yakstorm
First Grade
- Messages
- 6,799
There are definitely a few lessons the NSW Government and the rectangular venue sports could take from what Victoria has going with the MCG.
Firstly, building venues, as you suggested, where sections or individual stands can be replaced / upgraded / expanded without needing to close down the entire venue, or worse, rebuild it from scratch, would definitely help prevent what we saw with Allianz and are now seeing with Accor where they just age out all together and require a huge upfront investment, but secondly if all parties worked a bit better together, it suddenly makes any investment a lot easier to justify.
The MCG brought in over $700m worth of financial activity in the Victorian economy last year and the MCC alone made over $200m. Figures like that make it a lot easier to justify a $1bn+ investment from governments or even mean that the stadium itself can take out a loan, which it has in the past.
The MCG is in the position because between the AFL, Cricket Victoria and Cricket Australia it knows it has comfortably 60 events (AFL guaranteed 47 games at the MCG this year alone) at a minimum annually to bank on. Visit Victoria then just works to help bring in events on top of that like Concerts, NFL, Origin, etc.
Compare that with Accor, it has locked in each year 10 Bulldogs games, 9 Rabbitohs games, Origin and the NRL Grand Final. It will generally get a Wallabies game (it's only had 1 this year) and occasionally a Matildas or Socceroos match (although it's had none this year) plus some other Finals matches but they fluctuate and aren't something they can bank on easily to get investment.
If the NRL, RA and FA could guarantee suddenly 40+ events a year, plus then whatever Visit NSW can attract as major events/concerts, it goes a long way to justifying any investment.
