Background

The South Australian National Football League (SANFL) currently hold the head-lease with the City of West Torrens for use of Thebarton Oval (transferred from AFL) to run and manage its various programs, particularly its young talent programs. The SANFL's talent programs support over 300 young players, including junior male and female teams, first nations and multicultural teams, as well as participants with an intellectual disability.

The SANFL's lease is due to expire in 2031. However, the recent announcement by the Adelaide Football Club (AFC) to explore relocation to Thebarton with the support of the City of West Torrens, could mean that the SANFL will need to vacate the site and secure new premises to ensure the ongoing delivery of their programs.

The AFC's relocation to Thebarton could occur as early as 2026, subject to relevant approvals.

Current situation at Football Park

The SANFL remain the current owners of Football Park. AFC have a non-exclusive licence with the SANFL to occupy the oval at Football Park until 2048. The AFC continue to use the oval for football purposes including day and night training sessions for AFL and AFC men and women's teams and AFC SANFL teams. The broader community is currently allowed access to the oval for recreational opportunities at the discretion of the AFC/SANFL, when it is not required for organised sporting activities.

What are the SANFL requesting?

The SANFL are seeking to relocate back to West Lakes where they were the owner of the site from the mid 1970’s until 2013, subject to approval of the proposed relocation of the AFC to Thebarton Oval. You can view the SANFL's Licence Request to Council under the Relevant Documents section of this page, or you can click here. A summary of their request is detailed below.

The SANFL is requesting a potential, future 21+21-year, non-exclusive licence for use of the oval at Football Park, in the event that the AFC relocate their home grounds to Thebarton oval. Non-exclusive use means that the Football Park grounds will be available for community use when not required by the SANFL. Similar to current arrangements with the AFC, the SANFL would propose that community access to Football Park continue to be allowed outside of its use for organised sporting activity such as training and match game days.

If the licence is granted and the SANFL relocate to Football Park, they plan to construct a new administration and high-performance training facility on privately held land adjoining their commercial venue "Mosaic Hotel" (adjacent to Football Park).

The SANFL has prepared a table of estimated usage times. During peak times monthly usage could be up to 80 hours on weekdays and up to 20 hours on weekends, however the average monthly usage on weekdays is estimated as 14 hours p/week (or 60 hours p/month) and 3 to 4 hours on weekends (or 13 hours p/month). You can view a comparison of the AFC's current oval usage and SANFL's estimated usage, and the SANFL's usage breakdown under 'Relevant Documents' or by clicking on the links.