THE GAME - PS4

[Trisul 654]

The freeway makes the distance a non issue. Bypassing Cranbourne would be nice. Casey Scorp has given me the clue; stay on the South-Eastern, eschewing the South Gippsland exit, and approach the ground from the other direction. Next time I go to Casey, I will hit the Melways and give that a go.

Yeah that's what needs to be made known loud and clear.

From the sound of the upgrades though, even on average days the crowd will be significantly larger. Exit points perhaps need some hastening.

[casey scorp 2]

I was also standing about half a meter away from most of the North Melbourne squad who were all impressed with the ground at Casey, and was standing closest to Adam Simpson, who was talking to their opposition analyst who mentioned a few things of note

Firstly, the can't beleive Dunn is a footballer with the body shape he has, said its a body shape of a footy player of the 80's. Secondly, the noted that our midfield is looking a lot stronger this year and more competetive at the bounces, also said the Cheney looked the goods, and finally Simpson couldnt beleive how far out Casey was, and somehow thought the club had built a house for all the players to live in as it was far too far away to get to training everyday.

It's a hell of a lot closer than Ballarat and I bet that the surface is far better than at Arden Street. Besides, there is next to no traffic for the players so the actual travel time wouldn't be all that much greater.

North would be jealous, and so they should be that Melbourne now have access to a world-class sporting facility (for multiple sports) in a fast-growing area with a city council that extremely supportive and welcoming of the club. Melbourne now have a genuine chance to grow the supporter base and member base of the club and to position themselves amongst the local community.

The freeway makes the distance a non issue. Bypassing Cranbourne would be nice. Casey Scorp has given me the clue; stay on the South-Eastern, eschewing the South Gippsland exit, and approach the ground from the other direction. Next time I go to Casey, I will hit the Melways and give that a go.

Yeah that's what needs to be made known loud and clear.

It’s all about perception.

Casey Fields is extremely convenient to metro Melbourne if you avoid the South Gippsland Highway approach. Most visitors don’t realise it, but if you take the Berwick-Cranbourne Road exit from the Monash Freeway (Mel 110 C11) it is a really easy approach.

The MFC players are really happy – it’s been easier to get to (and takes less time to get to) than the previous pre-season training venue in Bulleen.

North Melbourne was also one of the clubs which looked at Casey Fields (twice in fact). When Allen Aylett was the President, he was super keen. Always the visionary, he could see the opportunities of locating the club in a growth area. That was before the complex was even built, in the very early days. Ultimately the NM Board didn’t support it. NM also had a quick look again after abandoning the Gold Coast, before finalising the development plans at Arden Street, but the symbolism of Arden Street was too strong (ie with James Brayshaw standing on the steps of the NM townhall saying "NM is our home - we're not going to the GC" they could hardly go anywhere but Arden Street).

[casey scorp 2]

From the sound of the upgrades though, even on average days the crowd will be significantly larger. Exit points perhaps need some hastening.

The upgrades themselves won’t increase the peak crowds. Casey Fields is likely to see NAB Challenge/Cup games for the next 2-3 years. Realistically crowds of 10,000 are the level that might attend over that time (there were 10,000 at the Hawthorn v Essendon game in 2007).

It is the prospect of a low-drawing H&A match that could draw 15-20,000 which would put on a fair bit of pressure. There is no way that such a match would be scheduled before the access was improved.

The exit points can’t be improved until residential development occurs on the adjacent land. That, however, is likely within the next two years as developers own all of the land and the structure planning and rezoning process is all in train.