casey scorp

Sounding better, but still not finalised: http://www.cranbourneleader.com.au/article...6_csv_news.html MELBOURNE Football Club's move to Casey Fields could be confirmed by the end of this month. Casey Council chief executive Mike Tyler said a "productive meeting" last week had greatly advanced the chances of a deal being reached. Mr Tyler previously was less confident. He raised concerns last month that the drawn-out negotiations could hinder the chances of getting the Demons, as any development at Casey Fields would have to be completed in time for pre-season kick-off in November. Mr Tyler told the Leader talks between Casey, Melbourne, the Casey Scorpions and the AFL on Thursday "proceeded quite smoothly". "I think we're getting reasonably close to getting the thing sorted out," he said. "Now we've got 'i's to dot and 't's to cross (with the) legal contracts and all that sort of stuff, which will take some time, but I would think towards the end of July we would have it signed off." Details of the AFL club's move to Casey has been subject to conjecture but, based on documents seen by the Leader, the project will cost $1.6 million, with council contributing $750,000. Melbourne will chip in $500,000, while the project was allocated $350,000 in the State Budget under the VFL Complex Upgrade Project. Mr Tyler said the works at Casey Fields Oval No. 1 would include the upgrade of training facilities, made possible by the extension of the pavilion to the northern goals. Melbourne's football department would also be housed at Casey Fields until the club relocated to the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in 2010. The wooing of the AFL club has come under fire from some councillors including Kevin Bradford and Rob Wilson.

I'm not sure you're correct (in fact I know you're not). And before you say "you can't beleive what you read in the papers" generally I agree. However, Paul Amy is a reputable and accurate football journalist - Here's his article. It confirms my understanding. http://www.leadernews.com.au/article/2008/..._vfl_story.html (the relevant part of the article) SANDRINGHAM’S successful VFL alignment with Melbourne is over. Last night the Zebras signed a five-year deal with St Kilda, stunning the Demons and the Saints’ VFL partner, the Casey Scorpions. Sandy general manager John Mennie said the club feared Melbourne’s expected to move to Casey Fields in Cranbourne would leave it without an AFL affiliate. "We were worried we were going to miss the boat," Mennie said. "We couldn’t sit and wait around. We had to be proactive."

One of the things he said was: "We are looking into the opportunities Casey and the new Olympic park Development bring - our aim is to have state-of-the-art facilities for our team, but we need to be able to afford them" A recurrent payment of $500k (rumoured figure for rent at the bubbledome) would service a considerable loan for MFC's own faciltities at Casey Fields (as well as the Council probably contributing to the capital development costs). It's worth considering.

I was joking (should have used a ), except in relation to the bit about the alignment happening soon.

Apart from beating cellar-dweller Collingwood a couple of days after the announcement, Sandy has not won a game since it announced it would dump Melbourne and align with the Saints for 5 years from 2009! Meanwhile, Casey hasn't lost a game since the announcement that St Kilda was breaking the alignment! Hopefully MFC and Casey strike an alignment soon.

That seems to have been reported on a number of occasions. Upfront costs Fitout costs at Casey - measured in tens of thousands of dollars. Fitout costs at the bubbledome - maybe $1 million +. Recurrent Costs (every year - year in, year out) Recurrent costs at Casey - negligible Recurrent costs (ie rent, utilities etc) - this is the killer - $500k/year. Next day recovery facilities: State of the art facilities at bubbledome $37 million aquatic & leisure centre 700 metres up the road from Casey Fields opening next year

Casey played Coburg last weekend, and I can assure you that Coburg was not decked out in yellow and black. The name Melbourne Football Club clearly has to remain, but the Melbourne Scorpions has good synergies. It would also overcome some of the concerns I've read on here about demons being a concern to kids or other cultures, if MFC was minded to defer to those concerns.

It was apparently on ABC TV when the Scorps were playing Sandy. Early reports said the Scorpions President said it was less than 50/50. Subsequent reports said that he actually said it was better than 50/50. But there are two issues here: a relocation for next season for training an alignment I think they are separate issues, but the first would easily lead to the second. And then, even if MFC doesn't move out to Casey, there is still the possibility of an alignment as: Casey now doesn't have St Kilda MFC needs a VFL club to run its surplus players Casey would want a top-up of AFL players to stay competitive

I haven't heard anyone saying "no" - it's just that no-one has said anything

Not sure what an ambassador does, but GL ain't been seen in Casey.

Just imagine the classic 1989 GF - six points the difference 21.18.144 to 21.12.138. Ablett kicked 9 goals in a losing team. If he was playing for Hawthorn it would have been 30.18.198 to 12.12.84.

Seems like this is on a slow boat to nowhere. By the time anything is resolved the rectangular stadium will be finished.

