The Game Future NRL Stadiums part II

[Captain Apollo]

Blows my mind that QCB cost $300mil to build, including a fair bit of ground works and designed to withstand cyclones and for the same price penrith are only getting a "refurb"......

It shouldn't. Most construction people will tell you it is often more expensive to do a refurb/refit of existing structures than to knock it down and build a new one. I work in a heritage listed building and people are amazed when the figures are mentioned for its maintenance and how much the latest refurb cost.

 

[TheRam]

I guess to be fair, we've had our hands full in Australia the last 25 years following the fall-out of the SL war. Only now is the game starting to gain momentum again. We'll start with NZ and the Pacific and expand the brand from there.

Hopefully IMG and the RFL can do the same in the Northern Hemesphere, start with France and expand out.

Yeah sure. But if we had just a little common sense and international ambition we should have made more of an effort and invested some time and a little money in Russia and China while it was very cheap and easier to do so and by now we would be seeing some of our labour sprouting fruit.

Oh well it is what it is and we have very little other than a hand full of PI's to work with. Will hardly capture the imagination of the general Aussie market, like a crappy WWC can, but better then nothing I suppose.

 

[horrie hastings]

I suspect that photo may have been taken at Henson Park unless I'm mistaken.

Yep, taken from the King George V Memorial stand looking across to the Eastern Hill, it was taken when the Beer , Footy and Food festival was on last Saturday.

 

[flippikat]

If Mt Smart was properly upgraded maybe- but it’d likely need a new permanent south stand that fully wrapped round the end to do that. I think the two main stands are currently only around 20k now. I don’t think you could get another 20k with temporary stands.

There's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with Auckland's stadium strategy, and still no real direction.

If a new stadium in the CBD proves to be too tough to pull-off, maybe (MAYBE) the powers that be should look at redeveloping Mt Smart as the premium rectangular stadium, capacity 50k-60k, with a 25k "club mode" option, and work towards Eden Park as a cricket ground, reducing the seating THERE a little (say to 40k-ish) but greening it but adding a few trees/embankments etc that's more befitting of a cricket ground?

Warriors can play at Eden Park while Mt Smart is rebuilt, then after Mt Smart is re-opened cricket can either be played in a temporary venue (Eden Park #2 ground?) or just do Eden Park #1 redevelopment as a bit-by-bit thing.

After all, once the City Rail Link is operational (2026?), it should help a lot with transport to/from both.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Remember all that. Qatar getting the last cup summed it all up nicely.

Qatar might have bribed their way into it but stadiums were part of the deal. Corrupt or not a bit with inadequate stadia is going to be a non starter.

 

[Perth Red]

The Women's Football World Cup has been very instructive about attendances for major sport.

Particularly in Perth and Adelaide, where the numbers have been comparative low compared to comparable-sized cities Brisbane and Auckland. Their low figures can be attributed to one or both of the following factors - poor rectangular stadium infrastructure, or that those cities are not interested in attending sports other than ozzie rules.

Either way, it begets caution from Rugby League about expansion into those cities.

71k watched epl in perth last week, sell out for women’s soccer, over 40k predicted for nrl in perth next month, 82k for two bottom afl teams last two games. perth people love their live sport in our world class stadium.

 

[Bukowski]

71k watched epl in perth last week, sell out for women’s soccer, over 40k predicted for nrl in perth next month, 82k for two bottom afl teams last two games. perth people love their live sport in our world class stadium.

View attachment 77322

I would have rathered 2 stand alone games at HBF though. Not gonna whinge though, looking forward to getting my phin up.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Qatar might have bribed their way into it but stadiums were part of the deal. Corrupt or not a bit with inadequate stadia is going to be a non starter.

We submitted 4 cricket ovals. Our bid was a joke and rightly rejected by FIFA. Hopefully lessons have been learnt and our next bid has the right shaped stadia.

 

[flippikat]

71k watched epl in perth last week, sell out for women’s soccer, over 40k predicted for nrl in perth next month, 82k for two bottom afl teams last two games. perth people love their live sport in our world class stadium.

View attachment 77322

It sure looks a beauty, and does the trick for cricket & AFL.

Now to get an NRL team in Perth so that NRL, Super Rugby & A-League can put a united front to the powers-that-be to get a similar quality companion stadium for the rectangular-field sports - whether that's refurbished of existing venue, rebuild or a fresh site.

 

[Perth Red]

We submitted 4 cricket ovals. Our bid was a joke and rightly rejected by FIFA. Hopefully lessons have been learnt and our next bid has the right shaped stadia.

Problem is we are so far off the infrastructure requirements that for small countries like aus and nz it is very hard to see us stumping up the $$‘s that would be required to build all the stadiums needed.

We literally only have

the three needed at the moment that meets standard for the major finals (though two of them are hardly rectangular) Accor, Suncorp, eden park

and only one of the 14 needed for other games, allianz.

thats 13 stadiums needing building or significant rebuilds To 40k plus.

we aren’t Qatar lol

 

[Perth Red]

It sure looks a beauty, and does the trick for cricket & AFL.

