The fate of the Bangalow Bowlo could be decided by the outcome of a major club amalgamation deal 50 kilometres up the road, Byron Shire Council has heard.
As hope continues to grow that the Bowlo can be reclaimed by the community, a key figure in the negotiations taking place to save the venue said the rescue mission was dependent on the successful amalgamation of two massive clubs in Tweed Heads.
Byron Councillor, Asren Pugh, (Labor) a key member of the Save Bangalow Bowlo Team (SBBT), said that for the current owners of the Bowlo, the Norths Collective hospitality group, to relinquish ownership of the venue, their plan to sell the Seagulls Club in Tweed Heads to the Twin Towns group would need to come to fruition.
‘I think any resolution in terms of getting the club back will probably be dependent on the successful sale, or whatever you want to call it, of Seagulls to Twin Towns for $30m, which is about clearing Norths debts,’ Cr Pugh said.
It is common knowledge that the Norths Collective has significant debts, some of which were incurred when it took over the Bangalow Bowlo.
Community ready to fight for Bowlo
Should the amalgamation deal fall through, Norths might well decide that it needs to sell the bowlo to the highest bidder, regardless of the local outrage this would incur.
Cr Pugh said the SBBT was ready to fight if Norths decided to go down this path.
‘We are ready to relaunch a campaign if needed, if Norths stop the positive negotiations,’ he said.
‘It’s just been an amazing community response, but extraordinarily stressful.’
The community response Cr Pugh was referring to was the remarkable outpouring of financial support from those locals committed to saving their beloved bowlo.
‘We put a GoFundMe out to the community asking for pledges that will be returned if we don’t get control of the club back,’ Cr Pugh said.
‘It’s at about $116k, which we got in a bit under a week, plus there’s about $40,000 in offline written pledges as well.
‘The community has showed pretty extraordinary support for getting the club back. There should be enough money to fix some of the major defects, including making the roof safe for at least eight to ten years, fixing some of the floor under the stage, and some other changes.’
Buoyed by this financial support, the SBBT have convinced Norths to make them the preferred tenderer to take over the club.
This means they have exclusive rights to negotiate with Norths about returning the club to the community until at least July 2026.
‘That gives us a lot of time,’ Cr Pugh said.
‘There have been positive negotiations over the past couple of weeks.’
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