Freo Council bent over backwards to accomodate the franchise outlet known as a footy club to a ridiculous extent...
the proposal included a joint venture type of advanced sports science facility with Notre Dame along the South Terrace frontage facing the Norfolk that would have provided a massive street presence (retail and promotion) along with a bigger than Ben Hur style training facility in a multi storey structure along with parking underground for a couple of hundred or so cars. They were also going to upgrade and realign the oval itself to replicate the G.
There's probably more to it but that gives the gist... while FFC were supposedly negotiating in good faith with CoF over the lease deal, they were flat out dealing with Cockburn behind CoF's back so CoF put a fair bit of work into it for nothing.
The $1.5mill covers the building basically. CoF get their Oval back along with an office building etc which they are planning on using while the large redevelopment of city HQ and King's Square goes ahead so the cost of buying out the soulless entity known as FFC is essentially a cost saving for the council over commercial rent for admin purposes.
The downside is the loss of the Stan Reilly aged care home and eviction of residents there for all this to go ahead a few years' back...elderly citizens forced out of their homes basically, and the centre will now be bulldozed and turned into car parks because if there's one thing that gets the punter's back up about Freo it's parking.
