casey scorp

Where do most of the MFC members come from? (don't jump down my throat, I said most - not all). I'll bet it's from the municipalities of Bayside (Brighton, Sandringham), Stonnington (Toorak etc) and Glen Eira (Bentleigh, Caulfield). What would the average age of the members from those areas be? How much longer will they be members for? MFC needs a new area to tap into. A growth area is best because people are moving into new environments and are likely to be the most flexible in theior views at that time. That is the time to influence them. Also their kids attend schools. Get kids as supporters in early primary school and you'll have them for life. While any growth area would have similar characteristics as this there are two other issues: - of all the growth areas, Casey-Cardinia has the highest Australian Football concentration - the City of Casey is very strongly supportive of MFC

Two points: There is alraedy a bus which meets every train which arrives at the Cranbourne Station and travels to within a kilometre of the ground. This bus route will extend as development occurs in the immediate vicinity of Casey Fields and will no doubt ultimately enter the Casey Fields complex itself and drop people off at the ground (there are bus bays already built, and just waiting). Separately, there is supposed to be an extension of the train service to a new station at Cranbourne East which will be about the same distance away (ie 1 kilometre), and probably a bus connecting from that station to the ground as well. That is long term, but then again, probably so is the boutique stadium (ie maybe around 10 years away).

Aaaah....the power of a positive suggestion.

That's the way! You'll be an advocate before you know it.

The article says: "Casey officials have approached the AFL about developing Casey Fields in Cranbourne East into a boutique AFL venue." I don't think this says that the Council will actually fund it - I saw it at the time and read it as: "Casey officials have approached the AFL about (the AFL) developing Casey Fields in Cranbourne East into a boutique AFL venue."

That's the point. Only small numbers will go to some games, and you'd be better having them in a boutique stadium at Casey Fields instead of an expensive to open TD. And as far as 40km trip goes, all of the people in Casey who travel to Melbourne for the footy don't seem to worry about the trip.

And which stadium will host North Melbourne v Western Sydney, with a crowd of less than 10,000? I suppose they could use Kardinia Park.

There are doubtless some current shortcomings with Casey Fields for large crowds (ie the 6,000 for Melb v North or the 10,000 for Essendon v Hawthorn last year). However, don't forget it is a recreation facility being built before its time (as far as facilities in new suburbs go). Cranbourne east has a current population of 6,000 people - in 10 to 15 years it will have 35,000 people. The main road out the front will be 4 lanes, and there will be a new road running down the side through what is farmland at the moment. This will provide extra road entry points. The area will just explode as population and infrastructure is poured in. Unless you are familiar with growth areas developing (ie you come from innner and middle suburbs) you will struggle to understand how quickly this growth actually occurs. I thought there were other gates open than just the two immediately either side of the grandstand, but maybe not. there certainly were other gates open last year when Hawthorn played Essendon.

That would cost $50 million according to the local paper - I don't think the Council would have that sort of money to spend on a football facility. The likeliehood is that State Government or AFL funding would be needed to cover a fair bit of the cost I would say.

Don't forget the conductor and the inductor.

It's not feasible nor practical to make the new rectangular stadium big enough for Aussie Rules. The stadium is costing $268 million, and is well under construction (refer to webcam http://www.mopt.com.au/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-178/). It would cost mega-tens of millions to change course now, involving demolition of what has already been built and complete redesign. It would also be bigger and may not fit in the area available. Even if it was technically possible it wouldn't happen. The ground is being built for rectangular sports, and MFC is just a filler tenant - anyone who thinks to the contrary is delusional.

Better get to Bunnings and buy a lot of shadecloth!

I'm told that the Casey Fields proposal was on Footy Classified last night, but I missed it. Any movement or announcements?

The terminology for the Casey Fields project, if it comes off would be: • “full time training base” – this would apply from the start of the next pre-season until occupancy of the rectangular stadium (likely to be in around April 2010) • “summer training base” – this would apply from the 2010/2011 summer, and would occur each summer.

