Editorial: NBL’s Derwent Entertainment Centre and team offer is promising

NBL boss and developer Larry Kestelman’s Tasmanian offer sounds like a pretty good deal, but the fact his latest pitch meeting smack bang in the middle of the latest political firestorm over the performance of our hospitals is a problem.

CONSIDERING the very justified political heat at the moment over the state of care at Tasmania’s two big public hospitals, it’s going to be a very big ask for the Hodgman Government to do what it probably should and invest a lazy 20 or 30 million dollars into upgrading the Derwent Entertainment Centre for the National Basketball League.

That is the amount of cash being requested upfront by NBL boss and developer Larry Kestelman as the initial public contribution to his offer to not only base a team from Tasmania out of the DEC, but to spend $200 million redeveloping the surrounding Wilkinsons Point area. Estimates put the result of that investment as potentially being 1100 new jobs in Glenorchy — and a $40 million increase in annual gross regional product.

And so it sounds a pretty good deal — with the activation of Wilkinsons Point into a shopping and sporting precinct a massive opportunity for a part of our capital city that could really do with it.

An artists impression of the proposed Derwent Entertainment Centre redevelopment.

Having our own team in the NBL again would also be a feather in Premier Will Hodgman’s cap — and an upgraded DEC would be another benefit, particularly for attracting big acts to tour here. The Mercury is editorially supportive of the redevelopment proposal, as a concept.

But Mr Kestelman’s latest pitch meeting with the Premier came on Monday, smack bang in the middle of the latest political firestorm over the performance of our hospitals. And that’s the problem. Mr Kestelman has been consistent in saying that he wants bipartisan state support for his proposal — including, most importantly, that pretty sizeable public contribution (plus $1.5 million annually to support the team). To put it bluntly, he does not want to be accused of putting a basketball team ahead of the needs of sick kids. And that’s fair enough. That would certainly be a pretty easy case for the Labor Opposition to make, should it not also be supportive of a public contribution to upgrading the now-30-year-old DEC.

OPPOSITION OPEN TO REDEVELOPMENT BUT WANTS TO SEE DETAILS FIRST

It doesn’t matter what the positive outcomes are, at this time in our political landscape it would be too easy to be critical.

That’s probably why the Premier made a very interesting shift in his language after Monday’s meeting — saying that progressing the NBL’s idea “would require funding from all levels of government”. And now that adds a challenging roadblock, because there is little political reason for the Federal Government to make any investment in the proposal as it sits in the middle of the seat of Clark that is held by progressive-leaning independent Andrew Wilkie.

So what we are left with is this: the state is being offered a $200 million new precinct in a part of our capital city that could really do with it for a one-off public contribution of about $30 million, and then an annual $1.5 million commitment to underpin another team in a national sporting competition. The estimated return for the local economy would be 1100 new jobs and $40 million a year, according to the proponents.

But the deal is now caught up in politics — with the state tentative about making such an investment and it being hard to see why the feds would get involved. All that being said it’s probably time the Labor Party told us what they’re thinking about all this.