A makeover of the WIN Entertainment Centre could be one step closer after Venues NSW signalled their support for upgrades.
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The long-standing issue surfaced again after renowned performer Tina Arena spoke about the “tired” building mid-performance at the centre last Friday.
She made the point governments should “chip in” and spruce up the building.
The singer’s comments resonated on social media with dozens of people agreeing on the Illawarra Mercury Facebook page – the main gripes being the seats, disabled toilets out of order and the “putrid” state of the WEC.
Following the concert both Wollongong MP Paul Scully and Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery contacted Venues NSW (who manage the centre on behalf of the state government) to again push the issue.
A spokeswoman for the event centre’s authority told the Mercury they were committed to providing high quality facilities to support world class entertainment and were going to develop a concept plan for a renovation.
A future concept plan which is scheduled to commence in 2018.
- Venues NSW spokeswoman
“Venues NSW has been in consultation with Wollongong City Council, Destination Wollongong and Regional Development Australia (RDA) Illawarra since April 2017 and continues to seek feedback for a future concept plan which is scheduled to commence in 2018,” she said.
Wollongong MP Paul Scully welcomed the update but hoped their plan would include detailed costings and feasibility of the upgrade – including a new multi-level car park.
“If that means a detailed design, costing and business case, packaging it all up ready to go to government to say this is how much we need and this it what will achieve … then that would be a good thing,” Mr Scully said.
“This is what we need to maintain the pressure on the government to say ‘hey, it’s nearly 20 years old, let’s get moving on a serious upgrade which will refresh the WIN Entertainment Centre and keep it up to date for the future.”
He said while a lot of praise was given to organising a 20,000 seat concert for Elton John, if another star performer felt compelled to call on the government to do something about the state of the venue then the government should finally take notice.
Cr Bradbery agreed and said action needs to be taken sooner rather than later and it was disappointing the city missed out on vital funding from the sale of state electricity assets while other areas were seeing the benefits.
“Elton John and Tina Arena have illustrated the point that it is a place where obviously they want to come because the market is here, the fans are here and the enthusiasm is here. All it needs now is for the state government to give us our cut of the poles and wires money which we are entitled to,” he said.
A study conducted for pro action group Regional Development Australia (RDA) Illawarra and other key stakeholders found refurbishing the centre and turning it into a conference and convention centre would have a positive economic impact on the Illawarra as well as creating many new jobs.
“It cannot go on any longer because there is a need for it to be brought up to a higher standard,” Cr Bradbery said.
The NSW Government has so far committed funding for an upgrade to the Northern Grandstand of WIN Stadium (to commence in 2018), still no funding has been allocated to the WIN Entertainment Centre.