AFL urges Barnett to build $1.1b stadium

[welshrugbyfan]

Channel 10 has signed a three year deal to show all the Australian netball on their channel.

So warm the set and cool the tinnies, the netballs on.


There's another game against the Kiwis on Saturday night as well for those interested.

[BLR]

Don't over-stretch yourself when writing about the stadium, the televising of games is besides the point, you want to seem viewed as concerned about the particular issue not a crazy rugby nut. The issues of AFL should be considered and you should not seem anti AFL because people will not see it as a reasoned opinion.

[jargan83]

The issues of AFL should be considered and you should not seem anti AFL because people will not see it as a reasoned opinion.

Whilst i agree with this, there should come a point where not only other sports fans get outraged, but the public as whole should get outraged at the extent to which the various State Governments prop up the AFL, espeacially in this state where AFL is under siege from the growth in Football and Rugby. The WAFC upgraded Subi at the turn of the century at their own expense, realised they were going to go broke and went cap in hand to the State Government, the Government then bailed them out and paid for the upgrade. You would think that would at least expose the ineptitude of the WAFC at running and budgeting for their own game, let alone giving them priority tennat status at any new ground and basiclly giving them operating rights. If they can't run their own game what hope will they have with the destiny of all sports in Perth in their hands??

[BLR]

The problem is AFL as a game has such an overwhelming majority in most places in WA that complaining about such things will be instantly shouted down, so that at this point you need to get your point across showing regard and niceness to all party instead of the contempt to AFL that is shown in just about every post on these blog entries when pro rectangular stadium people are talking, it's not going to slide with the majority if you call their sport crap and unworthy of all the Government give them. We don't like the shit SMH speak about us do we, so even if they came up with a good idea we wouldn't treat it seriously. We CANNOT turn this into a war of words with AFL fans, because we will be crushed, get them onside and we'll get what we want.

[laura]

I reckon the precinct idea is the way to go, everyone would get what they wanted, more revenue would be raised for the state and if each shape-based sport (ie all rectangular sports together and the oval sport) runs their own stadium then the blame is on them if it goes belly up.
The revenue will still go to each sport ie. how Rugby currently gets money from tickets sold for their games, and no one has to pay a fee for the use of the stadium, ie Rugby won't pay soccer for the use of the stadium.

The only problem I have is that Subi has a bit of history and I dont want to see that lost by way of a bulldozer, but at the same time selling off the land would make a huge amount of money to go toward a sports precinct.
Maybe they could turn Subi Oval into the museum that is meant for East Perth and use the East Perth site for the sporting precinct or use Subi for a new entertainment complex instead of building a new one near Wellington Street ( i think that was proposed at some stage). They have the seating already, just whack a roof on and sort out some accoustics and then the sporting development can have the left over money from the entertainment complex fund.


p.s. Tragic, that last line is priceless!

[Darren]

The only problem I have is that Subi has a bit of history and I dont want to see that lost by way of a bulldozer, but at the same time selling off the land would make a huge amount of money to go toward a sports precinct.

Crap - just bulldoze the sucker....

[Swee_82]

Western Suburbs Weekly is doing a follow-up story on the stadium given everything that's happened with the new government and rang for a 'We Need Corners' comment this morning. I hope that somehow through the antihistamine haze he got the message that an upgrade to Subi has to come hand in hand with an upgrade to Members Equity Stadium. I apologise in advance if I didn't get that across, and blame the drugs!

My points were something along the lines of (and i'm paraphrasing, I promise i didn't use the word screwed at the time)

a) MPS better than Subi, MPS good for big matches etc, but otherwise lesser of 2 evils.
b) Subi upgrade alone = rectangular field sports screwed.
c) If Subi upgrade goes ahead, at least the $25-30 million promised for MES upgrade should go ahead too.
d) Andy's point re: fix day-to-day needs of all sports, then worry about marquee stadium.
e) Rugby WA's preference for dedicated 35,000 seat rectanglar stadium.

[Burgs]

Probably other threads on this bit but I still believe every cent spent on MES is wasted and should be spent on far better rectangular alternatives.
MES should be taken right out of the argument IMHO and consigned to suburban competition.

[Swee_82]

Probably other threads on this bit but I still believe every cent spent on MES is wasted and should be spent on far better rectangular alternatives.
MES should be taken right out of the argument IMHO and consigned to suburban competition.

Burgs, I think we'd all like a new rectangular stadium (how many people have asked for Suncorp to be uprooted and plonked down on this side of the Nullabor?), but we're stuck playing the odds here- they might be talking about dropping a $1.1 billion plan, but the WAFCs upgrade plans are to the tune of $800 million (how they manage to spend that on 15-20 thousand extra seats I don't know) and somehow the taskforce came up with a figure of $350 million for a new rectangular job- in the current climate, I just don't see anyone running to that.

