22 July 2010

Brumbies real estate brawl

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times is having a go at explaining the turgid drama surrounding efforts by the Brumbies to redevelop their training facilities in Griffith.

The Brumbies want to redevelop the Griffith oval and an adjoining block bounded by Captain Cook Crescent, La Perouse Street and Austin Street for new headquarters and 150 residential units.

The ACT Heritage Council has placed the oval on its preliminary register pending a decision on a full listing. Griffith-Narrabundah Community Association spokesman Tony Powell said although the Heritage Act did not override the Planning Act, such a listing would leave the Brumbies’ plans ”dead in the water”.

Apparently the Brumbies are still hopeful of modifying their plans to accommodate heritage concerns.

For those who think the Brumbies players already spend too much time thinking about real estate and not enough on rugby this is hardly a good omen.

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There are at least two issues here:

1) the potential loss of a sizeable public green space

2) the justification(?) for the hefty ongoing financial support of one of many community groups.

Questions:

Why should public green space that belongs to all be converted into a private cash cow for any individual or group ?

Not to mention being built over and lost forever as an urban green space – in a region which has increasing population density and therefore an ongoing need for local recreational areas.

Why can’t the Brumbies buy their own land elsewhere and pay their own way ?

If they can’t afford it then why should the long suffering ACT ratepayer have to continue to subsidise them ?

Everyone else has to work for a living, if the Brumbies income streams don’t support how they wish to operate, then perhaps they should re evaluate their “business plan”.

It is the living within your means that we all have to do and not expecting the rest of us to pay for you.

We keep getting told how much they contribute to the community ???

It is actually completely the other way around – the community has been carrying the Brumbies financially for years, how long does this have to go on for ?

Brumbies, I’d suggest a realistic reappraisal of just how much income you actually generate and modifying your real estate goals accordingly.

Get a real job boys ! Pay your own way and Hands off public green space !!!

murrumbatemanpete8:08 am 23 Jul 10

I don’t think they own the “adjoining block bounded by Captain Cook Crescent, La Perouse Street and Austin Street” i.e. the old Bowling Club, which they came upon through dubious circumstances in the first place.
How can they develop something they are effectively squatting in?

You can bet that if the Raiders had bought a struggling licensed club (situated on prime inner-south land) for a paltry $1m and then successfully lobbied the ACT Gov’t for the right to be able to develop the land and an adjacent oval for profit, every white-collar, four-wheel-drivin’ Gumby fan in the city would have been up in arms about it and posting madly on this site.

Amusingly, although this development is supposed to be the magic bullet that will secure the Gumbies’ financial future, yesterday’s CT reported that the team will only derive rental income of $600,000 per year from the whole exercise – which is probably barely enough to cover Giteau’s annual salary. Ergo, more taxpayer handouts could be required in future.

Why dont they move to a new suburb in say Molonglo, develop an oval and sporting facilities from scratch, and pay for it themselves?

TheVirulentOne7:16 pm 22 Jul 10

It’s extraordinary that this has gotten so far, it should have been refused immediately by the ACT government. This land/cash grab by a private club that contributes nothing to the community is obscene, simply exacerbaing the no questions asked preferential treatment given to these private school boys, eg the ACT Govt using taxpayers funds to top-up Giteau’s contract, not to mention the strings-free ‘grant’ when the bumbling-brumbies clothing sponsor went belly up and they ‘suffered’ a ‘budgetary shortfall’. And all this for a team that removed the word ACT from it’s name and is taking games to Darwin ! What a farce.

Griffith property prices will get a nice shot in the arm from this development, so why such a backlash from its residents? Well, this is about the ACT Govt handing green space to developers without community consulatation. But who cares? Griffith votes Liberal anyway.

The Brumbies promise much but deliver little; just like real estate agents.

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