Related: Plans for stadium unveiled
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Council is being asked to be the fallback for $11 million if the Bendigo Stadium upgrade goes belly up.
City of Greater Bendigo councillors will vote tomorrow night on whether to act as guarantor for Bendigo Stadium Limited as it seeks loans to fund the construction of a new three-court arena capable of seating 4,000 people.
The city has already pledged $2 million towards the stadium upgrade, but Mayor Rod Fyffe said this proposal would not add to that figure.
“It only would if the project went belly up – and our reports show that we’re more than capable of picking up the tab even if that happened,” Cr Fyffe said.
BSL will front $15 million toward the upgrade, which Cr Fyffe said came at a time when the city was at a “bursting point” for more competitive venues.
“The fact that they will be injecting this enormous amount of money is a vote of confidence in the community and everybody involved in this project,” he said. “They’ve done the sums, and they reckon they can do it.”
If council adopts the report’s recommendation, it wouldn’t be the first time the city has acted as BSL’s guarantor.
BSL has operated the council-owned stadium since 1989 and in its early years, a period of poor trading threatened to make the stadium financially unsustainable.
Council backed BSL loans in that case, as they did to fund the stadium’s upgrade prior to the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
However, the move may generate controversy given BSL’s push to allow venues to operate more poker machines.
The move follows a BSL submission to the state government earlier this year as part of its gaming machine review.
The BSL submission calls for the limit on the number of pokie machines allowed in gaming clubs to be raised to allow for “super clubs”, similar to those which operate in NSW and Queensland.
The cap is currently set at 105 machines per venue, but the BSL submission calls for gaming clubs to be allowed to operate more than 200 machines.
BSL currently operates 105 pokie machines at Bendigo Stadium, 40 at the Borough Club and 35 at St Arnaud Sporting Club.
Bendigo Stadium Limited’s chief executive officer said the $22 million upgrade was testament to the power of poker machines.
Jason Wallace said gaming clubs give back by investing many millions of dollars into their communities – in this case, a 4000 seat stadium.
“The Bendigo Stadium and Borough Club model is the perfect example of why poker machines were brought into Victoria in the first place,” Mr Wallace said.
The expansion plans do not include more pokies and Mr Wallace ruled out introducing any new machines over the next 10 years.