It shouldn't make much difference I wouldn't think (hopefully anyway). Another thing that went through Casey Council on Tuesday evening was the Council's budget for 2008/09 which amongst $190 million provided for: $750,000 for VFL pavilion extension $140,000 for VFL Oval carpark sealing Those projects are associated with the MFC project at Casey Fields if it eventuates. It seems though that there was a bit of opposition from 3 Councillors: http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/story/60303 Another interesting snippet is from today's Age: http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/st-k...3770827317.html "Meanwhile, Melbourne is yet to finalise its plans for a training base at Casey Fields in Cranbourne and talks with the City of Casey and VFL club Casey Scorpions regarding the proposed $1.6 million development are continuing. It is believed there have been no talks on a possible alignment between the Melbourne and Casey football clubs." That last bit is a bit concerning if true!

I know for a fact that John Phillips was the first MFC Board member to have any discussions with Casey Council, and it was back in March.

If they don't get 80,000 to the Blues/Pies match next week I think the AFL should take it off them and give it to two other teams.

I'll be in it (but won't be there in time for brekkie).

It makes sense that St Kilda aligns with Sandringham as they are close neighbours – it should have happened years ago. But it didn’t happen for that reason – it happened because Sandy panicked that it would lose Melbourne to Casey, and ran to St Kilda before St Kilda and Frankston became too attached to each other. However an interesting possibility is that when the Saints get to Frankston (which will probably just about match the 5 year term of the alignment between St Kilda and Sandy) they will probably align with Frankston and then Sandy will be left like a shag on a rock anyway. Thursday’s announcement is good from the Casey Scorpions point of view. Instead of being left wondering whether and when St Kilda would dump them and align with Frankston (and then potentially being left without an AFL partner if Melbourne stayed with Sandringham), the Scorps will almost certainly now align with Melbourne: • Melbourne has no VFL partner from 2009 because Sandy has done a runner to St Kilda • Melbourne is publicly committed to moving to Casey Fields, and • unaligned VFL teams would not touch Melbourne because: o Frankston wants to stand alone and will save their virginity for St Kilda post the move to Frankston Oval o Port won’t want a team that wants to establish a new base at the Scorpions ground. But the real sleeper I expect is that St Kilda just might now seek to review its earlier decision to set up home in Frankston and seek to move into the Trevor Barker Oval. That would tick every box for everyone: • Saints and Sandy aligned and based together • Scorps and Melbourne aligned and based at Casey Fields • Frankston maintains its stand-alone status • St Kilda avoids a messy, drawn out effort to get established at Frankston. Not much chance of the Scorps changing to the Casey Demons I’m afraid. A few years ago there were similar discussions involving North Melbourne. There was no way the Scorps would change to the Casey Kangaroos even though it had a great ring to it. The MFC effort to engage with the Casey community will be the key to success. There will be a lot more than just a training session every now and then I think we’ll find. If played correctly this has the potential to significantly supplement and reinvigorate MFC’s membership base.

Fortunately local government seems to work on majority rules. So, if the majority supports the MFC proposal, it will get up. My sources tell me MFC's got the support of the majority.

The 28,000 figure appears further down in that story. That must have been where I recalled it from. That is very embarrassing - I like having my facts correct in anything I post.

I think it's 28,000.

There are some Gippsland Power home games played there (Gippsland Power is aligned with the Scorpions). There has also been a motely collection of other matches there not involving the Power.

There was no Council meeting of Casey Council last Thursday according to the Council website. The $1.5 million from the State Government is interesting, but doubtful. The State Government just announced $538,000 in the budget for the Casey Scorpions to further develop the complex. I'd be surprised if all of a sudden there arrived another $1.5 million. Surprised, but very happy if it does.

Plus: Cranbourne Footy Club playing every week that the Scorpions are away TAC matches NAB Challenge matches U18 National Championship matches (Casey Fields hosted the finals last year) Casey-Cardinia League finals

It had over 10,000 there for Essendon v Hawthorn in the NAB Challenge in 2007, almost all standing (there is very little, if any, seating - 200 seats in the grandstand). It was pretty packed on the western (grandstand) side, but could easily have held another 5,000 on the outer side. There is very little cover for spectators, but part of a VFL facility upgrade grant in the State Budget will help (along with AFL and Casey Council support) to put in some cover on the outer before next season. Carparking has also been improved since the parking issues of the NAB Challenge game last year (about 3,000 unmarked spaces).

An outstanding suggestion I think. From 2009 a single game against Freo would probably be a good test for the ground. And it would be able to be tracked over time prior to any decision to build a stadium. If it went well, obviously it could be increased to a couple of games. There would obviously be the need to bring in temporary spectator amenities, but it would be a great idea.