Ħamrun’s Victor Tedesco Stadium and the land it sits on has been transferred to football club Ħamrun Spartans on ground rent for 49 years, in a deal that opens the way for the club, owned by construction and property magnate Joseph Portelli, to develop the land for commercial use.

The project is expected to result in a state-of-the-art sports complex for use by the Premier League club as well as the club’s nursery and school students.

“This agreement will give the club the ability to work on the project with peace of mind on his vision to continue to invest on the stadium and continue to create more space for other sporting disciplines such as basketball, futsal, bowls, volleyball as well as beach volleyball among others,” said the club in a statement.

The deal was inked at an event held at stadium on Tuesday. It was attended by Clifton Grima, Minister of for Education, Sport, Research, and Innovation, Mr Portelli, and club CEO Marcel Bonnici, as well as other club officials.

Mr Bonnici also serves as CEO in Mr Portelli’s landmark Mercury Towers project.

“Our vision as a club is that we transform the Victor Tedesco Stadium into a sporting complex from which all the community can benefit. This is because we are planning that all the facilities will be used not only by Ħamrun Spartans but also the club’s nursery as well as school students,” Ħamrun Spartans said.

“Ħamrun Spartans Football Club will benefit from a government scheme through which the club will be given a subsidy on the ground rent, similar to what is done with clubs who are given land by the government for sporting use. The subsidised payment of rent will go in a fund, administered by SportMalta, through which the sporting sector will continue to benefit.”

Mr Portelli described the agreement as an important step to turn the club into a professional organisation.

“I firmly believe that this agreement is another step forward so that the dream of this administration comes to reality,” he said.

“The Ħamrun community deserves sporting facilities of the highest level that honour not only the Ħamrun Spartans fans but Maltese football in general.”

Minister Grima said: “This agreement is not only part of the government vision to help in every possible way clubs and sporting clubs, but is an assistance to this vision which forms part of the government’s policy to help associations and sporting clubs to develop their operations.”

Mark Cutajar, SportMalta CEO, said that this agreement will strengthen the operational system of the club.

“When you have clubs and sporting associations that are strong and stable, these will provide wealth to the Maltese society as well for our kids.”

The commercialisation of sport venues has long been on the national agenda. Last year, a new legal notice implemented certain important changes to the Commercialisation of Sports Facilities Regulations, which originally came out in 2017.

The 2022 amendments provide further clarity with respect to the application process that is required to be followed for sports organisations to be able to carry out commercial activities in their sports facilities and the determination of the annual ground rent payable.

The changes also aim at increasing transparency by allowing a sports organisation to enter into a contract with a third-party operator for the development or management of the commercial activity within the sports facility only after it has published a public request for proposals.

There are three main activities that sports organisations may undertake: sports activities, commercial activities, and sports ancillary activities.