AUSTRALIA - A 3,500-seat expansion to the Adelaide Convention Centre has been cut back to help fund a footbridge project.
Government opposition urban development spokesman David Ridgway says the AU$394m plan will be scaled back so a footbridge can instead be built across the River Torrens, adding accessibility to the Adelaide Oval cricket venue.
“Sadly it will come at the cost of a thousand seats and the convention community will now pay the price for the government’s mismanagement of the Adelaide Oval project,” Ridgway told ABC News.
Infrastructure minister Pat Conlon denies the claim, saying the reduction is simply by request of the venue managers.
“We try to give the people that run the building what they ask for,” he says.
“What they thought was best then was the 3,500 fixed seats. Now they think 2,500 to 3,000 give them better flexibility in the space. I give you an absolute ironclad guarantee that not a dollar, or an inch, will be taken away.”
He says the venue’s operators might be able to increase the seating in the future to as many as 6,000 seats.
