Asian Cup snub for Adelaide Oval
ADELAIDE Oval's $535 million redevelopment was not enough incentive for the state government to secure Asian football's biggest tournament.
After cricket and Australian football received funding to re-build the Oval, the state government rejected the 2015 Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup and a chance to showcase SA to an estimated 2.5 billion viewers.
Documents obtained by the Opposition from the Freedom of Information Act revealed the Oval redevelopment announcement coincided with Football Federation Australia's Asian Cup host city deadline in 2009.
Yet the SA government ignored the opportunity after FFA chief executive Ben Buckley wrote a letter offering to help the state earn the Asian Cup.
"As indicated previously, FFA is committed to working with the South Australian Government to deliver a technically compliant stadium that supports our major event bid infrastructure strategy," Buckley penned to former minister for sport Michael Wright in July 2009.
The shadow spokesman for sport and recreation Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the state government should apologise to SA soccer fans who have also missed watching the Socceroos in official World Cup qualifiers since 2004.
"Labor chose to upgrade Adelaide Oval and ignore the offer of the FFA to deliver a compliant stadium," he said.
"And now we will miss out on South Australia's share of the 50,000 international visitors and $23 million economic contribution which this fantastic event will bring to Australia.
"This was a great opportunity for the Government to get far more value out of the $535 million taxpayer dollars for the Adelaide Oval by helping three sports rather than just two.
"There was no cost-benefit analysis done and potential benefits from this event were not discussed with the Tourism Commission before making the decision. Labor should come clean and apologise to soccer fans, the tourism industry and taxpayers for this massive blunder."
But after turning down the Asian Cup, the SA government has been lumped into a predominantly regional town fight to grab a minor slice of pre-Cup action.
Adelaide, Ballarat, Gosford, Newcastle, Hobart and Perth have all applied to host warm-up matches before the January 2015 tournament kicks off after Hindmarsh was rejected for the Cup.
The stadium's small capacity - 16,500 - lack of cover for patrons, small corporate and media facilities, and floodlighting failed to meet criteria.
And with World Cup cricket matches scheduled for the Oval in February and March 2015, the Asian Cup may have been a perfect fit.