The Messinian Association Soccer Club – MA Hawks are currently fighting to save their home ground at Kings Reserve in Adelaide, South Australia.
This comes after the West Torrens Council approved an $85 million development project which will see the Adelaide Crows Football Club’s new headquarters built at the Thebarton Oval Precinct.
Under the plans, there would be two ovals that the Crows would use for training. The community would have access at other times.
Members of the MA Hawks have raised a number of concerns with this plan including the forced relocation of the MA Hawks soccer club, and the loss of up to 150 mature trees.
Since the inception of Kings Reserve in the early 80s, with funds from the then-Dunstan Government to establish a parkland for the local community, soccer has been played on Kings Reserve. The first club to utilise the reserve was Thebarton Asteris and then later in the 2000s, the MA Hawks became the occupiers of the reserve. MA Hawks were formed in 1987.
The Messinian Association is a 65-year-old organisation formed by Greek migrants from the Messinian region in Greece, that have their main Club rooms in Torrensville, a stone throw away from Kings Reserve.
“A second football oval for Crows AFL cannot be categorised as community use,” MA Hawks spokesperson, Peter Bouras, said in a press release.
“I hope the council make the right decision here and considers the value of what a small club provides for the community.”
Mr Bouras said the Club’s lease runs out at the end of this year and they have asked the Crows about access to a soccer pitch for training two times a week and games on the weekend, but “they have not been forth coming.”
“There’s enough room on Kings Reserve for everyone. Crows can have a training field (but not MCG size), we can have a soccer pitch and the local community can have tree canopy and facilities, just like all other communities across Adelaide,” Mr Bouras said.
In response, Crows chief executive Tim Silvers told The Advertiser the plans had been revised on the back of community feedback. Mr Silvers said the second oval, which would take up most of Kings Park Reserve, was in line with what most AFL clubs had.
Source: The Advertiser.
