Return to spiritual home

[Kola Emcee]

Which of these do you think is most likely to happen first, if ever?

BTW I would refer to a proper 'return' as playing the majority of home matches there, i.e at least 6 a year. So it'd be a very long time before any of these did happen if they ever do.

 

[innsaneink]

Souths cannot return whether they want to or not - sellouts

 

[ByRd]

There are talks under way to get the Bulldogs back to BSG by 2015 for about 2-3 games a year. Also the "Back to Belmore" movement is always pushing and the fans are constantly letting the club know that we want to go back there.

I know it wont be easy but stranger things have happened.

 

[sting]

neither will ever happen

 

[ByRd]

http://www.backtobelmore.com.au/

 

[Timmah]

We won't go back to Belmore as an NRL venue. The best we can hope for IMO is a Redfern-style rejuvenation where the ground would still not be fit for much apart from maybe a trial.

To the initial poster - Souths can't return to Redfern, they just spent a few mill making it a training facility...

 

[Cheesie-the-Pirate]

For any number of reasons I really find it hard to see a return to Belmore as viable for the simple reason that it'd probably take $30m to get it to a stage where it was a good alternative to Homebush for the smaller games (say 6-8 inline with the Wests Tigers approach).

I would've thought you would need:

(a) Major upgrade of electricity, lights etc.
(b) Fairly substantial renovation of Stewart Stand. Something along the lines of what was done for Kogarah Oval in stages 1 & 2 (i.e. before the stand extension), but on a larger scale given the relative sizes of the Kogarah grandstand and the Stewart Stand.
(c) Large new stand on the hill. Belmore basically has nowhere else to develop but the eastern side. Longer term you could buy up the properties on the southern side, but I'd imagine that's way beyond anyone's plans at the moment. You could perhaps build the stand in two stages, a longer term version of how they built the Andrew Johns Stand. I.e. build the bottom tier and amenities in Stage 1 providing the capacity to build a second/third tier at a later stage. Keep in mind to get the ground to a comfortable 20k capacity with corporate facilities etc the stand would probably have to be around the same size as the Johns stand too.

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

I reckon Belmore will return to being Canterbury's full time training and management headquarters a-la Redfern Oval. It's a shame because one of my earliest RL memories is watching Canterbury vs Canberra at Belmore and meeting Steve Moritimer.

 

[Perth Red]

Clubs need to aiming for 20,000+ averages, ain't going to happen at these grounds.

 

[Timmah]

Sounds like a great plan. Pity Canterbury isn't a marginal seat.

 

[Cheesie-the-Pirate]

Clubs need to aiming for 20,000+ averages, ain't going to happen at these grounds.

I don't think anyone expects a club like the Bulldogs to return full time to places like Belmore.

But (and it's a huge but keeping in mind what I said above) if a good boutique ground is available then clubs would be crazy not to consider using them.

 

[STG-Dragon]

I recon there is a slight shot at Belmore for 2-3 game a year if they give the ground a pretty big fix up.

 

[***MH***]

For any number of reasons I really find it hard to see a return to Belmore as viable for the simple reason that it'd probably take $30m to get it to a stage where it was a good alternative to Homebush for the smaller games (say 6-8 inline with the Wests Tigers approach).

I would've thought you would need:

(a) Major upgrade of electricity, lights etc.
(b) Fairly substantial renovation of Stewart Stand. Something along the lines of what was done for Kogarah Oval in stages 1 & 2 (i.e. before the stand extension), but on a larger scale given the relative sizes of the Kogarah grandstand and the Stewart Stand.
(c) Large new stand on the hill. Belmore basically has nowhere else to develop but the eastern side. Longer term you could buy up the properties on the southern side, but I'd imagine that's way beyond anyone's plans at the moment. You could perhaps build the stand in two stages, a longer term version of how they built the Andrew Johns Stand. I.e. build the bottom tier and amenities in Stage 1 providing the capacity to build a second/third tier at a later stage. Keep in mind to get the ground to a comfortable 20k capacity with corporate facilities etc the stand would probably have to be around the same size as the Johns stand too.

(a) The lighting at Belmore is fine
(b) The Stewart Stand just needs the Steve Mortimer Bar fixed up and the corporate boxes repaired. Otherwise, it's a 9500 seated grandstand which only just needs the seats washed.
(c) The things they need to work on around the hill is the Peter Moore Scoreboard, remove wooden seats and replace with seating, toilets and kiosks. Leave the ground as a suburban ground and keep the hill.
(d) With the Southern (Hospital) End, knock down the lot and install terrace style seating only. With the Northern (Railway) end, construct multilevel corp boxes aka BelleVue in ESL

 

[$$Poor Boy Blues$$]

Which of these do you think is most likely to happen first, if ever?

BTW I would refer to a proper 'return' as playing the majority of home matches there, i.e at least 6 a year. So it'd be a very long time before any of these did happen if they ever do.

what?

the spiritual home has been comdemned. move on....ffs

no squatters pal.

and we dont have the infrustructure dollars to spend on a million stadia like england does.

 

[trudge]

The Dogs should share Kogarah. The fans would love it.

 

[King Tigerman]

The Dogs should share Kogarah. The fans would love it.

thatll never happen , do you think the dogs would let stgeorge cash in on them , no chance

 

[Bluebags1908]

The Bulldogs will never go back to Belmore to play on a regular basis, but I can see an upgraded Belmore being their training base and offices based there a-la Souths at Redfern Oval.

I am against the Bulldogs playing at Belmore permanently as I think it would be a backwards step, but I also don't think there is any harm in playing 2 or 3 traditionally low-drawing games there. By doing that, games at Belmore will be an 'event' and the place would be packed for every game because they are rare, same as what Wests Tigers currently do at Leichhardt Oval.

I'd rather have a novelty or 'event' crowd of 18,000 vs Cowboys or Canberra for 2 games a year at Belmore over a crowd of 10,0000 at 80,000 seat ANZ against the same teams.

Games against big Sydney rivals such as Parramatta, Souths, Tigers, etc should always be at ANZ.

 

[Timmah]

thatll never happen , do you think the dogs would let stgeorge cash in on them , no chance

Dragons did it at Belmore...

 

[trudge]

Belmore a backward step?
They change your jersey, change their name, thumb the area that created them... The club's got no soul. If you think Belmore's a backward step then you don't get what rugby league's all about.
Money and double headers at the expense of roots is sad. Is the club embarrassed by it's own supporters?
As a Saints fan and I would love to see us play each other at Belmore. I love that ground.

 

[fightingirish69]

both should return to their spiritual homes