AFL CONSIDERS BUILDING A THIRD STADIUM IN MELBOURNE

AFL BLUEPRINT FOR THIRD STADIUM

THE AFL is considering building a third stadium in Melbourne to cope with the increased demands two new clubs will bring.

Well this is something that some of summised some time ago.. its all a bit 5 into 4 once the new franchises hit the deck !!

Ought to be interesting watching this develop.

Would you think they would re do Optus oval?

Princess Park?

Edit - I mean what's wrong with Princess Park? what, its not "boutique" enough?

Surely the AFL considered this before they announced the Gold Coast & West Sydney plans. They would be silly not to.

I'm still waiting on a proper SECOND stadium

The issue with Princess Park is that it is terrible for parking and there is no public transport near it. Couldn't they do up Port Melbourne's ground and use that? Obviously it would be shared with Port melbourne as well, at least its close to the CBD, not too sure about pblic transport.

Victoria Park maybe?

Would you think they would re do Optus oval?

well..at first I thought a similar thing.. why not recommision optus. tThere has to be a reason, probably to do with rights..signage.. ownership etc. Then I thought..If they were comtemplating another CBD ground..this would make sense. therefore..( as far as this very simple argument goes ) they are not particularly looking at a central venue as we know it. Possibly one furhter out...possibly one closer to the newer population centre ?? Would make sense to locate back out inthe South East..as it only builds upon the argumetns that lead to Waverley..except the new Waverly is further East !!

as suggested..the thick plottens !!

You can only imagine a certain councill wil wake to this news and be making a beeline for AFL house !! lol

The issue with Princess Park is that it is terrible for parking and there is no public transport near it. Couldn't they do up Port Melbourne's ground and use that? Obviously it would be shared with Port melbourne as well, at least its close to the CBD, not too sure about pblic transport.

Victoria Park maybe?

Punt Road ?...great public transport access and will be vacant when Richmond become the Tassie Tigers

Victoria Park maybe?

you sir can go wash your mouth out and do a 1000 lines.. I must never suggest Victoria Park...I must never suggest Victoria Park..

off you go...!! <_<

Interesting question for Casey Scorp - what's the chances of the Cranbourne East station being built?

Looking at it from Google Maps, from what I understand, it wouldnt be much further from Casey Fields than Jolimont is from the MCG or Southern Cross from the Dome.

Great for us, and the AFL gets a proper presence in the growing east.

You can only imagine a certain councill wil wake to this news and be making a beeline for AFL house !! lol

Have we come to the AFL's rescue with our vision of Casey? Wonder if someone from the AFL will be there next week.

The PLOT thickens...

Is that do 1000 lines at Vic Park Bub? The legend of Ben Cousins lives on.

I think this further underlines how we must quickly establish ourselves at Casey. If we are the 'home' Casey team, where other teams may play occasionally raising interest, it could hep us immensely, but only if we are perceived as the "real" Casey team

Interesting question for Casey Scorp - what's the chances of the Cranbourne East station being built?

Looking at it from Google Maps, from what I understand, it wouldnt be much further from Casey Fields than Jolimont is from the MCG or Southern Cross from the Dome.

Great for us, and the AFL gets a proper presence in the growing east.

Cranny East WILL be built.. I just cant tell you when !! lol. An easement for it exists.., in fact a number of possible locations have been mooted.. The most reent is essentially just across the road and up a bit..about a 400-500 metre walk to Casey Fields.

Its not earth shatteing to rehabilitate this part of the line. A major road level crossing needs refurbishing and recommisioning. Some couple of K of track needs renewing and tamping. aswell as overhead strung up as well as build the station of course; but its all very doable. Someone with intent just needs to throw the switch onthis into "GO"

Its always fallen off the "to do list" as not enough political capital in it yet !! emphasis on YET !! Theres an election in a few years..theres a Gov on the nose.. and there's opportunities galore to be made out of this.

If I could get a bet on Id say you be boarding and alighting trains at East Cranny..or more probably CASEY FIELDS station in about 4 years !!

Cranny East WILL be built.. I just cant tell yo when !! lol.

Its always fallen off the "to do list" as not enough political capital in it yet !! emphasis on YET !! Theres an election in a few years..theres a Gov on the nose.. and there's opportunities galore to be made out of this.

If I could get a bet on Id say you be boarding and alighting trains at East Cranny..or more probably CASEY FIELDS station in about 4 years !!

A fair portion of the $780 million TV Rights could also be used in conjunction with a portion of the next TV rights deal and a fair portion of the Surplus from Vic Gov't.

Thanks for the info BB.

Regardless of where it's built, you need really accessable public transport, and decent parking.

From what I can remember, Princes Park wasn't too easy to get to, but I have fairly vague memories.

