Adelaide Oval hotel might hit stadium upkeep budget: Crows
Adelaide Football Club CEO Andrew Fagan has expressed concern that the proposed Adelaide Oval hotel might undermine ongoing maintenance and upgrades to the stadium.
Crows CEO Andrew Fagan is concerned an Adelaide Oval hotel might impact on stadium maintenance. Photo: InDaily/Tony Lewis
But he says the Crows don’t have enough information about the proposal to know its financial risks and benefits.
Fagan told state parliament’s select committee into the Adelaide oval hotel this morning: “We would be concerned if there was a reduction of the ongoing maintenance schedule of the venue.”
“The stadium is our home.
“We need that home to be as new as possible … they’re expensive homes to maintain.”
But he stressed that the football club had not been given enough information to know whether the maintenance budget would suffer as a result of any potential losses from the venture.
“I am unaware of the risks of the financial model that sits behind … the hotel,” he said.
Fagan explained that the clubs will not be directly financially exposed to the hotel’s success or failure, but “our primary requirement is that our stadium continues to evolve”.
“(However) we have been provided with no information suggesting there will be a problem in that regard.”
Committee member and SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo noted Fagan was taking a more “conciliatory tone” in his evidence this morning, compared to the submissions to the inquiry by both the Crows and Port Adelaide football club last month.
Those submissions complained that the clubs had only learnt of the proposed hotel when it was published by the media, and arguing that they should be given a seat on the board of the Stadium Management Authority.
Fagan said this morning that he supported initiatives by the SMA to diversity revenue sources in order to ensure the future of the oval, but couldn’t offer an “opinion” on the hotel proposal, for lack of information.
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