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South Australia’s iconic Adelaide Oval will become a $535 million multi-purpose stadium hosting AFL matches. Members of the SA Cricket Association (SACA) voted on Monday night to allow the ground be redeveloped.
The Rann government pledged $535 million for the project, with SACA members asked to share control of the inner city ground with football.
Only 25 per cent of the 12,539 SACA members who voted needed to go against the project for it to be blocked.
But more than 80 per cent voted in favour of a development Premier Mike Rann hopes will revitalise the city centre.
The venue, renowned as among the world’s most beautiful cricket grounds, will become a 50,000 capacity stadium in a deal which also clears SACA’s $85m debt.
“It was not a matter of this saving cricket, but this will do an awful lot for cricket,” SACA president Ian McLachlan said.
The AFL has no financial stake but gets a new inner city stadium with 2014 slated for the first AFL game.
Both SA clubs, Adelaide and Port Adelaide, supported the move from their current home ground, AAMI Stadium – which ironically was built around 35 years ago when cricket shut football out of Adelaide Oval.
The Rann Labor government pledged to fund the project, a centrepiece of a successful re-election campaign last year.
Premier Mike Rann’s government promised $450m for the project before last year’s state poll, but the latest cost estimate is $535m.
McLachlan, a former long-serving Liberal parliamentarian who was worried pre-count about having the numbers, said the overwhelming vote was a relief.
“I don’t want to sound trite but when you are asking nearly everybody to vote for something, there are always genuine reasons why people don’t want to vote for them,” he said.
“We just got to get on and enjoy that lovely ground and make the best of what we have now got.”
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