VenuesWest CEO David Etherton has added more information to the situation at Perth Motorplex this morning on radio.
Mr Etherton told 6PR that VenuesWest, the Government body that manages venues, may step in for the short term to run the Motorplex, but this is unlikely to be a long term arrangement and that a period of closure may occur – though it is hoped the situation can be sorted out by the time September, and the return of the planned season, arrives.
Mr Etherton explained that they received news of the withdrawal of the tender from KMPL a fortnight ago.
“We conducted a tender process and they were the preferred respondents, so we were negotiating with them, we thought we had just about finished the deal and they have just given us the news a couple of weeks ago that they were going to pull out,” he told 6PR.
“They were the preferred candidate, we did have another party express an interest earlier in the process. We did try to (go back to one of the other tenders) and they aren’t interested.
“(Running it ourselves) is an option we would look at in the short term, it’s not an option we would look at in the long term.
We are looking at all the options. We have only had this news for a couple of weeks and our board met last week to consider all the options. We are discussing those options with government, one of those is for a short term to kit up. The venue is shut for winter anyway so there is a fair bit of time.
“Another option is that the venue stays closed for a little while while we find someone else to manage the venue. We are mindful that a lot of people love the sport down there and a lot of people love the venue and we will be going as fast as we can to look at all the options.”
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