How to take over a Park
by Shane Sody
A new chapter has been written in the playbook for how professional lobbyists can take over and commercialise your Park Lands.
To turn an Open, Green, Public space into an area subservient to professional sport, all you need is two State Government heavyweights on your side.
On Tuesday 27 February, Adelaide City Council reversed a decision taken only two weeks earlier, and in a remarkable flip-flop, caved in to pressure from the Premier and others to approve a new permanent fence (and inevitably, a future car park) at a soccer field on your Ellis Park / Tampawardli (Park 24).
Two weeks earlier, on Tuesday 13 February, the City Council voted narrowly (5-4) to veto a proposed permanent wire fence around this soccer field.
The fence is supposedly required for Adelaide Comets Premier League matches (currently held at Mile End or Gepps Cross). Neither the club nor the Premier League was prepared to consider suggested compromises of either temporary or retractable fencing.
Five years ago, the soccer club received millions of taxpayer dollars to fund this two-storey private clubrooms on your Park 24.
Adelaide Deputy Lord Mayor Keiran Snape had led the push for removable or retractable fencing, on the basis that any permanent fencing would permanently discourage public access to this part of your Open, Green, Public Adelaide Park Lands.
The Adelaide Comets taxpayer-funded two-storey clubrooms, on your Ellis Park / Tampawardli (Park 24)
Sample images of the proposed fence types, sought by the Adelaide Comets soccer club, for Ellis Park / Tampawardli (Park 24). Left: Retractable nets for behind the goals. Right: permanent black fencing, 1.1 metres high, around the playing field. Pics: Kadaltilla / Park Lands Authority agenda - 23 November 2023.
Senior State Government Minister Tom Koutsantonis, a Comets member, personally lobbied City Councillors to reject this compromise.
Premier Peter Malinauskas also weighed in: “Here we have got the Adelaide City Council getting in the way of young people playing sport in the Park Lands" he said. "I think that’s crazy.”
Deputy Lord Mayor, Keiran Snape (left); and Premier Peter Malinauskas
However the Premier's comments were very far from the truth. The City Council welcomes and celebrates the dozens of community-level events played in your Park Lands every week. There are literally thousands of games every year, of football, soccer, cricket, netball and other sports.
The vast majority of these games are played on grounds or courts that are not fenced - that remain Open, Green, Public.
Therefore, the controversy that erupted over the planned fence in Ellis Park / Tampawardli (Park 24) was not about community-level sport. It was about much more than just a fence.
It was about bringing another elite-level, professional sport onto your Park Lands, facilitating or presaging yet another loss of access to Open, Green, Public space.
Of course, there are already elite-level, professional sports played on your Park Lands - such as at Adelaide Oval, and at the fully-fenced Memorial Drive Tennis Courts, and at the fully-fenced Karen Rolton Oval in Gladys Elphick Park /Narnungga (Park 25). Each of these professional sport arenas also has substantial adjacent parts of your Park Lands set aside for car parking.
Although Karen Rolton Oval is nominally an Open Green Public space, it is nevertheless widely perceived as being inaccessible and off-limits to anyone except the SA Cricket Association.
This fence at Karen Rolton Oval plainly discourages public access, and the same will become true after a permanent fence is installed in Park 24. But the fence is only part of the story. It’s only part of what is demanded by those who want to take over your Park. Car parking is also required.
Two storeys, then a fence, then a car park
When the Adelaide Comets inevitably start playing their higher-level professional Premier league matches here on Ellis Park / Tampawardli (Park 24) the demand for car parking on this Park will skyrocket.
Already, for lower-level and junior Comets soccer games, many cars are parked on your Park Lands in open defiance of Council No Parking signs.
Game day, Sunday 18 February: No parking infringement notices were issued.
It seems that Council parking inspectors are reluctant to fine people parked here. It has become, even for community-level or junior matches, a de facto free car park for Comets players and supporters.
Sports fans parking illegally on your Park Lands is a growing problem.
In November 2023, we reported a reluctance to enforce parking restrictions on the eastern side of your Park Lands in King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpine (Park 15).
Since our earlier story, the illegal parking on Park 15, for weekend school sport, has ramped up even more. Where last year there were dozens of illegally parked cars, this year the numbers have swelled to more than a hundred.
