I believe they run every half hour until about midnight. I presume you are going to the Richmond game which starts at 6:40pm. I would say at the latest you would get to Nerang station around 9:45pm. You'll have no trouble getting a train back to Brisbane.
Heritage Bank Stadium (Carrara)
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Thanks Matchu BTW great post -Tigers fans first time at Metricon
Good stuff. Pretty big crowd is expected for that game so the atmosphere will likely be good. I'm sure you'll enjoy your time at Metricon. Might be worth checking out this thread as well.
SJ17
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Is there currently any parking at the stadium and if not is nerang station a good place to park the car.. thanks
brisbane13
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not really even though there is a lot of grass lands in the area around the stadium. when i have been if you get there an 1 or 2 hrs before the game, i park in the RACV club complex and walk down. its about a 700m walk. the ground is a very neat stadium, pretty basic, but suits the Gold Coast. once you are in the stadium its rather festive, with a few bands playing and plenty of room to kick the footy in
There is no parking at the stadium itself but there are surrounding establishments that provide parking and charge between $10-20. Emerald Lakes Golf Club is ideal but it fills up pretty quickly so I'd say you would have to get there at least an hour and a half before the game starts to guarantee a park there. If you drive a bit further up Nerang-Broadbeach Road you'll find other places to park that fill up at around 30 mins before the game. I'm pretty sure Nerang station doesn't provide parks as the people want you to park in Helensvale (around 15 mins north of Nerang) and take the train to Nerang which is followed by a shuttle to the stadium. I wouldn't try and park at Nerang or Helensvale if I were you.
rolls eyes... people often ask me why I left Qld........... good lord.............. the SCG managed it for years
Matchu's advice was invaluable - I doubt I would have got to the game without it. Unfortunately the OP still stands - fantastic venue but absolutely appalling services provided in terms of getting to the ground. I chanced it in the car and managed to get a park at the Emerald Lakes golf club across the road for $20. The queues for the buses were ludicrously huge and the guy sitting next to me waited over 90 minutes to travel the approximately 6kms on the shuttle bus. There were no signs saying where the stadium actually was, no signs noting where parking was (I totally fluked it and it was only Matchu's posts that got me close to Emerald Lakes), no lighted footpaths from the other parking areas and total confusions on how to get there.
Quite simply, the Gold Coast needs to get this sorted in order for the code to grow. It was a struggle with only 17,000 people there. The previous week I went to a night game at the MCG with 44,000 people and was able to take my six year old son and be on a train and back in Preston within 30 minutes. Figure out the parking, provide much better services (more buses from more areas which are clearly marked), offer more public transport options (more services from train stations), offer clear signage and clear instructions on how to get there. It might sound like a Melbournian being arrogant but there is a certain level of service that a lot of football fans expect and at the moment, the Gold Coast is a long way off being even close to that level.
Again big props to Matchu. Great useful information - much better than was provided on the Metricon Stadium website.
Quite simply, the Gold Coast needs to get this sorted in order for the code to grow. It was a struggle with only 17,000 people there. The previous week I went to a night game at the MCG with 44,000 people and was able to take my six year old son and be on a train and back in Preston within 30 minutes. Figure out the parking, provide much better services (more buses from more areas which are clearly marked), offer more public transport options (more services from train stations), offer clear signage and clear instructions on how to get there. It might sound like a Melbournian being arrogant but there is a certain level of service that a lot of football fans expect and at the moment, the Gold Coast is a long way off being even close to that level.
Again big props to Matchu. Great useful information - much better than was provided on the Metricon Stadium website.
It's funny, any half decent city planner could tell you that buses simply can't move a lot of people at once. They just can't. They take a long time to board and they can't hold that many people. They are, at best, a complementary form of transport if you want to move lots of people quickly.
To base a stadium's transport policy on buses as the principal form of transport is mindbogglingly stupid.
To base a stadium's transport policy on buses as the principal form of transport is mindbogglingly stupid.
