South Wales Evening Post - 9 November 2006
Lessons must be learned to prevent expensive mistakes at the Liberty Stadium being repeated when Swansea leisure centre reopens in 2008.
That is the message from Conservative councillors in the city who are demanding an effective business plan be put in place before it opens.
It follows a report from external auditors PriceWaterhouse Coopers, which criticises the way the football and rugby ground was run during its first year.
According to PWC the situation at the stadium, including the write-off of a £2.3 million loan and £780,000 first-year losses, almost led to a Public Interest Report. These are issued when auditors have serious concerns about a public body's finances.
Councillor Paxton Hood-Williams said: "The Liberty Stadium was built at a cost of £27 million and the mistakes made during the fitting out of the facility meant that the management company could not sustain a business plan, which was not based on a sound financial footing.
"For example, when Labour were in charge, they failed to include the costs of things like the kitchen equipment in the budget of the stadium.
"It meant that those running the stadium had to ask the council for more money in order for the facility to open on time last year."
The council deliberately left out the cost of catering equipment, as it wanted an outside firm to pick up the bill.
However none were willing to do so and the cost had to be found from elsewhere.Instead of adding the extra cash to the overall bill, city leaders decided to offer the club a £2.3 million loan which has since been written off.
Councillor Hood Williams said: "My hope now is that the same fate should not befall the leisure centre.
"I am hopeful that the lessons of the past have already been taken on board in terms of the fitting out costs.
"The new leisure centre rebuild budget was recently increased to £32 million to ensure that every piece of equipment will be properly funded.
"What we now want to see is a fully worked-out business plan which shows the financial projections for the new leisure centre for the coming years.
"We need to be sure that things like maintenance costs, admissions charges and other fees are properly worked out.
"We cannot let the new leisure centre suffer the same fate as the old one, which was starved of proper maintenance and allowed to get into a potentially dangerous state of disrepair."
