Council move to offload arena

Plan to balance books

GEELONG Council has moved to offload management of the Geelong Arena to help balance the city’s books following the financial impact of Covid-19.

Councillors on Tuesday voted in favour of a confidential motion to launch a “request for proposal” process, seeking bids for conditional management of the sports and entertainment venue for a maximum five-year period.

Prospective new managers face conditions including honouring existing licence and user agreements with community groups under a “sponsorship rate”.

Announcing the decision on Friday, the City of Greater Geelong said it followed “a challenging two-year period for the Geelong Arena, which has been heavily impacted by an inability to host activities and events due to Covid-19 restrictions”.

“The constraints imposed by the pandemic have left the arena in a position where it is financially responsible for us to explore alternative management models,” Mayor Stephanie Asher said.

“We want to bring all potential proposals to light, which will help us decide upon the best way forward for the Geelong Arena.”

Any new managers will have to wait until at least late 2022 to take over, with the CoGG first moving to replace the arena’s roof as part of a $1.5m project.

“This will increase the loadbearing capacity of the roof, which is essential to increase the use of the facility and to host major events,” sports portfolio chair Cr Ron Nelson said.

Works, expected to begin in the second half of 2022, are likely to require closing the site for three months.

The request for proposal process is expected to begin in early 2022.