No worries mate. I'm glad my information helped someone because I'm 100% sure that some footy goers don't end up getting to the game because of the lack of instructions. I probably should have pointed this out before but Emerald Lakes Golf Club is located on Alabaster Drive which is just off Nerang-Broadbeach Road (the road Metricon is on). It is easy to miss but it is the intersection just before you pass the stadium. I try my best to link opposition fans to this thread in the lead up to a game at Metricon so at least there is some help.
There are rumours that the tram line may be extended out to Metricon and a ferry service may also be installed at the stadium in the future but there is a good chance neither will happen. Can the stadium continue to function purely on buses? I doubt it. It's already a huge issue and they aren't dealing with big patronage. No doubt in my mind that it is holding some people back from going to the stadium.
How would you fix it?
Provide parking for a few thousand cars. There's easily enough space, and it would take the pressure off the buses. In a car dominated city it's a no brainer. Give priority to cars with 2 or more passengers if they want to encourage car pooling, because it's families that will be the most turned off by the idea of waiting an hour in a bus queue.
I haven't been to the new Metricon, but I went many years ago to watch Freo play Carlton there. I literally parked just over the road, and it was piss easy to get out. There was stacks of empty land around as well. I can't understand why it wasn't incorporated into the spectator management plan, because the idea that you're going to move 80% of the crowd in buses is completely freaking mental. There wouldn't be another stadium in Australia that even comes close to that level of stupidity.
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I remember the buses in Perth used to be taken up entirely by over-50s. I lived at Curtin for a year and would always walk across campus on game day and grab a shuttle that took off from the bus depot that went literally to the NAB Stand gate. That says something. There's a demographic who can't and won't use trains for plenty of logical and illogical reasons, so catering to them is totally fair enough. The fact a university had almost no university students leave from a university bus shelter, but had older people drive there specifically for its bus, says something. Most younger people will jump on a train no issue. I love a good train to a footy ground. Romantic.
But will the council up there be rallying for a train station, considering the Commonwealth Games? In fact what's the train situation even like over there? But surely you'd be trying to incorporate something else when the Commonwealth Games roll around. The fact the Suns are a budding club and the AFL want them to succeed make it that lack of decent transport bafflin'. The crowds they get, considering they're not hugely competitive, seem actually alright.
And yeah, on google maps the ground seems to be in the middle of nowhere. I hate carparks at the footy, but surely it'd be an improvement and when planning it, they'd have thought "yeah sure, looks fine."
But will the council up there be rallying for a train station, considering the Commonwealth Games? In fact what's the train situation even like over there? But surely you'd be trying to incorporate something else when the Commonwealth Games roll around. The fact the Suns are a budding club and the AFL want them to succeed make it that lack of decent transport bafflin'. The crowds they get, considering they're not hugely competitive, seem actually alright.
And yeah, on google maps the ground seems to be in the middle of nowhere. I hate carparks at the footy, but surely it'd be an improvement and when planning it, they'd have thought "yeah sure, looks fine."
They used to let a lot of people park over the road and it became a nightmare to get out. I'm pretty sure they purposely set out to make almost all patrons travel to the stadium via public transport but they didn't realise that just running buses would be problematic. There is no doubt that it is bad but it has never actually been good on the Gold Coast so I guess the locals are just used to it. Probably results in not a lot of non-returning customers though...
That's interesting about the older people and their preference for the bus. Nerang train station is located 2kms north of the stadium so there is next to no chance that they'll build another train station that is closer. Currently, there are no plans to improve public transport to the stadium for the Comm Games (I know, terrible right?). The powers that be on the Gold Coast/Queensland tend to live in the moment and don't really plan for the future so until the Suns are actually regularly pulling over 20k to a game, they won't think it's an issue. If you have a look on Google maps, the best bet would be to run a tram extension along Hooker Boulevard and turn right on to Nerang-Broadbeach Road. That way, you would have one end connecting to the train station and the other connecting to the popular tourist suburb of Broadbeach. I guarantee this would fix almost all the problems associated with Metricon.
