Port Melbourne Football Club Ltd ABN 95 074 614 136 Website – www.pmfc.com.au Email – [email protected] North Port Oval 541 Williamstown Rd Port Melbourne 3207 19 November 2013 PO Box 297 Port Melbourne 3207 Phone: 9646 2094 Fax: 9646 3895 Places Victoria By email: [email protected] Hon.Patron Hon Martin Foley MP Member for Albert Park To Whom it May Concern, No 1 Member Mr Bruce Mathieson Snr Re: Fishermans Bend Urban Renewal Area – Draft Vision Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on the Draft Vision for the Fishermans Bend Urban Renewal Area. Port Melbourne Football Club welcomes the opportunity to help shape what will be an important inner urban development area that will have a significant residential population. The club recognises the significance of this development and the impact it will have on the club and the surrounding communities. Our submission should be read in conjunction with the comments provided by the AFL and AFL Victoria. Port Melbourne Football Club was founded in 1874 and in 1886, the club was admitted to the Victorian Football Association (now the Victorian Football League) making it one of the oldest and most famous football clubs in Australia. Port Melbourne Football Club is the only club to participate in every VFA / VFL season since then. The club is based at North Port Oval on the northern side of Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne. The vision document appears to show (page 57) that the perimeter fence/wall around North Port Oval would be removed to create an open plan reserve. The Port Melbourne Football Club is one of the oldest football clubs in the world and if this proposal was to materialise it would threaten the very existence of our club. There has been significant investment at North Port Oval over recent years, with a current project valued at more than $6 million being jointly funded by the State Government, City of Port Phillip, Port Melbourne Football Club, the AFL and AFL Victoria. This project was initiated by our club to: Assist in the financial sustainability of the Club; Provide first class facilities for players, members, supporters and the community; and To enhance the venue’s status as a VFL Finals venue. Should the perimeter fencing be removed, the impact on the financial viability of our club would be that significant that it would threaten the very survival of our club. VFL Finals would no longer be scheduled at the ground. As such, our clubs significant investment in the venue, $1,875,000, and that of the other funding partners would be wasted. Premierships 1897, 1901, 1922, 1940, 1941, 1947, 1953, 1964, 1966, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2011. We have estimated that our club would lose $250,000 each year in revenue if the fencing was removed. This is a significant proportion of the Club’s turnover and would leave the club unviable. Page 51 of the Draft Vision indicates a potential school located adjacent to North Port Oval. We presume that the logic behind this colocation is so that the oval can be shared with the school. North Port Oval is a State League (VFL) facility that has AFL listed players using it on a weekly basis. The condition of the surface is of paramount importance to the standard of the competition and the safety of professional and semi-professional footballers. There are many examples where schools share community standard ovals, and the playing surface is significantly compromised and damaged as a result of the amount of traffic from active and passive school use. We are also concerned that the current Port Melbourne active open space provision will only be expanded marginally to cater for the Fishermans Bend Urban Renewal Area. Active open space in Port Melbourne and surrounding areas is at a premium and this has caused considerable problems for our club when pre and in season training has had to be shifted from North Port Oval due to building works and playing surface conditions. The ovals at JL Murphy Reserve are under sized for senior football and struggle to cope with the additional use of our club. As an aside, on page 56 what appears to be buildings are shown along the northern side of JL Murphy Reserve and these would restrict severely the capacity to increase the length of the two ovals to 165m, the preferred oval length. Yours sincerely Peter Bromley President Port Melbourne Football Club CC: Grant Williams – General Manager, AFL Victoria Ken Gannon – Facilities & Project Manager, AFL Cr Bernadene Voss – Councillor Sandridge Ward, City of Port Phillip .