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The Town of Vincent presented two MES stadium options to the The Stadium Task Force on Monday. They were asked to prepare a presentation last December for a brand new 35,000 seater stadium to be built at MES. This new stadium will be designed to have a rectangular pitch to international rugby sizing criteria. However, it appears from the article written in today’s West that Vincent have presented a staged development option of the existing MES facilities as well. This would be 22,500 then 25,000 then to 32,500. I guess that that would mean we would eventually get the final stage completed in the 3rd millennium.
Vincent seems to be pushing the staged option because they are concerned the brand new stadium option may be too pricey for the government. Mmmmmm.
Anyway, on a brighter note, the AFL commission have taken a sneaky back door approach to Mr Carpenter and presented to him their option to develop Subiaco to a 60,000 seater stadium for less than $400M. This will involve knocking down all of the stands apart from the eastern stand. As the article in the West suggests the cost they have presented is a bit on the conservative side. To build a brand new stadium is being touted at about $1 Billion plus. Go figure that one. In addition, the AFL commission has refused to reveal their financials for Subiaco even though they are asking for public money to build. Pretty damn cheeky if you ask me.
Even though I disagree with there tactics and their lack of disclosure, I wish them all the best as it may help us get our stadium if they convince Carpenter that he can save money with this option.
I don't know how the Task Force will view this as the Subiaco proposal, apparently, has not been presented to them as yet. If I was John Langoulant I would be pretty peeved with the AFL commission but I guess it's Carpenter that makes the final decision and he holds the purse strings.
From all of this I feel that we may have taken a step closer to our dream of getting a brand new 35,000 seater stadium....here's hoping.