More than 300 members voted 90 per cent in favour of selling
Harold Park at a specially convened meeting yesterday.
The club’s chief executive, John
Dumesny, said the sale was subject to a minimum price being set at $150
million, and there were already “offers on the table” for the site.
The University of
Sydney is believed to be
interested.
The university had hoped to build a harbourside campus for
5000 students at Callan
Park in Rozelle, but its
plans were scuttled last week when the Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, agreed to hand the heritage site
to Leichhardt Council for use as public space. It is unclear whether the
university has similar plans for Harold Park.
Mr Dumesny said the sale would take some time to complete.
“Under the registered clubs act we still have to have it as an open
tender,” Mr Dumesny said.
“There is a lot of planning work to go ahead. We expect
the process to get to a position of sale may take as long as two years. We’ll
see what the validity of those offers are, now that we are in a position to
proceed,” Mr Dumesny said.
Menangle Park will eventually host all the club’s Friday night
meetings held at Harold Park, including the Miracle Mile and the InterDominion
series when it is in Sydney.
Mr Dumesny said the club was “already well down the track” in plans
to install racing lights at Menangle.
Source:
www.smh.com.au/news/national/and-theyre-leaving-harold-park-for-sale/2008/10/26/1224955855007.html