w00dy

must have somewhere for brock to do his doughies... :D

the key there is the stadium already existed... yes they've upgraded it, but only when they knew they could regularly get 30,000 people to the stadium...

i didn't mean any boutique ground... i meant the stadium we're discussing... to build a stadium of what's being suggested, I would imagine it would require the support of more than 1 AFL club... geelong have their own stadium, so they're not going to play there... and I don't think we'll get enough support from other AFL clubs to justify the construction of this stadium unless we played 6 games there a year, when it would only be in the interests of the MFC to play 3...

none of these events justify a new 20,000 seat stadium being built, as the current facilities would be sufficient... set aside the debate over what level of attendances we will get at Casey... i think our attendances would be poor, others seem to disagree... anyhow... we need to ask how many games would need to be played out there to justify the construction of such a stadium? and this isn't the MFC justifying spending money, but the state government, the AFL and the Casey Council justifying spending the money... I would imagine the new venue would have to host at least one game every second week of the AFL season, with a preference for one game per week... so unless we play all our home games out at Casey, we're going to have to get other clubs on board... the first problem with this is if we're going to get new members from playing out at casey, we're only going to have to share these potential new members with any other club who also plays home games out that way... even if we have a training base out there this will be insignificant to having games played out there... we may be able to get an advantage by having a greater presence in the area, but we're still going to have stiff competiton... being competitive on the field would be secondly what other clubs would play games at a boutique stadium? the only ones i could possibly think of are north melbourne and the bulldogs... the bulldogs are based in the western suburbs, so it would be a slap in the face to their supporters to play home games out there... north melbourne seem to be the only potential co-tenant side in my view... unless we were willing to play 5-6 games each, and commit to playing this amount of games for an extended period of time, a commitment I don't believe would be in the best interests of the footy club, i don't think a stadium like the one we're talking about will happen unfortunately...

Did anyone else see Jim Stynes watching the game in what I'm pretty sure was a Melbourne members reserved area in the Southern Stand today? I don't have a reserved seat membership, so I was sitting on the half forward flank, bottom level of the Southern Stand, to watch the game. My mate pointed out that Jim Stynes was sitting a couple of bays across on the wing. Was pretty pumped too, standing up cheering when we took back the lead in the last quarter.

thoughts on Beamer and Jones cleaning up Buddy at the start of the match... i thought it was great... set the tone for the rest of the side... Jones gave the free away, but it showed we had come to play and that hawthorn would have to earn their kicks... something you don't see happen much in footy anymore...

Last I heard they were putting him through his own personal pre-season before they bring him back onto the list, as he didn't do one with the main group. While Valenti is still getting a game you'd think he might still be a while off although I have a feeling Valenti may get dropped this week. Will wait and see.

could've easily been dropped after last week... but wouldn't do his development any good just giving him one game... Bails gave him another crack, and all credit to him he improved... personally i'd like to get games into Chris Johnson, and after getting 2nd best for Sandy today I'd like CJ to come in next week... i think our game plan suits him perfectly, and he uses the ball well...

that davey one was 50/50... i haven't seen a replay of the game on tv, and it's harder to judge when you're at the game, but I thought generally we got a slightly better run with the umps than hawthorn did... there may have been more critical decisions which influenced the game more than others, but generally i thought we got a better run... could be attributed to going harder at the ball?

anyone see how many melbourne supporters were at the G to farewell Neita today? how many of those would make the trip out to Cranbourne to watch us play?

caro is great when it comes to the politics of football... she usually has pretty good sources, and breaks a lot of stories... this story is a good example... however she's no good when it comes to the actual game itself, what happens on the field... doesn't analyse the game well at all...

is it possible to alter the swear filter to replace "Hawthorn" with "Tasmanian" ?

thanks if you considered Princes Park to be the other side of town (6km from the G) and disliked going there for this reason, how many supporters are going to dislike going to Casey (50km from the G) ? i don't want to lose money either... however I believe playing games at Casey Stadium will cost the club more than it will benefit from the venture... you seem to think otherwise...

There are no details on how it would be funded, or how we would be involved. State government or the AFL would have to come to the party as Casey couldn't justify building it on their own. Would cost way too much. They can only provide incentives to the other parties to build the stadium. i think you'll actually find there is a big difference between 20,000 people and 25,000 people... the reason the bigger stadiums aren't always profitable is because clubs have to bare the fixed costs of hosting the game... these costs don't change if 5 people or 50,000 people attend... so those 5,000 extra people are actually where all the profit is made, as pretty much all of the money they pay at the gate is the profit we make... I didn't talk about where people lived... i talked about convenience in getting to the game... Rogue agreed with me, cross town transport is poor... if you need to use public transport it's most likely train is the best way to get to casey fields... have a look at this picture... http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/var/met...itan_trains.gif getting to casey by public transport isn't going to be fun... for me to reach casey fields i would have to travel an additional hour each way compared to a game at the MCG... here is what people would have to do on most of the train lines... Hurstbridge & Epping: Train to Flinders Street. Change to Cranbourne line. Train to Cranbourne. Jolimont station before their train enters the loop. Upfield, Sydenham, Melton, Weribee, Williamstown: Train to Flinders Street. Change to Cranbourne line. Train to Cranbourne. Currently to get to the G these passengers change at Flinders Street and get one of the many trains to Richmond or Jolimont which takes less than 5 minutes. Lilydale, Belgrave, Alamein, Glen Waverley: Train to Richmond. Change to Cranbourne line. Train to Cranbourne. Currently to get to the G, these passengers get the train to Richmond, then get off. No more trains for them! Frankston: Train to Caufield. Change to Cranbourne line. Train to Cranbourne. Currently to get to the G, these passengers get the train to Richmond, No more trains for them! Sandringham: Train to South Yarra. Change to Cranbourne line. Train to Cranbourne. Currently to get to the G, these passengers get the train to Richmond, No more trains for them! Pakenham: Train to Dandenong. Change to Cranbourne line. Train to Cranbourne. Currently to get to the G, these passengers get the train to Richmond. to travel from Richmond to Cranbourne on the train takes 50 minutes... there could be some express services, but only so many as all the other stations in between need to be serviced... some of the eastern suburbs may have buses that run to cranbourne, I'm not sure... but if train is your only option, which I assume it would be for most... it's not going to be a great trip... There was meant to be a train line extension near where I live years ago. Hasn't happened. Still waiting. Housing has gone up way out past where the train line finishes. Hasn't made a difference. again, as I said earlier... just because it's a new idea, doesn't mean it's a good one...

