Cronulla Leagues Club becoming a white elephant for the Sharks
The Cronulla Sharks continue to reel from delays to the completion of the Cronulla Leagues Club.
The football club is concerned that its home base has no completion date, with developer Novm saying with ongoing delays there is no set date for the leagues club to be reopened.
It is already more than 12 overdue, with building costs blowing out to a reported $30 million.
Cronulla will continue to host games at a construction site at PointsBet Stadium and is being left hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket due to lower crowds and minimal corporate offerings.
Frustratingly for the club, the surrounding precinct is nearing completion and disappointingly for the NRL, its purchase of a 71-room Quest hotel overlooking Pointsbet Stadium may be a while off from being filled with rugby fans.
acknowledged “there had been many challenges to get us a committee timeline” to the reopening of their club.
“The retail, hotel and residential components of the development are still charging ahead and you may have seen reports, promotions and news articles around openings in the coming months of various retailers and the Quest Hotel,” Cronulla Sharks boss Dino Mezzatesta wrote to club members last week.
“That being the case it is disappointing that we are not able to tell a similar story in relation to the new Leagues Club.”
The football club is now suffering financially.
After two years at Kogarah Oval, they were expected to be playing in front of full crowds at PointsBet Stadium.
However, since returning in 2022, ground capacity is currently just 12,757.
The Sharks own the leagues club land and PointsBet Stadium. It sold part of its property for the $752 million Woolooware Bay Town Centre development.
The leagues club was meant to open in February 2022. It is currently mitigating losses via the Kareela Golf Club, which it purchased in 2020 and the former Westpac building in Cronulla which it acquired this year.
Jonathan Jjackson, 11th October 2023
