COUNCILLOR Fred Riebeling stands in the way of a possible solution to a local sporting club's expected financial woes.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting Cr Riebeling refused to support a recommendation for the Mandurah Pirates Rugby Club and the Mandurah Cricket Club to be resolved of the existing leases and sub-leases at the Meadow Springs Sports Facility.
Mandurah Pirates club representative Kevin Williams made an impassioned plea for Mandurah councillors to move the recommendation that his club and fellow licensee Mandurah Cricket Club have their debts written off so the clubs could move forward.
But Cr Riebeling put forward his own alternative to the recommendation, asking for the decision to be deferred so council could have the opportunity to sift through the two clubs’ financial statements.
“Something dramatic has happened,” he said. “Council should be fully aware of the perilous financial position [the clubs are in].”
But Cr Riebeling was without support as Mayor Marina Vergone and councillor Jane Field moved the original recommendation to bail out the clubs.
Under the original agreement, the Mandurah Pirates are the head lessee of the Meadow Springs sporting ground with the Mandurah Cricket Club holding a sub-lease with self-supporting loans of $350,000 and $100,000 respectively.
Mr Williams explained due to increased expenses in insurance, training and medical and the fact the club had been unable to gain a full liquor licence, the Pirates would be insolvent within eight years should the current agreement continue.
He said the club was losing volunteers who were burning out trying to run the Meadow Springs facility.
Under the recommendation the City would be responsible for picking up the $290,415 shortfall from the clubs withdrawing from their current agreement.
Cr Riebeling argued that the Pirates and cricket club were yet to contribute to their current financial agreement and said given the facility cost a total $6.4million to build, that council needed to reassess how repayments were to be made.
“It strikes me that a lot of clubs find it very difficult when they go in to operation and inevitably council has to pick [the finances] up,” he said.
Cr Riebeling found support in councillor Darren Lee who agreed a new process needed to be undertaken to ensure sporting clubs did not end up in financial ruin from taking on big projects.
“The lesson learnt is it puts enormous pressure on the sporting clubs being faced with the reality of running a building,” Cr Lee said.
Councillor Lynn Rodgers pointed out the Mandurah Pirates gave in kind work during the construction stage of the facility but Cr Riebeling was unimpressed.
“What percentage of in kind was made?” he said.
“$350,000 should have been in cash.”
A decision on the current loan scheme will be made at next week’s full council meeting.
Do you agree or disagree with the recommendation to relinquish the sporting clubs of their financial contracts to the Meadow Springs Sports Facility? Email editor.mandurahmail@fairfaxmedia.com.au