An estimated 100 cars parked illegally on King Rodney Park / Ityamai-itpina (Park 15) for school sport on Saturday 24 February. Council parking inspectors were advised, but took no action. The next day, Sunday 25 February, even more cars were parked here illegally.
Because so many cars are parked here illegally and often, in defiance of “no parking” signs, Council parking inspectors have been refusing to intervene, fearing abuse and hostility if they were to issue multiple parking infringement notices.
The car parking violations in both Park 15 and Park 24 are flagrant and consistent, but these are Parks that have, up until now, hosted only community-level sport.
Now that the State Government and the City Council have ensured a professional sport outfit can take over Park 24, you can expect more of this Park will become unavailable and invisible more often, underneath parked cars.
What can you do?
When a powerful, taxpayer-backed sporting club has the full-throated endorsement of the Premier, as well as Labor powerbroker Tom Koutsantonis, and Labor-aligned City Councillors, the public’s interest in Open, Green, Public Park Lands is simply shunted aside.
Money talks, so (as we predicted) Adelaide City Councillors were pressured by moneyed (and political) interests, to cave in.
Nevertheless, you can speak up by contacting one or more of your Adelaide City Councillors.
Those few who voted for Open Green Public Park Lands (and supported the option of retractable or temporary fencing) would appreciate hearing from you, to thank them for standing firm. They are:
Cr Janet Giles: j.giles@cityofadelaide.com.au
Deputy Lord Mayor Keiran Snape
k.snape@cityofadelaide.com.auCr Phillip Martin
p.martin@cityofadelaide.com.au
Those who voted the other way can be reminded that they have failed in their duty to protect your Park Lands from creeping commercialism. They are:
Clicking on any of these email addresses will open up a draft email that you can check and consider sending, in your own name.
Aren’t there existing plans or rules about this?
Yes, there are. The Adelaide Park Lands Management Strategy (PDF, 104 pages, 14 Mb), endorsed by both the City Council and the State Government, does not envisage professional-level sport taking over any more of your Park Lands.
Specifically, in Ellis Park / Tampawardli (Park 24) this plan endorses: "community sport, recreation and event spaces .... accommodating a wide variety of informal and formal activities."
This sort of Park Lands planning is required by law. However it seems that the Premier and State Government ministers tend to ignore such Park Lands planning.
After the 2022 State election, in fulfillment of an election promise, the Adelaide Comets soccer club received multi-million dollar funding from the State Government to realise their dream of a professional soccer ground on your Park Lands - despite the fact such ambitions were inconsistent with the statutory Adelaide Park Lands Management Strategy.
The Adelaide Comets soccer club already has access to elite-level facilities at nearby Mile End, and at Gepps Cross.
As Park Lands commentator and researcher John Bridgland has pointed out (PDF, 2 pages, 3Mb):
"No compelling case for an end to this arrangement [the existing Premier League venues] has been publicly put forward, except that there would be a cost saving to the Leagues if the State funded a Park Lands-site alternative."
Money talks: commercial sport takes over
Over more than a hundred years, many parts of your Park Lands have been lost to professional or commercial sports. Fences, walls, and corporate sports buildings, have taken over so many parts of your Park Lands.
It's not a new controversy. It started in 1877 with the first fence around Adelaide Oval.
Adelaide Oval, newly-fenced in 1877. Pic: State Library of SA
But over time, corporate sport takeovers of your Park Lands have accelerated. These days, fences are around commercial or professional sports centres such as:
Adelaide Bowling Club in Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka (Park 14) advertised as a function venue, for hire, specialising in corporate functions.
Fully-fenced Adelaide Hockey Club and Tennis Seniors SA in Blue Gum Park / Kurangga (Park 20)
Fully-fenced tennis facilities in Tarntanya Wama (Park 26)
Other media
See how this story was covered by InDaily:
Update 10 March 2024
Park Lands advocate and author John Bridgland has compiled an essay describing the step-by-step gradual machinations dating back to 2017 which eventually allowed the Comets soccer club to establish their professional sporting enclave on previously Open Green Public Park Lands. (PDF 2-pages, 11 Mb)