[GIGS20]

but the WAFCs upgrade plans are to the tune of $800 million (how they manage to spend that on 15-20 thousand extra seats I don't know)

Subi Oval masterplan started off at around 280 Million, I think Johnny Langoulant had a word in their shell like and told them it needed to come alot closer to the billion or it would make it hard for them to get a completely new stadium.

I don't have any documentation to back that up, it seems to have disappeared from public view.

[Flamethrower]

I don't have any documentation to back that up, it seems to have disappeared from public view.

What a surprise

[Burgs]

That is one way of looking at it Swee (and I appreciate I have been away while you guys have been doing a lot of great work, don't get me wrong here!) however, if an answer includes a compromise to start with then we are hardly going to see that as an outcome. The proposal would be taken to committee and further cut and tightened, rectangular sports would receive the stadium "they wanted" and that would be that for another twenty to thirty years.

The decisions being made over stadia in the next twelve months are what WA is going to be lumped with for the best part of a generation, or more.
Consider just how long since the Commonwealth Games heydays of Subiaco, the WACA and Perry Lakes through to today. All of which in there day would have been seen as far greater than foreseeable requirements for a sunny backwater like Perth.

I don't want to be 55 and stuck watching the Force running around in a Kiwi standard shithole dump at MES because we didn't strive for better now.
That's another way of looking at it

Maybe it's time for me to go to bed....

[Swee_82]

That is one way of looking at it Swee (and I appreciate I have been away while you guys have been doing a lot of great work, don't get me wrong here!) however, if an answer includes a compromise to start with then we are hardly going to see that as an outcome. The proposal would be taken to committee and further cut and tightened, rectangular sports would receive the stadium "they wanted" and that would be that for another twenty to thirty years.

I spose the question is how ambitious a position you can adopt before people will just ignore us as a crackpot fringe minority. We're in the very fun catch-22 of rarely seeing a crowd above about 28,000 at Subi, since it's only the diehards that are going to put up with paying alot of money for a crap view. Stadium taskforces/ government committees however accept this as the number of people who are going to turn up to rugby matches now and forever regardless of where it is played (Rugby WA's business case for the dedicated stadium was based on 30,000 average crowd, and was dismissed as 'too optimistic'). I'm not well versed in the corporate needs, beyond the fact we need a fair few suites and the like, so I'm not going to try and comment there. The opportunity has been there to say what 'we want' already and I don't anyone from the government (either former or 'elect') is considering it. I'm grateful Rugby WA has at least gone back to stating it's preference for the 35,000 seat stadium than voicing support for the MPS since the issue has raised it's head again.

The decisions being made over stadia in the next twelve months are what WA is going to be lumped with for the best part of a generation, or more.
Consider just how long since the Commonwealth Games heydays of Subiaco, the WACA and Perry Lakes through to today. All of which in there day would have been seen as far greater than foreseeable requirements for a sunny backwater like Perth.

Definately a key point there, and for my money, more true for a major project like the MPS than upgrading MES to 'Stage 2' of a proposed 4 stage redevelopment. Once $1.1 billion (+ overruns) goes into a new stadium, you can rest assured the issue will be off the table for a LONG time to come.

I don't want to be 55 and stuck watching the Force running around in a Kiwi standard shithole dump at MES because we didn't strive for better now.
That's another way of looking at it

Me either.

But I'd take a 'Kiwi standard... dump" over an Oval, whether it was flashy or not. I wouldn't care if we had to play on a school field if it meant I could see what was happening on the far sideline without the aid of binoculars.

[blueandblack]

Subi Oval masterplan started off at around 280 Million, I think Johnny Langoulant had a word in their shell like and told them it needed to come alot closer to the billion or it would make it hard for them to get a completely new stadium.

I don't have any documentation to back that up, it seems to have disappeared from public view.

inc web.archive.org?

[NTT]

What RugbyWA ideally needs is a rectangular stadium that has seating for 35 000 and corporate suites numbering about 75.
There is 70 odd corporate suites at subiaco which RugbyWA has groups on waiting lists for as these are usually the first packages to sell-out each season. The current MES only has around 10 corporate suites. So if RugbyWA sells 70 odd corporate suites at $10 000 thats $700 000 and if the MES upgrade goes ahead at only $25 - 30 million then there would only be an additional 10 corporate suites built meaning 20 suites sold at $10 000 is $200 000. So even if the $25 - 30 million MES upgrade goes ahead to 25 000 seats, the corporate suite situation will leave RugbyWA $500 000 a year worse off instantly. So don't be surprised if RugbyWA is only lukewarm on this upgrade option. MES needs at least $150 million spent to get it close to what RugbyWA needs for seating, corporates, lighting, parking and other facilities.