Now to get an NRL team in Perth so that NRL, Super Rugby & A-League can put a united front to the powers-that-be to get a similar quality companion stadium for the rectangular-field sports - whether that's refurbished of existing venue, rebuild or a fresh site.

That’s the thing, there’s no justification for a new stadium, or more money on hbf until there’s an nrl club here.
We can only hope, like afl in tassie, Vlandys has told the wa govt that to get a license either a new stadium at Burswood is needed or at the min hbf park is finished and taken over 25k. I honestly wonder if he has, or even if they are serious about perth as a nrl venue at all.

 

[beave]

I'm glad Oz didn't win the WC bid for one reason alone.

This is what they had in store for Tvl if we'd won it.




DFS/1300's was gonna get a shit refurb but still be located out in the sticks.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

There's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with Auckland's stadium strategy, and still no real direction.

If a new stadium in the CBD proves to be too tough to pull-off, maybe (MAYBE) the powers that be should look at redeveloping Mt Smart as the premium rectangular stadium, capacity 50k-60k, with a 25k "club mode" option, and work towards Eden Park as a cricket ground, reducing the seating THERE a little (say to 40k-ish) but greening it but adding a few trees/embankments etc that's more befitting of a cricket ground?

Warriors can play at Eden Park while Mt Smart is rebuilt, then after Mt Smart is re-opened cricket can either be played in a temporary venue (Eden Park #2 ground?) or just do Eden Park #1 redevelopment as a bit-by-bit thing.

After all, once the City Rail Link is operational (2026?), it should help a lot with transport to/from both.

Hmm, problem is that would entail a full rebuild, and the main advantage of Mt Smart currently is that it already has two good main stands. I think Mt Smart would be best upgraded by just building on what’s already there- a large south stand connecting the east and west and some permanent terracing on the north hill would probable push the maximum capacity up to around 35k and would be doable for comparatively little outlay. A full rebuild to 50-60k would be big money and won’t happen any time soon.

 

[The Great Dane]

Problem is we are so far off the infrastructure requirements that for small countries like aus and nz it is very hard to see us stumping up the $$‘s that would be required to build all the stadiums needed.

We literally only have

the three needed at the moment that meets standard for the major finals (though two of them are hardly rectangular) Accor, Suncorp, eden park

and only one of the 14 needed for other games, allianz.

thats 13 stadiums needing building or significant rebuilds To 40k plus.

we aren’t Qatar lol

It's not just stadium eithers.

Australia is way off FIFA's minimum requirements for public transport, especially between host cities. With the exceptions of Sydney and Melbourne I doubt that any of the cities meet their accommodation and training facility standards either, and there's a bunch of other lesser things as well.

So before we even started talking about stadiums we'd have to invest billions of dollars into a rail network and public transport that would be a white elephant as soon as the tournament was over, build multiple multi-million dollar purpose built soccer training facilities, convince dozens of 4 and 5 star hotels to open in cities across the country, and meet a whole bunch of other minimum standards on top of that.

FIFA's standards aren't designed with such a large and sparsely populated country in mind, they won't budge on most of those standards, and it'd be unbelievably costly for Australia to meet them.

 

[Desert Qlder]

The ovals are bigger problems. They’re complete shit.

 

[Wb1234]

It's not just stadium eithers.

Australia is way off FIFA's minimum requirements for public transport, especially between host cities. With the exceptions of Sydney and Melbourne I doubt that any of the cities meet their accommodation and training facility standards either, and there's a bunch of other lesser things as well.

So before we even started talking about stadiums we'd have to invest billions of dollars into a rail network and public transport that would be a white elephant as soon as the tournament was over, build multiple multi-million dollar purpose built soccer training facilities, convince dozens of 4 and 5 star hotels to open in cities across the country, and meet a whole bunch of other minimum standards on top of that.

FIFA's standards aren't designed with such a large and sparsely populated country in mind, they won't budge on most of those standards, and it'd be unbelievably costly for Australia to meet them.

I’m sure Qatar has better public transport than Australia

 

[Perth Red]

The ovals are bigger problems. They’re complete shit.

Yet we keep using Accor? Maybe we should shift the gf to allianz given how sht ovals are? Newtown need to move asap from their aflw ground.

 

[Bukowski]

Yet we keep using Accor? Maybe we should shift the gf to allianz given how sht ovals are? Newtown need to move asap from their aflw ground.

Kogarah never gets a mention.

 

[The Great Dane]

I’m sure Qatar has better public transport than Australia

It does, but it's also 668 times smaller than mainland Australia, has a population of only 2.6mil most of which live in what you might call the Doha metro area, and it's a loaded gulf state.

It wouldn't be an issue if Australia was as small and densely populated as Qatar, but we're not, and building trainlines that connect most or all the host cities (i.e. the major cities), and updating public transport within most of those cities themselves on top of that, would be a significant undertaking.

 

[Perth Red]

I’m sure Qatar has better public transport than Australia

It was close enough they could bus fans around. They also spent 70billion on trains and trams!