ACT Government Cancels Proposed Canberra Arena Ice Sports Facility in Tuggeranong

The ACT government has announced a proposed ice sports facility intended for Tuggeranong will not go ahead.

Plans for the facility featured two international-standard ice sheets for figure skating, ice hockey, broom-ball and speed skating.

But the government said today that despite extensive discussions with advocates of the project, it has been unable to reach an agreement on a way forward at the Tuggeranong site.

Sports Minister Chris Steel said an evaluation of an updated proposal to build and manage the facility found the project "did not represent value for money for the territory".

Updated proposal presented 'unacceptable risks'

The multi-purpose ice sports facility, dubbed Canberra Arena, was promised by ACT Labor during its 2016 election campaign, and at one stage of the project's planning, the completion date was even listed as 2025.

In addition to the government investment of $16.265 million, the remaining funds needed to build the estimated arena — estimated at $70 million at one stage — were to come from developers Cruachan Investments and Pelligra Holdings, who would "build, own, operate and maintain it".

"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find a way forward with the partners Kruachan and Pulingra to build, maintain and operate this facility in Tuggeranong," Mr Steel said.

"The tender evaluation found that unfortunately there were a range of unacceptable risks and the updated proposal that was provided to the ACT government in January did not represent value for money for the ACT government."

Mr Steel said the proponents "were asking for more than double the territory's contribution to the project" in their latest updated proposal.

"That was one of the factors that led to the proposal being deemed not to be value for money," he said.

Money to be spent on other sports facilities

Mr Steel said the $16.265 million that was committed to the facility would instead be spent "dollar for dollar" on upgrades to other sporting infrastructures projects in Tuggeranong.

Sporting clubs in the ACT have been invited to share their sporting and recreation infrastructure needs via a survey, which will inform how the money is spent.

"This investment will not be lost for Tuggeranong. The investment will go back into Tuggeranong to improve sporting infrastructure," he said.

The proposed dedicated arena was to be a new training and competition facility for a variety of ice sports teams who currently use the aging Philip Swimming and Ice Skating Centre.

It was also to be a new home for the Canberra Brave ice hockey team which has been using a temporary ice rink set up at the Australian Institute of Sport in recent years.

Mr Steel acknowledged that the outcome would be "deeply disappointing" for the ice sports community.

"Now we will need to continue to work with our ice sports community on what the next steps are and what other opportunities there are to improve ice sport facilities in the ACT," he said.

"It's important to note that on the current Phillip site, the requirement for an ice skating facility that meets national competition standards still remains."

'Not the end game'

ACT Ice Sport Federation spokesperson Sandi Logan said they were "profoundly disappointed" but that it was "not unexpected".

"We've not had a great deal of confidence in recent times in the proponents' ideas and the proposals that they put up to amend the original concept of a community facility for the ACT ice sports community," he said.

"The second thing I'd say is that we've moved into overtime, this is not the end of the game.

"There's still a lot of work ahead of us, and we're grateful that Sports Minister Chris Steel and the ACT government continues to support us.

"And we're in a way grateful that we'll have another chance to come up with a better arrangement, a better partnership, and a better opportunity for the community to pursue ice sports in Canberra and the ACT."

He praised Geocon for how they had been managing the Phillip ice skating facility since taking over as lessees at the site.

"But we know that they have backed the Philip ice rink, maintained it, in fact, improved it to a state where we can now go with regular certainty that there'll be ice, there'll be a game, there'll be a sport to play."

Mr Logan said the foundation was in it "for the long run" until a solution was found.

"The ice may be thin under us, we may be skating on the proverbial thin ice, but we're here for the long haul, and we need to get a new ice rink built for the community"