Found the article in the Berwick News: http://www.senews.com.au/story/58318

I am a resident in Casey, and live about 10 minutes from Casey Fields. The line from Dandenong to Cranbourne is a single track electrified line (but not oneway, or the trains would never get back to Melbourne ). The track runs to Leongatha, and had a diesel service which was stopped in 1993. Electrification of the suburban service from Dandenong to Cranbourne was completed in 1995. I've heard a bit from time to time about rail extensions. In the 1999 election campaign the Labor Party promised to extend the electrification to Cranbourne East, and to build a railway station at Cranbourne East. It hasn't happened (and in fact has dropped of the Government's 2030 transport plan), although they put in a bus service instead (the bus stops 1km short of Casey Fields, but is likely to be extended in future). Hopefully they will still put in the Cranbourne East station to serve the developing 35,000 population of Cranbourne East that will move in over the next 10-15 years. Prior to the 2002 election the Labor Party promised to reopen the line to Leongatha. This week that promise went up in smoke as well (quite appropriately I might add in this case), when it was masked by budget announcements of improved bus services to South Gippsland.

My allegiances are to another AFL club, and also to my local VFL club, the Casey Scorpions. The Scorpions colours are Red & Blue !! And the grandstand seats are Red & Blue. I don't think you'll see the Demons nickname adopted though - I recall hearing about some discussions a few years ago when another AFL club suggested that they be called the Casey Kangaroos. End of discussions! But stranger things have happened. (Anyway I've seen comments on here about the Demon disappearing from MFC marketing!) The MFC has a great song, and so has the Scorps. Like the name that might be problematic, but I really don't know how long the Scorps have had the current theme song.

Lots of positive sentiment in the views expressed on here about a move to Casey (either temporary, part-time or permanent). I have taken a punt that MFC will relocate in some form to Casey, and purchased a membership on Sunday when I went to the G. I hope I haven't bought in vain! (And I appreciate the positive comments about my cause and crusade on here).

Sounds like it's not over the line yet anyway, so you might still avoid having to visit Casey: From the same article: "Casey chief executive Mike Tyler last night refuted the claim by Demons chairman Paul Gardner that the move from the Junction Oval to Casey was a "done deal"." Hope it works out though!

Now that MFC is apparently committed to MOPT, and will have all the state of the art training equipment and environment as well as having an oval with a “multi-million dollar upgrade” (not sure what that could be) there would seem to be no reason to go to Casey. Perhaps it was just MFC playing a card to get the State Government to give it a better deal on MOPT (now it must have that because everyone on here is very excited with announcements over the last week or so)? Perhaps it is the short-term problem of what to do over summer until MOPT opens, given the issues involved in pre-season availability of training venues? Perhaps the need to get a rejuvenated membership base, because the older one is simply dying out and a growth corridor location offers the prospect of many young families? Given MFC don’t share my views (not my concerns, because I don’t have an emotional involvement in the matter), then I can understand why they’d be keen to embrace MOPT. But why not all year round? You said you think you know. Why?

I think they'd want that in the summer as well as the winter. Why would MFC even want a summer training base at Casey Fields when they've got year round access to state of the art facilities at Olympic Park?

Too onerous for the Magpies it seems (albeit slightly longer).

No, nothing official from the Council to date, and Chris Connolly on SEN just said that the Casey arrangement is not "cemented". Sounds a bit more reserved than Chris' earlier comments about Casey.

The interesting thing will be to see whether a player, once nominating for the ND, can subsequently withdraw their nomination. If they can withdraw, there will be some brinkmanship going on on both sides post nomination. If they can't withdraw (and restraint of trade laws would have some involvement; but I imagine that the rules can be drafted to overcome it) then it will be a big step because they could go anywhere without warning (unlike the PSD where most have a fair idea what is happening).

Perceptive! It depends what you mean by "completely". Might it significantly relocate (ie footy activities to Casey, admin & corporate in Melb)? Come on! There might be state of the art fitness/recovery equipment inside the rectangular stadium, but MFC won't get on the turf and it's the wrong shape anyway. Players will have to run up Swan Street to Gosch's Paddock, now that Eddie has claimed the new oval right to be built right next to the rectangular stadium. What more substance do you need about the shape of it, the fact that an AFL club will be like a fish out of water in THEIR stadium and the distance to an oval to train on?