The Game Future NRL Stadiums part II

[herbert henry1908]

If you’re Venues Live, and the bulldogs are playing North Queensland, Gold Coast, Canberra etc. Do you really want to open up the massive venue of ANZ, with all the associated costs, when 10km away you have a smaller stadium with lower operating costs? It makes sense for both the Bulldogs & Venues Live to use the lower cost venue.

 

[Perth Red]

NRL and clubs should have agreed on this and had the Sunday afternoon game at ANZ every weekend, make it an event, throw open the doors and get some decent crowds in. Then the other club games could have been split between Allianz and Bankwest which will be far far superior club venues. Just giving the clubs $13million with no expectation of making some changes to improve things was just plain dumb and a massive missed opportunity.

 

[Timbo]

If you’re Venues Live, and the bulldogs are playing North Queensland, Gold Coast, Canberra etc. Do you really want to open up the massive venue of ANZ, with all the associated costs, when 10km away you have a smaller stadium with lower operating costs? It makes sense for both the Bulldogs & Venues Live to use the lower cost venue.

I think only time will tell, but I don't think Venues Live will want a stadium that's empty 360 days a year, nor will the NSW Government be that keen on investing $600 million into something that's never opened.

Additionally, if the bottom tier only seats 40,000 and that's what they're opening, it's not exactly a huge difference to opening/staffing it vs. Bankwest.

 

[siv]

Why not build a stadium underground? I am going to google "underground stadium".

As stupid as it sounds

There are artificial turf options or artificial sunlight options to grow grass during the winter months. There are heavy used in England and even ANZ uses it

 

[greenBV4]

Why not build a stadium underground? I am going to google "underground stadium".

It's probably impractical and mostly pointless and expensive, but imagine an underground stadium with a glass roof at ground level that could be walked over as a public space, would look pretty cool

 

[siv]

The roof’s drip line looks to be set pretty far back, though.

ANZ drip line is about row 23 today at the halfway line

The planned lowering of the pitch by 3m and bringing seats forward will add more seats not covered.

Not to mention the extra seats exposed when the north & south bowls get brought forward

The money you would spend extending the roof line should be invested in a proper retractable roof

 

[SLRBRONCOS]

yep.

Been to a lot of marquee games at ANZ (GF’s, SOO) and the ones where I sat in the upper deck I may as well stayed at home. Knock the f**king thing down and do it properly.

Yep! As a 10 year old at the olympics I thought it was so shit. And for some reason I kept going back for gfs and origin, telling myself, this time will be better. It just wasn’t.

Dad also hated it, he wasn’t close enough to Tatiana grigorieva. Fair play father.

 

[greenBV4]

Another issue I noticed watching that concept video, if you'r bringing the seats in closer but keeping the top tier, that stretches out the length but not the height.

i.e. you'd end up with a pretty horrible slope gradient

 

[herbert henry1908]

I think only time will tell, but I don't think Venues Live will want a stadium that's empty 360 days a year, nor will the NSW Government be that keen on investing $600 million into something that's never opened.

Additionally, if the bottom tier only seats 40,000 and that's what they're opening, it's not exactly a huge difference to opening/staffing it vs. Bankwest.

The idea would be for Souths & Bulldogs to still host their big matches at ANZ, so the venue won't be unused 360 days.

Also the cost difference is born out in other areas such a lighting. Lights are further away from the field at ANZ, which means they cost more to run. BankWest will simply be cheaper to hire.

 

[herbert henry1908]

ANZ drip line is about row 23 today at the halfway line

The planned lowering of the pitch by 3m and bringing seats forward will add more seats not covered.

Not to mention the extra seats exposed when the north & south bowls get brought forward

The money you would spend extending the roof line should be invested in a proper retractable roof

I think you'll see an entirely new roof structure at the North & South ends, I can't see how it would remain. The ends are moving in too far.

 

[herbert henry1908]

Another issue I noticed watching that concept video, if you'r bringing the seats in closer but keeping the top tier, that stretches out the length but not the height.

i.e. you'd end up with a pretty horrible slope gradient

They're dropping the pitch to combat that. Although this has the extra impact of making viewing from level 6 even worse than it is now.

 

[siv]

The only way to grow Sydney v Sydney crowds is to use the bigger stadiums on weekend timeslots

Its the Sydney v Regional games that need to be reviewed as hardly any of them draw a crowd of more than a 17k crowd

These are games that should be played at suburban or regional venues or ThNF

Its one reason for there to be two conferences a Sydney conference and a regional conference

 

[taipan]

How would it get sunlight?

Pipe it in.

 

[T-Boon]

As stupid as it sounds

There are artificial turf options or artificial sunlight options to grow grass during the winter months. There are heavy used in England and even ANZ uses it

"The BIg House" MIchigan Stadium capacity 116k is built into the ground. Not "underground" as such but built into a big hole. Half the crowd walks down when they enter half walk up.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

"The BIg House" MIchigan Stadium capacity 116k is built into the ground. Not "underground" as such but built into a big hole. Half the crowd walks down when they enter half walk up.

That’s fairly common, plenty of stadiums, especially those built onto hillsides, are partially excavated. Mount Smart is dug into to the side of a small extinct volcanic cone on to site of an old quarry. The thing is though at a certain point digging down becomes more expensive than building up, plus you also need to provide pumping infrastructure to prevent the entire thing flooding when it rains and prevent it turning into a lake. The half dug, half built arrangement you describe works well as you can use the excavated material to build embankments as the bases for seating in areas that don’t need facilities under them.

 

[Suitman]

Now, this is how you build a stadium!
We can't even get the biggest rectangular stadium in the country right, yet the following stadium is just for a club side, albeit, backed by a rich benefactor. And I'm not even a Spurs fan.

 

[snogard6]

ANZ should be knocked down and made into 60-65k stadium Just like Tottenham. Why the obsession with 80k stadium? Bigger isn’t always better. Atmosphere is what people want when attending live sports. ANZ can’t deliver that with the current 6th level nose bleed stands, even after redovelopment. I’ve watched a few big games from level 6, you are so far away you feel disconnected from the game that its not worth going.

 

[Zadar]

ANZ should be knocked down and made into 60-65k stadium Just like Tottenham. Why the obsession with 80k stadium? Bigger isn’t always better. Atmosphere is what people want when attending live sports. ANZ can’t deliver that with the current 6th level nose bleed stands, even after redovelopment. I’ve watched a few big games from level 6, you are so far away you feel disconnected from the game that its not worth going.

Agree, it’s like watching a game on a big tv with the mute turned on. Awful.

 

[gallagher]

I sat in the top deck of Optus Stadium for the double header last year and its a crapload better than the top deck at ANZ. It says it all that an oval has better seating than ANZ has, and thats not going to change.

 

[Perth Red]

"The BIg House" MIchigan Stadium capacity 116k is built into the ground. Not "underground" as such but built into a big hole. Half the crowd walks down when they enter half walk up.

Odsal is pretty much an underground stadium!