WACA pays $3.6m to end debacle

EXCLUSIVE John Townsend The West Australian
August 26, 2014, 2:20 am



The WA Cricket Association has paid $3.6 million to Ascot Capital to settle its failed ground redevelopment and end the biggest financial debacle in its 129-year history.

And the WACA acknowledged that it could be further out of pocket, with Ascot entitled to receive a portion of future ground sales as part of the original joint venture agreement.

"But that won't happen in my lifetime," Ascot director David van der Walt said.

The Ascot payment means the WACA has borne the entire failure of the ambitious proposal to secure its financial future by building apartment towers.

But the association holds $15 million in cash and is due to get significant compensation for the loss of its Test match this summer.

Alan Rule, chairman of the WACA's finance committee, confirmed the Ascot payment.

Mr Rule said it would be revealed in the annual financial statements to be released next month.

"The WACA terminated the agreement with Ascot and reimbursed them the $3.6 million they had contributed to the project," he said.

"There is no ex gratia payment involved but simply a reimbursement of costs.

"Ascot still has the potential to receive a payment of 8 per cent of the uplift in property value if we sell any of the commercial land."

Under the agreement with Ascot, the property developer would take a profit had the project come to fruition but would be compensated should it fail.

It was this agreement that prompted chairman-elect George Jones to quit the board last year, claiming the Ascot deal was not in the best interests of the WACA and its members.

"The agreement with Ascot is the issue and I hope WACA members ask a lot of questions about it," Mr Jones said at the time.

WA cricket great Dennis Lillee, who last night nominated for a sixth two-year term as WACA president, introduced Ascot to the association and was one of the key forces in keeping the relationship alive.

He said last night that he was disappointed that the redevelopment did not proceed but recognised the payment to Ascot was inevitable.

Last year's WACA annual report revealed that the association held term deposits of $14.4 million.

It also revealed the continuing risk to the WACA over the Ascot deal.

Mr van der Walt, who said the WACA had acted honourably by fulfilling its obligations to Ascot without dispute, believed it was premature to abandon the project.

"It was a mistake not to continue with the development," he said.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/...o-end-debacle/

The WACA can hold as many member-forums and status updates as they like, but heads should have rolled over this debacle and the complete lack of a plan B for ground redevelopment, not to mention the loss of the Test match.

The latter is completely unacceptable for a state with such proud and parochial cricketing history. If Cricket Australia were hell-bent on taking the Test match away, the WACA should have been screaming from the rooftops about it right into the next century. Instead, we get a quiet roll-over and the 'opportunity' to see Afghanistan play a World Cup match. But the WACA are getting their brown paper bag of cash, so the members and actual cricket fans can get stuffed, I suppose.

I gave up my membership years ago-there was very little value in it

I get heaps of value out of my membership, mind you I get mine at the cheaper rate for being a registered player.

A resigned many years ago when one DKL was at the helm and leading up to an Ashes Test.

The WACA treated it's long-standing Members with total contempt.

Don't cry for me Argentina......

Can someone give me a brief summary about what the "Ascot Deal" was all about? and why it failed?

Ever heard of Google? :P

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Originally Posted by Exile

Can someone give me a brief summary about what the "Ascot Deal" was all about? and why it failed?

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Ex, open the story. The picture of the WACA shows a large (~10 storey) complex of apartments on one side of the ground. The WACA wanted to raise some money by building this, and Ascot were the project management company they hired.

There were a number of issue with the apartments. One is that they were on the west side, which would have thrown huge shadows onto the pitch in the afternoons, and would also have stopped the Freemantle Doctor from blowing over the ground (which currently blows across the pitch and gives an unusual swing to anything which gets bowled). The loss of both the sun and wind would likely have also affected the pitch stopping it being the hardest track in Australia (probably).

Another issue is that the apartments would have been built on one of the general admission areas (the WACA has two grass banks, west and east of the pitch, which are general admission), and might have made a tempting target for any big-hitting T20 player (Mitch Johnson?)

But it also seems as if some of the selection of Ascot, and the negotiation over the contract terms and conditions was (how shall I phrase this to avoid a lawsuit?) less than ideal. Of course Ascot are entitled to costs incurred from the WACA pulling out of the deal (although did they really spend $3.6 million?) but seeing as part of the reason the WACA are pulling out the deal is that Ascot can't put together a proper strategy, the penalty clause of getting 8% of any uplift in property value is (IMO) difficult to justify. [Not least because I haven't heard how any uplift in value will be calculated (for instance, is it since the WACA was founded, since the day before the property deal was signed, calculated on the day any future deal is struck? It all sounds a bit vague.]

I'm not sure of the exact details but they needed to presell a percentage of the apartments to get funding which they couldn't achieve

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Originally Posted by eleypinkbit

I'm not sure of the exact details but they needed to presell a percentage of the apartments to get funding which they couldn't achieve

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Fairly certain that's near the mark

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Originally Posted by eleypinkbit

I'm not sure of the exact details but they needed to presell a percentage of the apartments to get funding which they couldn't achieve

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I've not been aware of any pre-selling of the apartments (and I have been keeping an eye out, as it's sort of local to me). Mind you, it might have been pre-selling to corporations off-market.

I should also point out that what I've said above is complete guess work (not having access to any inside information) and it may be that the WACA completely scuppered the deal themselves. But then a sporting body screwing things up would be unheard of, wouldn't it? :sarcastic:

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Originally Posted by Sheikh

I've not been aware of any pre-selling of the apartments (and I have been keeping an eye out, as it's sort of local to me). Mind you, it might have been pre-selling to corporations off-market.

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Members were given heaps of information about pre-purchasing an apartment over the past couple of years, some of which took the offer offer up and placed a deposit. I'm mates with one of those people.

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Originally Posted by andrewg

A resigned many years ago when one DKL was at the helm and leading up to an Ashes Test.

The WACA treated it's long-standing Members with total contempt.

Don't cry for me Argentina......

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Totally agree Andrew, sold out the members for quick money from foreign memberships and screwed the long standing members.