It could soon be a new ball game at Leederville Oval, with the Leederville Hotel’s part-owners hoping to bring small and large food and music events to the historic sports ground.
The City of Vincent currently leases out Leederville Oval for use by the East Perth and Subiaco football clubs, which will expire on October 31, 2025 and the clubs have the right to extend their leases for a further nine years.
But FJM Property, spearheaded by property moguls David Mack, Adrian Fini and Barry Jones, who are behind the bustling Leederville Hotel precinct including The Garden and Servo, are hoping to bring a whole lot of festival fun to the space over the next two years.
Councillors will vote at a meeting on Tuesday on whether to grant a licence to Newox Pty Ltd, a company associated with FJM Property shareholders, for use of the Leederville Oval for the next two years between October and January, with a possible two-year extension.
Lands Minister John Carey will have the final say on the move.
FJM Property own more than 90 per cent of the Mindarie Marina and is no stranger to hosting events with crowd turnouts in the thousands, having held the Wines of the West festival, the Mindarie festival and the Marina Mindarie Chilli Festival over the past 25 years.
“We’ve been holding festivals that attract huge crowds to Mindarie Marina for many years,” Mr Mack said.
“We had a crazy turnout of 20,000 for a New Year’s Eve festival — when you put on something that’s different, people will be attracted to it.”
Mr Mack told PerthNow exclusively this week the idea to use Leederville Oval for a host of events first formed when a Subiaco Football Club director reached out to him asking what he suggested the clubs do to “raise money”.
“I said ‘well you’ve got the oval there and I don’t see any activities there – perhaps that’s how you can raise money in conjunction with the East Perth Football Club’,” he said.
According to a city report, the East Perth and Subiaco clubs support the proposal and would share revenue with Newox Pty Ltd in return for use of their rooms.
Subiaco Football Club chief executive officer Peter Capes told PerthNow this week he was “very supportive” of the move.
The presence of large-scale events at Leederville Oval brings many advantages to Leederville town centre.
“The discussions were about what sort of events might exist in the events marketplace that’s suitable for here that council would support and local residents would support as well,” he said.
Mr Capes said any extra revenue garnered by the club would go towards improving Leederville Oval facilities.
“Most of it would go towards new floodlighting at the oval and the actual oval turf needs a long-awaited refurbishment,” he said.
“There needs to be a significant amount of money spent on the facility here in Leederville and the additional funding would go towards that.”
Newox Pty Ltd wants the city to give it exclusive rights to unleased areas of the oval so it can start hosting a series of large and small events focused around food, music and family friendly entertainment, similar to those at Mindarie Marina.
It is looking at using part of the oval, the common area section, other facilities and car parking to host at least four events from October to January from this year until 2025.
There would be no events during the WAFL season.
Either all or part of the oval and its amenities would be used for larger events set to bring in thousands of people. They are proposed to be family friendly, with the exception of a New Year’s Eve event.
The smaller events are proposed to be confined to the clubs’ leased areas, the interconnecting area between those leased areas and a small part of the car park and toilets at the back of the first floor old grandstand.
These events are expected to garner crowds in the hundreds and be family friendly or held inside at night.
When asked what first event was planned for the oval, Mr Mack said he “couldn’t say” just yet as it was all dependent on when approval was granted.
He said it was “less likely than likely” that a 2024 New Year’s Eve event would be at the oval.
“The presence of large-scale events at Leederville Oval brings many advantages to Leederville town centre, attracting visitors who would patronise local businesses and contribute to the overall economic development and vibrancy of the town centre,” a city report said.
“The city would work with Newox Pty Ltd to reduce any impacts on surrounding residents which would be managed through community consultation, noise management plans, ingress and egress plans and resident notifications.”
The report said the oval was reserved for parks and recreation and the city had the power to lease, sub-lease or licence the land for any term not exceeding 30 years.
East Perth Football Club CEO Dean Turner was contacted for comment but did not respond before publication.