Eastwood rugby club has vowed to "lock away" the capital from the proposed sale of TG Millner Oval and start from scratch in its community if the multi-million dollar deal comes off this year.
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The cash-strapped Shute Shield club is in the final stages of negotiations to sell the freehold on its six-hectare site in Marsfield to North Ryde RSL in a deal one property expert said could be worth somewhere in the vicinity of $30 million.
Eastwood president Brett Papworth stressed the deal was not done yet, but confirmed the club would put the proceeds from any sale in a trust and live off the interest.
"You make it so that, if in 20 years' time, a bunch of greedy people decide they want to do something with it, they can't. The game is littered with people who've had windfalls and spent it all," Papworth said.
The sale could be finalised anywhere between two months and a year's time, Papworth said, but requires sign-off from a number of parties including the NSW Rugby Union, who have a caveat on the deed. A NSWRU spokeswoman said the board had not received any formal representations from Eastwood or Vimiera Recreation Grounds, the company set up to run the fields when the land was given to the club 70 years ago. Papworth said there were many "boxes to tick" but that all parties had been briefed on the process and the club's intentions.
"We've had no relationship with our rugby community for a long, long time, because we've had nothing to give them. Most of the time they've got more money than we do. It enables us to start to form a relationship and do a bit of work."
