particularly over the Crows’ planned use of the publicly accessible Kings Reserve — prompted changes to the club’s master plan.
Adelaide Crows chairman John Olsen said the club had made some “concessions” along the way in response to community feedback and “addressed a number of key issues”, including creating road access to Thebarton Oval directly from South Road and removing part of Kings Reserve from the proposed lease.
Emma Dawes from the 5031 Community Facilities and Green Spaces Action Group, said the group was “stoked” that the western end of Kings Reserve would be preserved for community use.
“It’s a key green space for our area, it’s our only freely accessed large green space,” Ms Dawes said.
“It’s ours. The Crows are coming here, we can share with them but we have to retain access the majority of the time and we have to know when we can access it.”
Ms Dawes said the group was “excited” to continue working with the club and governments, but still had questions about traffic management, lighting and sound mitigation and tree loss at Thebarton Oval.
“The fight is not over,” Ms Dawes said.
“This for us is a really positive step forward and it’s great to see that a community group can come together and achieve such a big outcome from where we started.”
Mr Olsen said the Crows would now work with the local council to “take the process forward from here”.
He said he hoped the consultation and approval process would be complete by the end of this year, with tenders to go out early next year.
“I would hope construction would commence in May and June with a target of being able to have our first W game at the start of the ’25 season and move into the facility from West Lakes in the February/March ’26 period.”
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