Could this be done ?-
Close off Castlemaine street and knock the old west stand down and expand it both upwards and outwards? Obvs the roof line would have to go upwards in the west corners to accomodate it and it would lose the symmetry of the roof line it currently has.
The west side really shows its age when you walk through the lower level compared to the rest of suncorp, i'm actually surprised it passes fire code as when you walk through the lower level concourse after a game, it's very tight and restrictive.
If they did a full knockdown and rebuild
on the same site and wanted 70-75k, they would have to build over the top of Hale St and slide the whole thing eastward 30-40m.
Honestly you could do whatever really but the feasibility of it is an entirely different conversation.
Few things worth mentioning - the western stand houses all the services. Stadium operations are also located in the western stand in the basement. Basically by decommissioning the western stand, you will essentially decommission the entire stadium.
The western stand is actually the newest of all the stands. It was built after the other 3 sides of the stadium structure was already completed. This is because it houses critical services ie Energex transformer to power the stadium, mechanical plant room, fire pump room etc.
In the event of a knock down there are massive issues in moving the stadium over to the east 30m-40m. Hale St or ICB is quite literally underneath it. Therein lies massive constructibility issues and I’d argue these issues would be more impactful than say a Gabba site redevelopment which as you know has 4 main streets surrounding its premises. Building over Castlemaine is also problematic. The slight slope and the fact the bedrock is incredibly rigid and difficult to penetrate (this is because the river is relatively close and once upon a time the river was far wider than it currently is).
Of course none of these issues are permanent or impossible to overcome with astute engineering and project management. It is however incredibly costly and would drag on for quite awhile. Time and money plus the loss of revenue during decommissioning of the stadium or part of the stadium whilst it is being knocked down and rebuilt isn’t appealing to the stakeholders. Not right now anyways.