Alberton Square to power new era for Port Adelaide

The Port Adelaide Football Club is pleased to unveil the next phase of its long-term business strategy, with the announcement of Alberton Square – a landmark property development project set to strengthen the club’s financial future while delivering lasting benefits to the local community.

The vision for Alberton Square is to deliver a world-class precinct encompassing commercial, health and wellness, community, and residential offerings - directly connected to the elite high-performance and community sport facilities at Alberton Oval.

The development will open the Alberton Oval precinct through to Port Road, across almost 20,000 square metres of prime land.

This unique and vibrant mixed-use hub is importantly aligned with the South Australian Government’s strategic growth priorities and will enhance the broader Alberton area.

The proposed development has been four years in planning and is being worked on by a dedicated group of experienced, strategically focused professionals operating independently of the club’s day-to-day football operations.

A first-of-its-kind initiative in the AFL, Alberton Square will diversify the club’s revenue streams and establish a strong financial foundation, creating an independent revenue and asset base separate from its core football business.

The project will also contribute to addressing housing demand in the western suburbs while providing improved facilities and opportunities for the local community, complementing the recent and ongoing transformation of Alberton Oval.

Since 2023, the club has secured 26 residential properties between Alberton Oval and Port Road, with the project supported by a group of private investors and the AFL.

The project’s working title, Alberton Square, is a fitting homage to the history of the Alberton district.

When the area was first master planned in the 1870s, the district of Alberton featured five strategically located public squares and parks, of which only two remain today.

Through the initial design of this development, and its emphasis on expanded public and community spaces, the intention is to reinstate one of those historic squares, returning something meaningful to the original fabric of the neighbourhood.

Port Adelaide Football Club Chairman, David Koch said the development would reshape the club’s long-term business model.

"In 2022, the board and executive undertook a strategy workshop to look beyond debt reduction, which was our primary financial goal to 2025, and define a medium to long-term business model for revenue diversification,” Mr Koch said.

“Global research identified a compelling pattern: the world's most innovative sporting clubs had developed multi-use commercial precincts around their stadiums and training venues, leveraging sport infrastructure and community to create vibrant, multi-use communities and valuable real estate ecosystems.

“From this a vision emerged to develop an asset base that would generate sustainable annual revenue, appreciate in value over time, and critically, sit outside the cyclical revenues and fluctuations traditional to professional sport.

“The club had existing ownership of 4,000 square metres of land directly opposite the Port Club, currently utilised for car parking. The vision was to progressively acquire surrounding properties over a 5-to-10-year period, which has progressed much quicker than our initial projections.

"Several developments over this period increased the significance and ambition of this project, with it quickly expanding to encompass both blocks through to Port Road, creating an almost 20,000 square metre prime development site, owned by the club.

“The location is compelling as it has frontage on a major transport corridor, and within five kilometres of the AUKUS precinct, one of the most significant industrial development projects in Australian history, with each of these factors expanding what the market is telling us is possible here.

"The club previously owned eight of these properties, which is a clear indication that the leadership of the football club during the 1970s and 80s had envisioned expanding the Alberton Oval footprint to Port Road.

“However, when the club was required to separate into AFL and SANFL entities as a condition of its AFL licence in 1994, those assets were divided between the Power and the Magpies.

“Between 1997 and 2004, despite on-field success, both Port Adelaide clubs operated on fragile business models and were periodically forced to liquidate assets to sustain day-to-day operations. That experience reinforced the long-term value of investing in property.

“The concept of Alberton Square is a vision that has been developed to future-proof Port Adelaide for generations to come, underpin our football programs, enhance the local community and the club’s role in it, and ensure Alberton is our home for at least the next 150 years.”

Port Adelaide Football Club Chief Executive Officer Matthew Richardson said the build of the club’s asset position has been 15 years in the making, crediting the guidance of previous boards and executive leadership who navigated the club through many challenges.

"In 2012, the football club carried a net asset position of negative $12 million. Today, following the clearance of historical debt and the ongoing transformation of Alberton Oval, that position stands at positive $60 million, and this figure does not include the residential properties now consolidated onto the PAFC balance sheet for future development," Mr Richardson said.

"There have been defining moments in this journey that were pivotal to the club's transformation, including bringing the SANFL and AFL club’s back together as one club, the move of AFL football to Adelaide Oval in 2014, and the bold decision to take AFL premiership-points games to Shanghai from 2017 to 2019.

“Each of these moments were critical to rebuilding Port Adelaide on and off the field, and many great people have invested significantly to make them possible.

“COVID presented unprecedented challenge, and for this Board to navigate this and then have the foresight to aim 10 to 20 years ahead has been a major driver in this next phase.

"There is one group whose contribution to this journey deserves special recognition, our members.

“Time and again they have backed this club, and never more so than in 2020 when COVID threatened not just Port Adelaide but the game itself, and at a moment of profound uncertainty, when the season looked unlikely to resume, our members stepped forward and renewed their loyalty without hesitation.

“Without them, the club would not be in the position it is today with historical debt cleared, and on the threshold of a generational opportunity to transform the financial future of the Port Adelaide Football Club."

Having now secured the essential properties required to consolidate the site, the club will proceed with the formal planning application process through the State Government.

"We are at the beginning of the planning and approvals process, which includes thorough community consultation as part of a Code Amendment application to rezone the land,” Mr Richardson continued.

"This is a significant site in a strategic location, with considerable opportunity in terms of how it is developed.

“Delivering a project of this scale requires specialist development expertise, and the club will be open to a range of options as we bring the right capability alongside us. A formal process to engage interested development partners will commence in the coming months."

This announcement comes alongside the ongoing transformation of the Alberton Oval precinct, which has delivered significant upgrades to high-performance infrastructure and, importantly, community access and green space.

The transformation has included enhancements to the club’s home for members and supporters, the Port Club, followed by upgrades to the Fos Williams Stand and the MG High Performance Centre.

Currently underway is the fourth stage of redevelopment, which includes new AFLW changerooms and administration facilities, together with the installation of grandstand seating around the eastern side of Alberton Oval, increasing capacity to 6500.

Future plans include a new bowling club, additional grandstand infrastructure and expanded community recreation facilities on current bowling club site, subject to final planning and funding, alongside the development of Alberton Square.

Port Adelaide will hold information sessions on the Alberton Square concept for members on Monday, March 16, and for the local community on Monday March 23 from 6 to 7pm at the Port Club.

Members can register here.

Click here to read article