Stadium announcment??? WTF

[travelling_gerry]

MCG still not locked in to bid

DAN SILKSTONE

May 6, 2010
AUSTRALIA'S World Cup bid has still not secured access to the MCG as the AFL continues to hold out signing over its control of the stadium, citing a host of concerns.
With Australia's bid book due to be submitted by the end of the month and already having been sent to the printers, the MCG - which the AFL has consistently said it does not oppose being used for the tournament - is still to be formally secured.
The major sticking point is a demand by the AFL that soccer guarantees that the AFL season will go ahead - something that requires a ruling from FIFA as to whether AFL is a ''major'' sport. A major sport is prohibited from running simultaneously with the World Cup.
The AFL is also demanding a guarantee that the MCG will not be out of action for longer than 10 weeks. It is concerned that FIFA will require the city's largest stadium for longer periods before and after the tournament.
The stand-off, which has driven bid team members to distraction in recent weeks, could be decided as soon as today, with speculation last night the parties were close to settling their differences.
The news comes as rival contender Japan withdrew from the 2018 bid process yesterday, saying it had been advised that the tournament would almost certainly be awarded to a European bidder and it made more sense to focus on 2022.
Barely a week after praising Qatar's 2022 bid during a visit to the emirate, FIFA boss Sepp Blatter described Russia's bid as ''remarkable'' and again re-stated his preference that a European nation be awarded hosting rights for 2018. Blatter was less forthcoming about the joint Dutch-Belgian bid, describing it as ''small but very pleasant''.
Despite the clear FIFA preference for a European tournament in 2018, Football Federation Australia maintained yesterday that it would not withdraw from that race in favour of channelling its efforts into 2022.
''We are absolutely still in it and we are not going anywhere,'' a spokesman said.
''Europe might think it [the World Cup] is going to Europe, but 24 people have to vote on that and nothing is guaranteed.''
Another of the AFL's hoped-for outcomes - a new stadium at Blacktown that could be configured for use by Greater Western Sydney - has been rebuffed, with the FFA successfully arguing that Australian football has already obtained a hugely beneficial legacy through the bid process, including large-scale refurbishments of Adelaide Oval, Subiaco, Carrara and Geelong's Skilled Stadium.
The World Cup bid was instrumental in securing all of those projects and two of them - Geelong and the Gold Coast - will be used solely by AFL clubs after the World Cup.
News Ltd newspapers reported yesterday that Blacktown had won the race to be the 12th and final stadium in the bid book and that a 50,000-seat facility would be built there - a project costed at almost $300 million and to be jointly funded by the New South Wales and federal governments.
The report also suggested that the playing surface would be oval-shaped, as a concession to the AFL, which is looking for a home ground for its new Western Sydney franchise.
But The Age can reveal that the capacity will be 41,000 and the surface will be rectangular, meaning that Greater Western Sydney must look elsewhere for a home.
Instead, the stadium will become the new home of the A-League's incoming West Sydney Rovers, a competitor to the AFL in the turf war for the Western Sydney market.
It is also possible that the Wests Tigers rugby league team, or a hypothetical Western Sydney Super 15 Rugby franchise, could one day call the stadium home.
The Blacktown stadium deal will be officially announced next week, part of a slew of announcements before the bid book is sent to FIFA.
Among the announcements will also be a new $700 million-plus stadium for Perth. The stadium, likely to be located on the site of the existing Subiaco, would accommodate more than 60,000 people and be configured as rectangular for the World Cup but returned to an oval shape for use by the city's two AFL clubs.
As with the other venues under discussion, it will only be completed in the event that Australia's World Cup bid is successful.


http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-new...0505-uamu.html

[tragic]

Sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[GIGS20]

That's old news, the MPS is dead in the water, at least until the current government is ousted.

As a matter of fact, it appears ANY new stadium is off the menu until.........

[Sheikh]

So following the World Cup the AFL will be given the keys to a new 60,000 seat stadium built with 100% public money. Nice!

Actually, as it says only the Geelong and Gold Coast stadia are to be used solely by the AFL, I presume that FFA have said Perth Glory's 8,000 crowd will use it. They can't, surely, be assuming that other codes will use it without asking them, could they?

I also like the: "It is also possible that the Wests Tigers rugby league team, or a hypothetical Western Sydney Super 15 Rugby franchise, could one day call the stadium home." Haven't they heard about Melbourne?

[tic]

They might be presuming that the Rebels will be playing out of western Sydney in a few years time.

[shasta]

I wouldn't get too worked up about it.

As with the other venues under discussion, it will only be completed in the event that Australia's World Cup bid is successful.

Oz is not going to win the 2018 bid. At least while Blatter is running the shop. 2022 is looking very shaky as well.