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lol....rubbish. There is no possible way that more than a small minority of patrons get to and from either venue by bus. Assuming 50 people per bus, just moving 10,000 people requires 200 buses. Two hundred. If you've got a bus station with 10 stands and it takes 5 minutes to fill up a bus, it means that to move that many people after a game it's going to take nearly 2 hours just to move 10,000 people. And you reckon most people at venues holding 50,000 and 40,000 people respectively get there by bus? People would be lining up for hours.
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Not rubbish at all, I go to the 'Gabba for every Lions home game and occasionally for the cricket, most people take a bus to and from the Gabba, no problems at all.
Buses run at high frequency on game days and bus stops that go to different stations are at different locations (therefore not everyone is flocking to the same location after the game to catch a bus).
You mean these?
http://translink.com.au/travel-info...ation/event-transport/the-gabba-shuttle-buses
You reckon they're running 50 to 100 buses on each one of these routes? And that thousands of people are waiting after the game at each bus stop?
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Yes I do actually, there's room at each stop for 3/4 buses to stop at each bus stop at once. Not to mention some people leave early and some like to stay back for a while.
It's not one bus at a time at the one bus stop. It's several buses at once per bus stop which there are several of. You'll understand if you actually go to a game at the 'Gabba and see how it works.
Most people take the bus to and from the game at the 'Gabba, and it works perfectly fine.
Speaking of patronage, I'm fairly sure I read that Gold Coast buses can fit a maximum of around 60 people while the new trams can fit around 300. I know they change the amount of buses running each home game just based on the predicted crowd but let's just say for a hypothetical that they have 20 buses running at the same time and servicing the Broadbeach route. It takes around 25 minutes to get there and back to the stadium and about 5 mins to fill up the bus so that would mean around 1200 people are being moved every half hour...
The real advantage of the tram option is the fact that it can essentially move two loads of patrons (600 people) in around 30 mins given the close proximity to the Nerang train station. Let's say 300 patrons get on at Broadbeach and they arrive at Metricon about 20 minutes later. The same tram then continues to Nerang station, fills up again, and drops off another load about 10 mins after dropping off the first load. Predictions state that the trams can run every 7.5 mins if required so this would result in 2400 (double the amount of the bus option) people being moved to the stadium every half an hour. It would also allow the buses to services other areas and dramatically increase the amount of people getting to the stadium. I can't see why anyone wouldn't want this option to be pursued?
I'll take your word for it, but it would astound me if what you're saying is true. If we say 12,000 of the 20,000 on Thursday night took the bus and 2,000 of them caught normal scheduled services in the area (which is probably a huge overestimate given late at night there are very few buses running), that means on average 2,500 people got on each of the 4 special routes. So 50 buses per route. If 3 buses pull up at one time and they take 5 minutes to fill up, it would still require an hour and a half to clear the crowd. And that's on a night where the ground is only half full. Double it if the ground was full. Funnily enough, the bus company specifies that 'time limits apply'. Be interesting to know what they are.
Assuming all 4 buses leave well apart from each other, how is that sort of crowd (i.e 2500 people) even managed? 1 line? Each line would go all the way to Southbank.
It would definitely make it better but if I'm reading this right - you're moving 5,000 people per hour on the tram. If we add the current bus option, that equates to 7,500 people per hour. It's still nowhere near enough public transport.
I know it's unfair to compare to the MCG but the MCG is serviced by two tram lines, one bus line and nine train lines (I'm excluding Alamein which is a branch line from Camberwell). Each train can take around 1,000 passengers. I catch the train at Jolimont and they run the trains through every five minutes after a game. So at Jolimont alone over 6,000 people can be moved in the space of 30 minutes. That doesn't include the trains going back to the city. Add the other lines and you are easily moving 40,000 people in 30 minutes. Plus there is parking for thousands of cars.
Unfortunately Metricon has a touch of the Waverley's about it. At least there was parking at Waverley.
