Premier Steven Marshall's plan to chisel away part of the Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands with a $700 million stadium took an ominous turn in the State Budget today.
The State Budget includes a commitment to spend $79 million over the next two years on planning and site works for a proposed stadium, that would, if built, effectively destroy this Helen Mayo Park in Park 27.
Helen Mayo Park - site of the Premier’s proposed $700m stadium
There has been criticism that the proposed $700 million stadium is unnecessary when the Government could, instead either extend or rebuild the existing Entertainment Centre at Hindmarsh.
It's been revealed that if the proposed stadium were to be built it would require an ongoing taxpayer subsidy of $80 million per year, indefinitely.
This report was later revised to suggest the building would run at a profit.
At a time when South Australia's health services are desperately in need of extra funding, it seems incongruous that the State Government would allocate scarce resources to a project that would be both a perpetual a drain on the public purse, and also reduce the area of Adelaide's world-unique, Open Green Public Park Lands.
Helen Mayo Park - site of the Premier’s proposed $700m stadium
State Government publicity for the proposed stadium neglects to mention that the site is part of the National Heritage-listed Adelaide Park Lands.
Helen Mayo Park - site of the Premier’s proposed $700m stadium
The seat of Adelaide is one of the most marginal in South Australia.
In the lead-up to next year’s State election, the Premier and the Liberal Party will come under increasing pressure to re-examine the alternative site, at Hindmarsh, and commit to protecting the Open Green Public Helen Mayo Park
