Perth's New Super Stadium

[Happy]

It doesn't matter. You know the old one about how you tell a politician is telling porkies. Election or not. It doesn't help that Gallop has gone and Kuchera is out of favour. I'm not surprised. Just resigned to the facts.

do you know any (if any) penalties the ARU or SANZAR can place on the Force if they reneg on their commitments they put in the submission?

[Egan]

The thing is, they can't feasibly waste taxpayers dollars if after one season we build a stadium on a one year basis...they haven't done it for any other sport and as I repeatingly say...the Eagles have had to deal with having more supporters then available capacity for years.

As Ron Alexander said to me months back "We are not going to build a stadium on first year hype"

The MES redevelopment will not start within the next 12 months...the articles shouldn't be to much longer, when he remembers to post them.

What you can do, to make the stadium bigger is go to Perth Glory games...if there is pressure on Glory games...then the venue is more then likely be redeveloped to 25,000 and then at a later date to 32,000

I hope the articles are online within the next 5 days.

Egan

[Happy]

it isn't first year hype - every wallaby test we get we punch 40,000 .. the international rules game we get we punch 40,000 ... we averaged over 25,000 for the force games .. why do people keep saying Perth hasn't the interest and we need to wait????

[Shaun]

Im with happy!

[Egan]

Because you just don't build a stadium just to cater for crowds after one season, you need to average it over 3 years...especially if the crowd levels are just full of bandwagoners.

The article is up, be warned its the same negative aspects of Force crowds as WARL Chief Baldwin when I talked to to him.

http://www.austadiums.com/news/news.php?id=243

Coach - Feel free to post this on the main website, just put www.austadiums.com at the end of the article as the source.

Cheers Egan

[The InnFORCEr]

You know the old one about how you tell a politician is telling porkies.

I thought that "mouth moving" one was about real estate agents

[Happy]

“Western Force run the risk, if they don’t win any games…they will go the way of the Western Reds”

that's not a fair comment, the reds flunked because they sold their sole to super league, not because of their win/loss ratio. Fremantle Dockers are proof of that.

if you build a stadium that only seats 25,000 then you are going to have a membership restricted to around that nunmber as well. So in 5 years time when people ask when will ME get expanded the answer will be no, you've only got 23,897 members, why do you need to go to 35,000.

It won't be because of the fans not coming, it will be because it isn't built and they can't.

[Egan]

that's not a fair comment, the reds flunked because they sold their sole to super league, not because of their win/loss ratio. Fremantle Dockers are proof of that.

if you build a stadium that only seats 25,000 then you are going to have a membership restricted to around that nunmber as well. So in 5 years time when people ask when will ME get expanded the answer will be no, you've only got 23,897 members, why do you need to go to 35,000.

It won't be because of the fans not coming, it will be because it isn't built and they can't.

First comment, is in relation to crowds...not the resulting capitulation of the Reds.

Second comment, The West Coast Eagles have had to deal with the same problem for over a Decade.

As the new kids on the block, why should the Force get superior treatment then the biggest sporting club in Western Australia?

We have to look outside just the perfect situation for Rugby and look at it in context compared to other sports...If Rugby wants a rectangular stadium, maybe a compromise needs to be made and accept the 25,000 seat stadium and if demand shows that they need a larger stadium, they can go to 32,000.

[Happy]

I understand what you're saying Chris .. let me put it this way, just because the Eagles have suffered a smaller ground than membership ratio problem for ten years, why does they have to now and why do the Force have to as well. Neither teams should have to put up with inadequate grounds. And I'll included the Glory in that as well!! There will be a lot more members for them riding on the wave of the World Cup.

It's a hard pill to swallow when our state has a $1B surplus. I think you would agree it is cheaper to build a 35,000+ now than in 5 or 10 years time.

[Egan]

Happy, the thing is there is a plan in place to eventually build to 32,000.

Yes Force shouldn't have to sacrifice everything, but nor should of the Eagles but they did, its all to do with Governmental priorities and in this state stadiums come last on the list.

And due to state priorities, a 25,000 seat stadium should be accepted, keep filling it up and then get it built to 32,000 as the government is forced to due to demand.

Rather then keep on talking against a brick wall... for a development which the government is not going to commit to...as they are penny pinchers when it comes to sporting infrastructure.

[rick boyd]

A couple of notes on the stadium issue.

The redevelopment of Subi Oval (as preferred by the AFL) is still possible, but it does not include retractable seating for rectangular pitch sports and offers nothing to rugby or soccer, except for increased capacity.

The Cockburn option also appears less likely. Although it is on the new railway line and doesn't involve demolishing anyhting, it is considered to far from the action to be viable.

The stadium task force has fortunately recommended a new 60,000 seat stadium WITH retractable seating for rectangular pitch sports. This will be a major bonus when trying to attract Bledsiloe Cup games to WA. 38,200 turned up to see Ireland play Australia and there should be little doubt that Perth could fill 60,000 seats for a New Zealand game. The gate from the Bledisloe Cup has always been the main sticking point in moving it away from Sydney.

The Subi plan calls for the current studium to be demolished and turned into park, so hopefully many of the existing trees could be transplanted. They do clever things like that these days.

It is unlikely, however, that Western Force games will be played at the new stadium. The cost would be too high and the empty seating would be a real atmosphere killer. The plan at WF is still to redevelop Members Equity or the WACA in East Perth with improved capacity, up to 24,000 I believe, retractable seating for the WACA, and more importantly in both cases, the quality and quantity of Corporate facilities that rugby supporters from the big end of town demand for those all-important corporate packages.

The sooner the better in my opinion. Watching rugby at Subi is dismal. Up in the media box I'm so far from the action I need the Hubble telescope to see what's happening in the far corners. There's enough room for a couple of polo fields between the touch line and the stands.

[Happy]

There's enough room for a couple of polo fields between the touch line and the stands.

lol .. ah well yeah we will just see how it goes...

[Egan]

The plan at WF is still to redevelop Members Equity or the WACA in East Perth with improved capacity, up to 24,000 I believe, retractable seating for the WACA, and more importantly in both cases, the quality and quantity of Corporate facilities that rugby supporters from the big end of town demand for those all-important corporate packages.

The WACA plan will not go ahead, because the government will not commit funds for the WACA after the Major Stadia Taskforce recommendations.

The WACA has been recommended to lose Test Cricket and be decreased to a capacity of between 6-10,000 people.

Thus the liklihood of the WACA being redeveloped is incredibly remote...so even if it is Force policy, it is very unlikely that venue would be the home to the Force.

The Force will either choose to have a 25,000 seat MES or be at the 60,000 seat Retractable Stadium.

[The EnForcer]

Any conceptual designs availble for the new stadium? I would be very interested to see what their concept of retractable is.

[Egan]

Nothing conceptual has started.

But it would be likely to be something that revolves seats out so that the sidelines are closer to the action for League and Union.

It remains to be seen whether or not they go for Telstra Stadium style retractable seating or Telstra Dome style retractable seating (which never gets used)