After a lengthy council meeting on Tuesday night featuring eight deputations, the City of Charles Sturt voted six to five in favour of granting the SANFL a 42-year non-exclusive license of Football Park at West Lakes.
The approval will see the SANFL using the ground from 5pm to 8.30pm on weeknights and for a maximum of five hours on the weekend. The usage is less than the Crows, who currently need the ground 25 to 35 hours a week to train their men’s, women’s, SANFL and academy sides.
The SANFL will also bear 100 per cent of the oval’s maintenance costs – worth around $120,000 a year and $9.5 million over the life of the agreement – while council will be responsible for the ground’s irrigation system.
The SANFL’s proposed new facility at AAMI Stadium. Image: City of Charles Sturt
The SANFL’s move was the last hurdle in allowing the Adelaide Football Club to proceed with its new $100 million headquarters at Thebarton Oval, which received planning approval last week.
The club intends to begin work on Thebarton Oval in September and open its new base towards the end of 2026, but that hinged on the SANFL moving out of Thebarton Oval and finding a suitable alternative.
SANFL CEO Darren Chandler said Charles Sturt council’s approval was a “huge decision, because the implications are far reaching”.
“We’ve made it really clear to the Adelaide Football Club from day one that we would not be surrendering our lease at Thebarton until we had a home that we could go to,” Chandler told InDaily.
“So if this did get knocked back, we would have been back to the drawing board to look for an alternative location, and as we know there are very few available green spaces in the metropolitan area.
“It would have put a stop or a significant hold on the Adelaide Football Club developing Thebarton Oval.”
The SANFL flagged its move to West Lakes in October, pitching a $26.9 million investment in the former AAMI Stadium precinct to use the ground for its state under-16s, under-18s, First Nations and multicultural talent programs.
The funding would go towards a new “high performance and community football facility” co-located with the Mosaic Hotel, a pub already owned by the SANFL adjacent to Football Park.
The proposal also includes a $3.3 million car park development and a $1 million oval upgrade, including new perimeter fencing, an interchange area, lighting and scoreboard.
But resident and council concerns about community access to Football Park and a lack of open space delayed the plan. The council in April knocked back the SANFL’s license request and instead pursued a second round of community consultation.
The SANFL owned Football Park from its opening in 1974 until 2014 when it sold the land to developer Commercial and General for $71 million. Photo: Thomas Kelsall/InDaily
Of the 1820 respondents to the second round of consultation, 1520 (85 per cent) supported the SANFL’s license request.
Support from residents of the surrounding WEST development – the housing estate developed by Commercial and General after AAMI Stadium was mothballed in 2013 – was more modest, with 70 respondents supportive (43 per cent) and 72 respondents (44 per cent) opposed.
Some nearby residents said the SANFL should investigate other ovals, fearing the league’s use of Football Park would increase over time and “limit their ability to use and enjoy the space and disrupt the tranquillity of the area”, according to the council’s consultation.
Chandler said the community would have access to Football Park for 84 per cent of daylight hours.
He also highlighted that the terms of the license agreement with the council require the SANFL to provide a monthly report on how many hours it has used Football Park.
“The agreement that we’ve signed up to holds us to account into how we will be able to use the oval, how we report back to council,” Chandler said.
“We’ve got no issue with that. We certainly intend to work within the license agreement that we’ve signed up to.”
The SANFL intends to begin work on its new facilities before the end of the year and complete them by the end of 2025, Chandler said.
It will not gain use of the oval until the Crows have moved to Thebarton at the end of 2026.
The state government was also closely watching the council’s decision on Football Park after allocating $15 million to the Crows’ Thebarton Oval project last year.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said last week that Charles Sturt council “shouldn’t be standing in the way” of the Crows’ project, while Planning Minister Nick Champion in April urged the council to make “mature and considered decisions” regarding the SANFL’s licence request.
Local MP and Treasurer Stephen Mullighan attended last night’s meeting and urged the council last night to accept the proposal.
He argued it was “very cut and dry” that the community would enjoy better access to Football Park under the SANFL’s stewardship than the Crows, who have a lease on the land until 2048.
“This is going to result in a significant improvement in community access to the oval,” Mullighan said.
“This is also going to see an organisation separate to council responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of this oval to a standard that’s not just suitable for sport and recreation outcomes but also for community access.
“So this has really substantial community benefit, which is why I support it.”
Mullighan later added: “If it isn’t granted, I do genuinely worry about how the community will access the area of Football Park.”
The Crows are hoping to move out of West Lakes by the end of 2026. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Mayor Angela Evans said the SANFL’s proposal would open up Football Park in the offseason.
“Of course that means that kids that are on school holidays, they’ll have use of it during the day,” she told ABC Radio Adelaide.
“And, of course, the facility offers some great benefits to the wider community, and I think there’s some other benefits that can be found just in terms of stimulating the economy down there.”
Evans said the council’s consultation process was “democracy operating as it should do”.
She also thanked the SANFL for reducing the number of hours it requested to use the oval from 100 hours a month to 90 in response to community consultation.
The SANFL’s new facility will create 136 new car parks – an increase of 78 on the current car parking arrangements around Football Park.
A traffic consultant report commissioned by the SANFL found the new facilities would add 26 morning and 103 evening car trips on weekdays and 85 morning and 143 evening trips on weekends.
The SANFL owned Football Park from its opening in 1974 until 2014 when it sold the land to developer Commercial and General for $71 million.
Since then, the former 51,000 seat AAMI Stadium, which hosted AFL games from 1991 to 2014, has been torn down and the precinct redeveloped into housing.