The Tasmania Football Club is eagerly awaiting a final decision on the location of the state’s new $70 million AFL high-performance centre, with the team’s debut just a few years away.
Executive Director Kath McCann told SEN that the club is keen to see the project move forward and believes a decision is “imminent”.
“We need to get this thing out of the ground. I think everyone would agree. We need to get an announcement,” she said.
The state government has previously indicated a preference for Rosny as the location for the facility but has also been exploring an alternative site in Kingston for several months.
McCann acknowledged that due diligence and specialist reports on both locations have taken time to complete, along with the recent resignation of former Sport Minister Nic Street.
“It hasn’t been a simple task and I think those that have worked in it and worked on it have done a really good job,” she said.
“And I recognise … that that could be frustrating on the outside, but we as a club have categorically said … that we want to make sure we’ve got the very best information to make the very best decision.”
New Sport Minister Nick Duigan, who previously worked as a television sport journalist and presenter, said the project is on his “to-do list” and he will be seeking a decision “sooner rather than later”.
“When you take over a role like this you need to get your head around a few things and obviously there are some big pieces at play,” he too told SEN.
“I’m going to get briefed but I’m conscious that there are also some decisions that need to be made in a pretty timely way and we need to be getting on with the active delivering so we can have all the things that we want to have.”
“We need to do our due diligence … on the Clarence site, but we need to have our eyes wide open and basically get the information in front of us so we can make a call.”
