Tasmanian AFL group: Hobart stadium blow as Tasmanian Planning Commission recommends towards proposed venue | USAEMALL.com

Plans for the proposed stadium that would be home to Tasmania’s AFL team have hit a huge hurdle, with the State’s Planning Commission rejecting the application to build the venue at Hobart’s Macquarie Point.

In an assessment released on Wednesday morning, the panel recommended the stadium in the heart of the Tasmanian capital should not proceed for a variety of reasons.

“The Panel has concluded that the benefits are outweighed by the disbenefits,” the report said.

“Proceeding with the Project will give rise to irrevocable and unacceptable adverse impacts on Hobart’s spatial and landscape character, urban form and historic cultural heritage,” it says.

“In addition, the Project represents a significant net cost and will diminish the economic welfare of Tasmanians as a whole, and it offers almost no scope for the site to become a vibrant active place that is attractive to visit outside of major event mode.

“In very simple terms, the stadium is too big for the site and the benefits it will bring are significantly outweighed by the disbenefits it creates.”

The report, which has been 12 months in the making, also found the stadium would “diminish the economic welfare” of Tasmania.

“The Panel’s cost benefit analysis shows that the construction and operation of the stadium results in a substantial net social cost to the Tasmanian community,” the report said.

“There will be an ever-increasing debt associated with the stadium because of the compound interest effect, unless taxes are increased, or spending on public services reduced, or other planned state capital projects abandoned, to pay for it.”

It’s a setback for the development of Tasmania’s AFL team, with the venue having been slated to open in 2029, a year after the planned entrance of the Devils into the competition.

Construction of a roofed venue is a condition for Tasmania’s entry into the AFL and AFLW competitions.

More to come