The only thing that would I think allow the stadium to really grow would be to have a branch line from Nerang station to the stadium and run trains directly to the stadium in conjunction with trams, buses and parking. Whether this is feasible in terms of both economics and the infrastructure of the place is another issue.
It is an issue that will have to be tackled. The ground itself is fantastic but people will be turned off in terms of going if it's too hard to get to.
I went to the Suns v Hawks game at Metricon recently and had no trouble gettting to or from the ground on the shuttle bus from Broadbeach, as I made sure I stayed at accommodation within walking distance of Victoria Park.
However I doubt the shuttle bus system will be able to cope if the crowds at Suns games approach 30K once the stadium is completed post the Commonwealth Games. The time is now for the AFL, the Suns and the Gold Coast council to invest in better infrastructure for patrons. They really need to build a couple of large carparks along Nerang-Broadbeach Road, with one west of the stadium for traffic from Brisbane/Pacific Motorway and one to the east for Gold Coast traffic. As well as that, if there was a way to extend the new light rail from the Gold Coast past Metricon Stadium to Nerang Station that would be a huge help too.
However I doubt the shuttle bus system will be able to cope if the crowds at Suns games approach 30K once the stadium is completed post the Commonwealth Games. The time is now for the AFL, the Suns and the Gold Coast council to invest in better infrastructure for patrons. They really need to build a couple of large carparks along Nerang-Broadbeach Road, with one west of the stadium for traffic from Brisbane/Pacific Motorway and one to the east for Gold Coast traffic. As well as that, if there was a way to extend the new light rail from the Gold Coast past Metricon Stadium to Nerang Station that would be a huge help too.
I was a little sceptical like you before I went to the Lions v Richmond game on Easter Thursday, but my brother who lives in Brisbane assured me that it worked well (and he was right).
The first thing to know is that there are dedicated bus roads and lanes in Brisbane, including bus only tunnels close to the city that allow them to efficiently move around without being held up by cars. Before the game there are a constant stream of buses on each of the free shuttle lines so there is hardly any waiting for a bus.
After the game the roads around the Gabba are for buses only, with huge rows of buses waiting for spectators as they exit the stadium. I basically walked straight out of the Gabba on got straight on to a bus without waiting.
Thought I'd mention this as it is useful information to footy fans travelling to the Gold Coast. The new Gold Coast tram line (due to open in June 2014) connects Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise to Southport. This is particularly of interest to footy fans because the last stop on the tram line (Gold Coast University Hospital Station) is located about 800 metres from the Southport Sharks. For anyone who doesn't know, the Southport Sharks is arguably the best social club on the Gold Coast (and maybe even Queensland) and is also the most successful Queensland Aussie rules team ever. Whether you intend on watching a local game (NEAFL for the Sharks) or would just like a meal in nice surroundings while watching the footy, the Southport Sharks have you covered. I can't speak highly enough of this place. To get there from Gold Coast University Hospital station you will need to walk up the stairs/escalator towards the Hospital and walk north along Hospital Boulevard. The road will continue to the right after you have walked about 300 metres and you will walk around a further 150 metres before taking the first left on to Melia Court. Then it's just about another 200 metres to the entrance of the Southport Sharks. I highly recommend it.
It won't be long before it becomes obvious to everyone that buses alone aren't sufficient. Whether the local council/state government do anything about it is another issue. We can only hope they will do the right thing and extend the light rail to Nerang station with a stop at Metricon along the way.
Did you stay close to Victoria Park because of my suggestion or did you already know what you were doing flamethrower? Either way, staying near Victoria Park in Broadbeach won't be as much of an issue once the trams are open to the public but I'm sure you appreciated how convenient it was staying near the shuttle area.
It won't be long before it becomes obvious to everyone that buses alone aren't sufficient. Whether the local council/state government do anything about it is another issue. We can only hope they will do the right thing and extend the light rail to Nerang station with a stop at Metricon along the way.
I remember the game last year at Subi where the Fremantle line (which services Subi) was down for track work on game day, and they had to line up buses along nearly the boundary of Kitchener Park. Huge pain in the posterior.