My view of the ground is probably tainted by the fact that you'd be forced to stand while the whole 'Legends' stand was vacant, though.

For example: Melbourne must draw 20,000 supporters to break even at the MCG and North Melbourne and the Bulldogs 30,000 at Telstra Dome.

...and we thought we did it tough.

I think the very notion that this #3 is to be "BUILT" is the curiosity .....Optus Oval after all..already has been !!

I think the very notion that this #3 is to be "BUILT" is the curiosity .....Optus Oval after all..already has been !!

I think the point is that a ground owned or run by one of the clubs won't be considered. It will need to be under 3rd party control (just as dome and MCG are). So unless someone can afford to buy one of the suburban grounds, and given land costs, I doubt it, or you go well out of CBD. I would have thought Casey Fields would be ideal - run by some entity that includes Casey Council - and the public transport stuff is sorted. I'd bet that the AFL is already talking with Vic Gov't (and Casey council).

Any ideas for somewhere else?

I seem to recall that both Carlton(@Princess Park) & Collingwood (@Victoria Park) considered revamping.

But, because the cost to bring the current structures up to fire & safety standards was prohibitive, the only option was to demolish & rebuild or move.

If so then Casey (& to a lesser extent Punt Rd) are more viable options from a construction view point.

And let's not forget Eddie's new oval.

Further Detail by Demetriou on 3AW: -

“I think it’s very important that we canvas all options and it would be absolutely remiss of us not to be doing that work,” AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday.

“As we continue to do the work on the expansion of the competition and you introduce 17th and 18th teams and you start to think about 22 or 24 rounds, all of a sudden you have about 30 or 40 extra games of which probably 26 to 28 could be in Melbourne.

“We’re obviously looking at all options because that would mean, if we maintain our current policy with stadia, that we would have a very crowded MCG and Telstra Dome.

“We can’t play any more games at Skilled Stadium so one option obviously is to play as many games [as possible] at Telstra Dome and the MCG or another option which could be a boutique stadium.”

Demetriou said the possibility of a third AFL ground in metropolitan Melbourne had been raised at a conference involving the 16 club chief executives during the week.

“We basically said to them that we understand that the stadium economics isn’t working for the clubs in Melbourne, that we need to try and get a better return out of the MCG and Telstra Dome for them down the track if and when we introduce the two teams.

“In 2011 and 2012, there could be, if we go to 24 rounds, another 40 games.”

Demetriou said the investigation into a possible new stadium that could hold “26 or 28 games” was still in its infancy and had not reached the point of scouting locations, but he added such a project might not necessarily go ahead with the MCG and Telstra Dome capable of hosting extra matches.

“There is capacity, and there’s other things like you could start to play on Monday nights and you could look at other various things to squeeze it in,” he said.

“But then there’s things like the surface and so forth. I think we would be remiss if we weren’t looking at all options and doing the work.

“[but] we’ve got time, the western Sydney team comes in in 2012 and it’s only 2008 so this work will take a few months.”Source: afl.com.au

Bring back Waverly!

Bring back Waverly!

lol I loved waverly (mainly cos i lived right near it)

I like the idea of Punt road being done up!

i love the title of this thread...

'the thick plottens' lololol classic!

i love the title of this thread...

'the thick plottens' lololol classic!

Typical bb :D

I always thought it was short sighted by the AFL not to keep one of Princes, Vic park or Waverly around to revamp as a boutique option. Yo can only assume it would cost them less to revamp than build a new one...

The issue now is where will it be built and how can we get onboard for a few years until we have the biggest crowds on the league again and end up being sole tenants of the G after sending the Pies and Tiges off to Punt road to play.

Bugger you eastside homeys, build it out west! In case you haven't noticed Whyndam in the fastest growing city in Melbourne, Melton is 3rd I think. Casey's old hat, yesterday's news. I live less than 20 mins from the CBD and I'm surrounded by paddocks! Public Transport is non existant but we've got bike paths. Casey might as well be Warnambool for all the good it does me.

Seriously though, cricket grounds of the world, just down the road from South Yarra station. Check it out on google earth. Owned by the MCC. Can anyone tell me what goes on here, is it open to the public, would there be a backlash if a nice little boutique stadium were to pop up in the vicinity. Close to trains and trams, slightly south east. The MCC is in the stadium business and if they owned or part owned it we wouldn't need to feel like we were leaving home, just playing at our smaller place in the burbs . A pipedream I know but wouldn't it be nice.

Edit: Just went back for another look at google earth, every cricket groud is prefaced cricket grounds of the world, do'h, don't know what the joint is called

THe showgrounds would be perfect!!!!!

train and tram lines to drop you right at the door and only 7 km from the CBD