The Adelaide Aquatic Centre has survived a city councillor's proposal to shut it down early next year, with the focus now on replacing the 51-year-old centre with a new facility.
Adelaide City Councillor Jessy Khera's motion to consider closing the north Parklands pool at the end of March 2021 was voted down overnight, despite it being on track to incur losses of about $2.7 million this financial year.
Mayor Sandy Verschoor said most of the swimming centre's losses this year were due to the pandemic and subsequent closures, restrictions, and pulled back services.
At the same time, however, she said councillors were focussed on opportunities to build a new centre that was going to last "the next 50 years".
"The existing one is past its use-by date and it's haemorrhaging," she told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"Our members are focussed on a new centre, a new fit-for-purpose centre, something that's going to last the next 50 years, and they're focussed on how they are going to do that."
A 'regional asset'
Prior to last night's meeting, councillors Alexander Hyde and Phil Martin had disputed how much money the swimming centre was losing annually before COVID-19.
Cr Hyde said it was forecast to lose $10 million annually for ten years, while Cr Martin said it had been losing about $600,000 a year, a loss he said had been pulled back to $300,000 prior to the pandemic.
He further argued the centre was community asset, much like a library, and should not be expected to return a profit.
Mayor Verschoor said the "burden was falling on our ratepayers to keep that centre open".
"A lot of the discussion was about the role of the capital city providing a regional asset, because less than 10 per cent of our ratepayers actually use the swimming centre," she said.
"It was a great debate and while the motion was a loss, it was very clear we're focussed on a new centre ... that allows us to operate in a new and existing way."
She added that there was nothing to stop another councillor putting forward a new motion to close the existing centre before a replacement was available.
Feasibility study underway
Mayor Verschoor said there was "feasibility study" underway into what a new facility could look like.
The Adelaide Football Club late last year made an unsolicited proposal to takeover the centre and rebuild it as a community aquatic centre that would also have housed its headquarters and training centre.
But while it received support from some councillors, it was also a divisive proposal, with some opponents scrawling graffiti on nearby property until the AFC put the idea on on hold in response to COVID-19.
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