SOME years ago at a social gathering, I was warned by somebody involved in sport within the ACT government to be careful about publicly criticising decisions on spending by the government on sport.

The theory being that if there was public criticism of the amount of money spent on sport it would make it harder to get through the government processes, no matter the merit of the proposal.

Allocate money to areas such as education, health and roads, and it is seen as extremely worthwhile. Allocate money to sport and it is perceived to be questionable.

Of course, I took little notice and deemed it part of the cut and thrust of everyday news.

It happens on a semi-regular basis; there is often lobbying in an effort to push a story in a certain direction and this is not a process that is confined just to governments.

But what that casual conversation at the social gathering told me is that government spending on sport and sporting facilities in Canberra is a sensitive issue.

I raise the issue now as we, as a community, debate the merits of private funds utilising government land and land allocated for use by sporting organisations to finance development of sporting facilities.

The Manuka development put forward by Grocon and GWS is the latest to go down this path.

Grocon wouldn’t be doing it unless it was in its commercial interests. But the question remains; if the government doesn’t have the money to upgrade facilities what other options are there available?

Partnerships between developers and commercial operators utilising land on the site of sporting facilities has been happening for a while in Canberra, although not to the extent as the Manuka Oval proposal.

The Tennis Centre at Lyneham is a case in point where the partnership with Next Generation, Tennis ACT and the ACT government resulted in a major upgrade.

ACT Hockey is also looking to allow the development of childcare facilities on its sites at Lyneham and Tuggeranong as well as commercial activity at Lyneham to allow for an upgrade of the hockey playing surfaces. Both hockey and tennis were very open about their plans.

To my way of thinking, the only way the new indoor stadium in Civic will be built is through the private investment developer/government model. And, as I stated in my previous column, I can’t see this happening any time soon.

Manuka Oval is a huge development compared to hockey and tennis and perhaps has a long way to go before it passes the pub test!

Transparency is the key to acceptance of this model. The community won’t buy it if there is a perception of secrecy.