It may boast some of the best community sporting facilities in the country, but the Olympic oval still doesnt have anywhere to go eat.
A deal was struck, a lease was signed and a deposit was put down by a major operator to run the ovals food and beverage service.
But the company backed out of spending $1.1 million on the plan, negating its $40,000 deposit and leaving the facility with no food for the thousands of members and visitors who use the oval every week.
City of Richmond staff presented a plan Monday to council, recommending the city create its own food service operation at a cost of $518,000 from the ovals legacy conversion budget.
To accommodate the unexpected expense, staff suggested reducing the scorekeeping and display component to $118,000 from $518,000.
The other $165,000 to set up food service will come from the ovals legacy conversion contingency budget.
The plan, which was approved by councils general purposes committee, is for a cafe to be on the ground floor and a kiosk on the activity level.
Once the necessary improvements are in place, an operator will be brought in to run the food service.
Another oval legacy project a batting cage for baseball, softball and cricket is back online after being put on hold last year.
Also being funded within the current conversion budget, the cage will not include golf but will drop cricket and the cost will be reduced to $100,000 from $175,000.
The cage is expected to be completed by April this year.
