CALLS have grown for council to utilise the Masters site, which could be vacated later this year, to expand the city’s premier sporting facilities.
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Basketball and netball courts planned to be built at The Equex Centre could instead be opened in the Hammond Avenue warehouse, the idea suggests.
The proposal has been hyped as a way to save taxpayers millions of dollars and create a state of the art facility in the process.
It comes after Woolworths on Wednesday announced it would officially close the doors of the failed hardware chain before Christmas after years of scathing losses.
Home Consortium, which comprises of retail chains Chemist Warehouse, Aurrum and Spotlight, has since announced its acquisition of the Masters portfolio.
“Home Consortium plans to make a more detailed announcement about its concept and plans for each of the centres late in September,” a spokesperson said.
Council candidate Tim Koschel took the opportunity to declare his support for a council-built sporting centre.
“It would make a really good sporting facility and it could have saved the town, and the residents, a very decent bit of money,” he said.
“It’s a terrible thing that has happened but it has opened up a lot of fantastic different opportunities.”
However Mr Koschel believes the site will ultimately be leased out to stores.
Sports enthusiast and fellow candidate Paul Watson also backed the suggestion.
“It was a fantastic idea looking outside the box and there is an enormous potential to save a lot of money,” he said.
“It’s a great idea but I think it’ll ultimately go to retailers.”
Site proposals for Costco, IKEA and an indoor sporting complex were overwhelmingly favoured in a survey of Daily Advertiser readers, accruing roughly 75 per cent of votes between the three.
“This would definitely be a good opportunity for Costco to introduce themselves to the regional market,” hopeful resident Louis Ramos said.
“We certainly have the demographic and the regional population to warrant it.”
Woolworths was unable to provide an exact closure date for the Wagga store.