Hi all,

On Wednesday night our president Nigel Dally was informed that the City of Marion plans to demolish our 90 year old club as part of a wider plan to rezone community sporting land for commercial use.

Less than a day after Nigel got the phone call, the council announced the plan in a press release, in which it dismissed the club as small and insignificant. There was no prior consultation.

This a major failing in council understanding of its community and council transparency. We are among the oldest and most successful clubs in the Glenelg Districts Tennis Association - having dominated its premier Division 1 men’s competition this century. We’ve produced many champion tennis players on the state circuit.

But we’re far more than just that.

We’re a vibrant community club, helping get kids into physical activity and helping adults of all ages socialise, while getting some exercise.

Drive past Norfolk Rd this morning and you’d have seen kids doing a Tennis AustraliaTennis Australia Hot Shots program. Drive past mid-week and you’ll see social or cardio tennis sessions. Drive past this afternoon and you’ll see competitive tennis being played, and people socialising while getting some physical exercise.

Occasionally, you’ll see us hosting Tennis SATennis SA tournaments. Our courts are also used by Flagstaff Hill Tennis Club and Seacliff Tennis Club. The courts are used by thousands of people each year.

Had the council consulted with Tennis SA, it would have been informed of the shortage of competition tennis courts in Adelaide and the importance of having facilities in the Marion area. It would have been informed tennis remains a popular, high demand sport in southwestern Adelaide.

The Marion Sports and Community precinct is a massive 10Ha site with several ovals and other facilities, which houses about 8 sports at present.

Tennis - one of Australia’s favourite summer passtimes - requires a tiny, tiny fraction of the 10Ha space to continue meeting the needs of the community.

Rather than meet this need, the council plans to push ahead with the construction of a commercial ice skating facility on. ‘Sports’ and ‘Community’ precinct, which it will then lease to a major private profit generating company.

This is an example of a council completely failing the transparency and consultation test. But more than that, it’s an example of a council forgetting what its core purpose is. A key reason the people Marion pay rates to the council, is so that the council will provide community services and facilities.

Kicking a premier Australian sport off a massive community sporting site, so it can lease land to a commercial venture is just so out of touch. That’s as diplomatically as we can put it.

We’re not against commercial ventures, just not when it involves rezoning our already sparse community spaces and killing off popular sporting clubs with histories which are important to the fabric of our communities - and meeting current community demand.

We plan to fight this. We need the support of you guys - the amazing community Marion and Adelaide.

We would love you to get behind us. We’ll share more about how you can support us in the near future. Feel free to share this post in the meantime.

We want to be really clear. This is not about basketball vs tennis. We love basketball and our neighbours the South Adelaide Basketball Club. We support the upgrade and expansion of their facilities. But there is room on a 10Ha sporting site for basketball and tennis. It should not be one or the other.

It’s also not just about our club. This is about the wider local government sector and its priorities and values. Local Government has lost its watchdog with the demise of Messenger Press. The lack of consultation and transparency to date is deeply concerning. This precedence this could set is also deeply concerning.

A massive thank you to the dozens and dozens of you who have already got in touch to express your concern about this. We love you guys and we love being part of the Marion community.

Regards

The Marion Tennis Club.

Established 1934.

TO SAVE OUR CLUB. SIGN THIS PETITION!

Last month, the City of Marion took a secret vote to bulldoze our popular, well-run 90-year-old club. They never consulted prior to making the decision, and didn’t even bother to tell us until a fortnight later. Hundreds of people from all parts of our community use our courts and adore our club. Please, please sign this petition demanding Marion Council does not kill the Marion Tennis Club.

https://chng.it/qJbgTkYJym