i've never been there casey scorp, how many do you think they could reasonably hold there? is 10,000 about right?

from memory that's correct... they can even increase social costs such as increased crime, pollution etc.

i agree we are losing money at some of our MCG games... but casey is being talked of as a gold mine... "geelong make $600k a game playing in geelong, lets build our own stadium at casey fields and make that much money." it won't be at all lucritive like the setup the cats have in geelong... geelong make so much money because they sell out their stadium, so every fan has to buy a seat, paying much more per head than people attending melbourne games do... we would never go close to filling casey unless perhaps we played another melbourne club... the cats also make a lot of money off corporates down at geelong... what corporate support would we get at Casey? we may make some modest profits playing out there, but not enough to ensure the clubs future, and certainly not enough to justify the construction of a stadium there...

all good questions... information which the club has which would factor in it making a decision... it seems as if we're going to embrace casey to try and gain some support... however I still don't think we'd draw large enough crowds out there... how about this idea? 1 game a season, at casey fields... no stadium built... play the game against a low drawing interstate side, during grass roots round (I think that's one of the themed rounds) and it can be just like a local footy game... how many could the ground hold? 10,000? sell 10,000 tickets and it's sold out, with a portion reserved for Casey residents... benefits of this: don't need to commit to construction of stadium only 1 game per season. I believe while fans would make the trek to casey for one game, however doing it 4 or 5 times is a different story guaranteed profit another issue with having a stadium out at casey is that if one is going to be built, we couldn't do it on our own... we'd need other clubs on board... and who else would commit to playing games out there? the western bulldogs? it would take their fans a week to get there...

really? news to me... i'm actually about a month off completing a bachelor degree in economics, and I took a class in sports economics... and when it comes down to the essence of it, the decision is based upon the you's and I's because the economics is based upon the you's and I's, the individual decision makers... people deciding whether they will go to the game or not... now i haven't done research to come to any solid conclusions, and I'm sure you haven't either... i think where we disagree is how many people we each think would show up at these Casey fields games... i believe playing sides like West Sydney and the Gold Coast we would draw crowds somewhere in the vacinity of 5-10k if we played at Casey fields, not many more for other interstate sides, the teams we would play there... how many do you think would show up? how much money could we possibly make drawing crowds like that? let alone the damage it would do to the club, regularly playing in front of crowds like that... i have to justify my arguement? casey fields is on the outskirts of our city over 50km from the CBD, and i have to justify how getting to the MCG (which has fantastic public transport facilities compared to Casey) is more convienient for the majority of melbournians? surely a monkey can work that one out... i agree we need to improve as a club, but simply because an idea is new doesn't mean it's a good one...

what didn't you like about it?

to answer your question, no one is going to stop buddy... the only way he won't dominate tomorrow is if our midfield gets on top... can't see it happening for an extended period of time unfortunately... as for who will play on him, i'd play james frawley... johnson needs to play ruck, holland is too slow and will play on roughead, frawley is the only other one who has the height to get first crack at him... unless we play miller down back which won't happen, other options like warnock and garland are too small... sure he'll get beat, but he'd learn heaps... it won't dent his confidence much at all, buddy is pantsing everyone he plays on at the moment...

i got on board the $350 option... no guaranteed hero on my table, which would've been nice, but not $150 nice... it's allowed me to go and made me very happy...

i didn't mind watching footy at princes park... i don't care where i watch footy to be honest... give me a seat and nothing obstructing my view and i'm usually pretty happy... i even stand now and then too at the G, as long as I can see that will do... i think the most important thing when considering a stadium is getting there... i went to the footy a lot as a teenager... my parents would drop me at the train station, i'd get the train to jolimont and walk to the G... i missed some of the games at princes park because i couldn't get there, the only game I saw melbourne play there was against west coast when a mate and I got a ride off my mates dad... what hope in hell do i have of getting out to Casey fields? a 2 hour train trip plus a bus each way? spending close to 5 hours traveling back and forward from the game... leave home by 11am at the latest to make sure i get to the game on time? not back home till around 7.30? i wouldn't have bothered i don't think... and even if i did bother, most people wouldn't have... it would be quicker for me to get to our game at kardinia park, and the train would drop me 300 metres from the ground! it's obviously convenient for you as you live closer to casey fields... but for the majority of melbourne it wouldn't be... even if you live in the eastern suburbs but can't drive, unless you live near the cranbourne train line, it's going to take a real effort using public transport to get to the game... Simply won't work at Casey. We won't make money playing there, not an amount of any significance anyway because our crowds will simply be too small. Naive to believe they won't. I like Paul Gardner but if he thinks playing games at Casey is the way forward then the sooner he goes the better...

won't work in casey... we struggled to get 10,000 people to princes park 5 years ago for similar fixtures to what are being proposed here... if only that many show up in Carlton, how many are going to trek to Cranbourne? only way a boutique stadium will work is if it is accessable to everyone... Punt Road or Olympic Park are the only options I believe...

we're gonna get thumped by tassie this week