AFL club St Kilda in cash concern over Frankston move
http://www.leadernews.com.au/article/2008/06/19/37425_fsv_news.htmlPaul Amy
19Jun08
ST KILDA boss Archie Fraser today revealed the club was reconsidering its move to Frankston Park.
The sensational development comes as the club revealed a massive $5 million blow-out in costs in redeveloping the football ground.
The financial crunch led Fraser to admit today that the Saints might look to other sites in Frankston if costs could not be reined in.
It’s believed Belvedere Park, which has been earmarked as a potential training venue for TAC Cup team the Dandenong Stingrays, is one alternative.
St Kilda’s contribution to the $10.25m elite training facility and administration centre at Frankston Park was put at $1.5 million when the project was announced amid great fanfare last November.
But it has got as high as $5 million, due largely to rising steel prices and building restrictions on the site.
``In terms of the price, yes, it has come in higher than we’d all like, but we’re working through that at the moment,’’ Fraser said on Thursday morning.
``The whole thing pushed out to $16.25 million. We’ve been able to knock it back to about $14.25 million. We’ve had two or three meetings where we’ve been trying to cut things out that might have been niceties, as opposed to cutting back on the actual size of the building.’’
While Frankston Council, the State Government and the AFL are all contributing to the development, Fraser said the Saints would have to pay for the extra costs.
Although the club was debt-free, ``we’re not jumping in at $14 million’’, he said.
``What we’re really doing now is having a good look at it, to see if it can be `engineered down’ a little bit, while at the same time being an elite facility that meets all our requirements,’’ Fraser said.
``The more we can close the gap, the less money we have to find. We don’t want to be putting in $5 million when we thought we’d be putting in $1.25 million.
``We thought $1.25 million would tun into $2 million, maybe $2.5 million, but nowhere near $5 million.’’
Fraser said St Kilda was still intent on moving to Frankston.
``That’s 100 per cent. What we might have to do is start looking at other sites within the city council area,’’ he said.
``The key thing from the Saints’ point of view is that we’re going to be in Frankston and hopefully we’re going to be at Frankston Park. We want to make this work.’’
