The AGM
will be held at Sports House, Waratah Crescent in Fannie Bay from 7:45pm and is
open to the public.
Earlier
this week the NT Government granted badminton an extension of tenure at Sports
House until 31 March 2014 and proposed the NTBA take on a 5 year commercial
lease on a warehouse in Woolner at a cost of $165,000 per year, shared equally
between badminton and the government.
But NT
Badminton’s Dr Di Symonds said the NTBA rejected the lease proposal as it was
too expensive.
“A lease
of that value would without doubt destroy the sport and leave us financially
ruined,” she said.
“We
understand that most sport associations in the NT have peppercorn lease
arrangements with government, or pay negligible sums of money, if anything, to
ensure sports develop and the community benefits.
“We're not aware of any major sport associations in the NT with a commercial lease.”
Dr
Symonds said the NT government also asked NT Badminton to reassess using
community halls located on school grounds.
“To be
told to go back and look at school halls again is very frustrating and
especially since we outgrew school halls back in the late 1970s, which led to
the CLP Government at the time to allocate badminton Sports House,” she said.
“Sports
House itself doesn’t meet our current needs or plan for development and
growth."
NTBA
continues to urge the government to support its proposal for a new,
multi-purpose facility at Marrara.
Dr
Symonds said the facility would address badminton’s need for a new home and
allow table tennis, gymnastics and judo to meet current demand.
“Sixteen years ago NTG came up with a plan for a new multi-purpose facility at Marrara, incorporating badminton, table
tennis, basketball and netball but the project was shelved,” she said.
“But the
timing is now right. Please
help us to save our sport!”
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