West Torrens Community largely not supportive of the lease

Despite the consultation material not clearly identifying and showing that nearly all of Kings Reserve was going to be consumed by a second oval, the feedback from the three closest suburbs to the proposed development, Torrensville, Thebarton and Mile End indicated that they were not supportive of the lease. Only 29% of ratepayers, residents and business owners were supportive, while more than twice as many (62%) were not supportive and a further 9% were unsure.

Across the wider West Torrens Council area, the number of respondents not supportive of the lease (49%) were again greater than those who were supportive (44%) and this was in spite of a concerted campaign by the Adelaide Football Club to leverage the loyalty of its 63,000 strong member base and even larger fan base, encouraging them to provide positive feedback and ‘Vote for our Facility’

A social media campaign by the Adelaide Football Club leveraging the popularity of their men’s and women’s team captains, asking their members and fans to “Vote for our Facility”

The reason stated for the public consultation was to ‘understand the level of support from the community for the proposed lease’ and to provide the Adelaide Football Club with some degree of certainty regarding the lease status before developing a costly masterplan. Without having achieved any level of clear support to progress and despite overwhelming concerns being expressed in the public feedback, the Council voted in favour of progressing and signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Adelaide Football Club. The agreement solidified the terms of the lease and paved the way for the design of a second oval on Kings Reserve.