Ipswich Council will try to secure NRL in place of Lions
Joel Gould | 21st Mar 2015 5:00 AM
THE AFL's loss looks set to be a massive gain for the NRL and the Western Corridor bid team.
The Brisbane Lions have pulled out of their planned move to the state-of-the-art training and administration base in Springfield.
But Ipswich City Council, which owns the land where the site is based, is set to work with state and federal government and the Western Corridor NRL bid to base an elite team in the city.
Ipswich City Council's sports boss David Morrison spoke to his sport and recreation manager yesterday and said there was an opportunity to re-badge their funding applications for an NRL side that were already before government.
Council had applied for $10 million through the Queensland Government's Royalties to Regions Program and $10 million from the Australian Government's National Stronger Regions Fund.
Joint funding of $8.5 million from council and Springfield Land Corporation had been confirmed for the training base, which in stage one was to have cost $30 million.
The complete project was to cost $60 million.
Council has already spent $20 million on preparatory works for what was to have been the Centenary Sports Hub.
Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale is the Western Corridor NRL bid patron. He said AFL's loss could be the NRL's gain.
"I support all sports, but we are a rugby league city and my preference is to see the Western Corridor NRL team located there and we will now work towards that," he said.
Council's planning boss Paul Tully said the strength of rugby league in the western corridor made the Springfield location for an NRL side one council would support.
"A team based in the Western Corridor would gain the support of the regional councils of Scenic Rim, Lockyer, Somerset and up to Toowoomba, ," he said.
Western Corridor NRL bid chairman Steve Johnson said he first became aware the Lions had pulled out of Springfield in yesterday's QT.
"We are now excited about the opportunity to work towards building a world class facility for the rugby league community at Springfield," he said.
"We hope that will be in conjunction with the NRL, if they grant us a licence.
"It was originally the Western Corridor bid that fought to have the land correctly zoned and returned to council so it could be used for the greater good of the community.
"When the NRL stalled on expansion it was disappointing the AFL swooped on our parcel of land.
"We understand why Ipswich City Council had to work with the AFL, because at the time there was no definite expansion of rugby league and the council had to explore opportunities for the greater good of Ipswich to gain exposure for a national sport.
"We are just grateful the opportunity has been returned to us."
Mr Johnson said Ipswich council had shown it was "far and away the most innovative council in Australia".
"We've had a wonderful relationship with council through our dealings with the Ipswich Jets," he said.
"We are looking forward to working with them and convince the NRL that we not only have the demographic and playing talent to support an expanded side in the NRL, but we will also have the infrastructure needed for a team to be competitive at that elite level."
down the line.
