11m towards the redevelopment, and is currently more than $8m short of its fundraising ­target.

The redevelopment was originally earmarked as a $75m project when it was first flagged in 2019, but both its scope and the cost environment have changed substantially since.