ACT Ice Sports Federation's response to Tuggeranong project cancellation

7 September 2026

The following is an ACT Ice Sports Federation-produced transcript arising from its spokesman Sandi Logan's comments to the media following ACT Sports Minister Chris Steel's announcement at a media doorstop at the Legislative Assembly that the government had shelved the twin-ice sheet facility project slated for Greenway in Tuggeranong.

Media doorstop 7 Sept 2026

Sandi Logan, spokesman ACT Ice Sports Federation

Sandi Logan: I probably have three things to say. The first would be we're profoundly disappointed, profoundly disappointed at today's news. But it's also not unexpected. We've not had a great deal of confidence in recent times in the proponents' ideas and the proposals that they put up to amend the original concept of a community facility for the ACT ice sports community. The second thing I'd say is that we've moved into overtime. This is not the end of the game. This is not the end of the competition. There's still a lot of work ahead of us, and we're grateful that Sport Minister Chris Steel and the ACT government continues to support us. We realise that there's still a lot of work to be done, but we're up for it. We didn't get into this 10 years ago to give the game up and walk away at the first hurdle. And finally, I'd say if ever there was a demonstration of the need for probity and governance in a project, a major infrastructure project such as this, I think this one demonstrates it. And we're in a way grateful that we'll have another chance to come up with a better arrangement, a better partnership, and a better opportunity for the community to pursue ice sports in Canberra and the ACT.

Journalist: How much longer can you wait to keep this going?

Logan: Well, in ice hockey, overtime goes until the next team scores. And we're here for the long run. The ice may be thin under us, we may be skating on the proverbial thin ice, but we're here for the long haul, and we need to get a new ice rink built for the community. Fortunately, to their great credit, Geocon has done a terrific job at the Phillip Ice rink. And maybe, just maybe, Geocon is looking at the Phillip Ice Rink with a possibility for something into the future. I have no idea. But we know that they have backed the Phillip ice rink, maintained it, in fact, improved it to a state where we can now go with regular certainty that there'll be ice, there'll be a game, there'll be a sport to play.

Journalist: You said there was red flags, I guess, about the proposal earlier. What gave you that impression that this was not a surprise today?

Logan: I didn't say there were red flags. There were concerns around some of the ideas. For example, we were happy with a 1,000 or 1,200 seat facility when we first entered into discussions after the government identified the site, and that it was viable. And the next idea that we heard in the proposal was for a 3,500 seat facility. We were quite amazed at such growth overnight. We couldn't quite work that one out. And of course, as we stand here today, there'll be no seats. 3,500, 1,200, 1,000: there'll be no seats. I don't think that this was really one that was well thought out. It was a good idea by the proponents, but at the end of the day, when you've got a track record where you've promoted and proposed three ice rinks in Adelaide, none of which have been built, we maybe had an inkling of where this could, we hoped not, but where this could land. The ice sports have a hard game to play when it comes to building facilities. They are expensive, they are sports specific, and they do require enormous amounts of energy. But they are, as the Canberra Brave to its credit is demonstrating and is proving — when done well, they are successful. But you need to have participants from the community to play in those teams, to skate in those figure skating competitions, to curl those rocks, and to play boom ball. Thank you.

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