David Eland says football centre will bring revenue

BY CRAIG KERRY
23 Feb, 2012 04:00 AM

NORTHERN NSW Football chief executive David Eland has defended his vision for a Hunter football hub at Wallsend, saying the proposed multimillion-dollar development will save members money in the long run.

Eland and his organisation have been criticised for not providing an all-weather outdoor surface for the region’s best talent to train and play on, despite NNSWF being said to have $5million in its coffers.

NNSWF hopes to build a centre that features a new headquarters, a full-sized synthetic pitch and a multifield area for five-a-side matches.

Land behind Callaghan College at Wallsend is the subject of a rezoning application from NNSWF to Newcastle City Council, which if successful will spark a federal government-financed $140,000 feasibility study on the site.

Eland has been urged to compromise on his idea – estimated to cost as much as $7million – to save time and money in filling the need for a synthetic field.

Though he said he would not discount any options, Eland believed the accompanying five-a-side synthetic area was crucial to the project.

Eland, a former general manager of Tennis NSW, said the five-a-side component brought important commercial value to the proposed centre, which is based on the Knox Regional Football Centre, in Victoria.

‘‘I don’t want to be in a position where the funding of our programs and services suffers because of the impost of an elite facility,’’ Eland said.

‘‘That’s exactly what Tennis NSW was in when I worked there. We were spending hundreds of thousands a year maintaining a tennis centre [Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre] that was getting in the way of our core business of promoting tennis.

‘‘What I’m aiming for is the facility also becomes a sustainable revenue stream. That’s why I think five-a-side football is so important.

‘‘I’m investigating investing the organisation’s equity into an asset that generates a sustainable revenue stream and is therefore a legacy for the sport and not a financial burden that in the end mums and dads and kids end up paying in fees to support.’’

Eland said five-a-side football, which is a booming form of the sport in the UK, was a trend NNSWF ‘‘was keen to stay on top of’’.

Plans for the Wallsend HQ were announced in July 2010. The land is owned by the Department of Education, which has given its support to the proposal after initially opposing it.

It is zoned 2A residential and NNSWF needs Newcastle City Council to approve an additional land use application, which will allow it to run a commercial enterprise on what is now playing fields.

A feasibility study, which is being financed for the Wallsend site only, will follow if the council approves the change. The study is expected to take six months.

Despite the delays, Eland said NNSWF had not been ‘‘sitting on our hands’’.

‘‘When you are trying to get hold of land you don’t own, it is very complex,’’ he said. ‘‘You are dealing with not only councils but government departments and Crown land. It just doesn’t happen overnight.

‘‘We are trying to get a government authority to hand over a minimum of 2500 square metres of land and that is a very complex issue, because there isn’t huge parcels of available land lying around in the right area.’’

Though the Wallsend site is NNSWF’s first choice, Eland said being part of any redevelopments of District Park at Broadmeadow, an idea floated two years ago, had not been discounted.

But he said calls to the NSW Department of Lands he made eight months ago about building a centre at District Park ‘‘fell on deaf ears’’.

He said NNSWF met Lake Macquarie City Council in 2010 to discuss sites in that local government area.

One option was for land at Cockle Creek but NNSWF deemed the site unsuitable for a commercial centre.

Speculation about the centre being built at Speers Point was ‘‘jumping the gun’’.

‘‘Lake Macquarie City Council and Macquarie Football were keen to talk about the facility concept being located at Macquarie’s headquarters but we’ve had only one meeting,’’ Eland said.

‘‘It was a positive meeting but it’s early doors.

‘‘It’s Crown land and we haven’t even met with the Department of Lands.’’

Despite Eland’s strong beliefs and hopes, he was open to compromising on the centre’s make-up and location.


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