Perth Stadium (Optus Stadium)

Aug 14, 2011
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I don't see any real advances being mooted for the Perth Stadium. Do you?

Given Adelaide Oval is the trendsetter with reps from both Melbourne venues doing some fact finding junkets, I'd expect the WA stadium to be the equal of any 2018 stadium in 2018.
From an engineering viewpoint it seems Adelaide is streets ahead of any other stadium in Aus.
 

cos789

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Given Adelaide Oval is the trendsetter with reps from both Melbourne venues doing some fact finding junkets, I'd expect the WA stadium to be the equal of any 2018 stadium in 2018.

Not from a capacity point of view. Maybe from a comfort point of view.


From an engineering viewpoint it seems Adelaide is streets ahead of any other stadium in Aus.

In what way exactly?
 
The Perth stadium itself will probably be good. The location is going to be terrible, along with all the urban infrastructure of Perth. It's going to sit alongside a major freeway that's only 2 lanes wide with a pissweak 80kph limit that struggles enough as it is. Being on the train line does help, but they would definitely need a lot more running to want to clear 40,000 people on game day. Even the train station car parks aren't enough at the best of times, they need to multi-storey most of them anyway but as far as I know there's been talk of it, but no action. It now costs $2 a day for parking regardless, so hopefully that money will be used for improving public transport. As for the casino which will be right next door, parking is terrible there every single weekend so a massive multi-level carpark is going to be needed. By that I mean like 10,000 spaces big.

tl;dr - Perth urban design SUCKS
 

Rotayjay

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Adelaide Oval has turned out very well and I've now been there several times. The facilities, viewing, architecture and atmosphere are impressive. I've only attended football at three AFL stadiums: the MCG, our old Football Park (AAMI Stadium) and Adelaide Oval. When I sat on the bottom floor of the Great Southern Stand in 2012, I found it was a little tired, with not much legroom. The viewing and facilities at Footy Park were mediocre at best.

As much as I like our new ground, I believe we would have been better off in the long run with a brand-new stadium like in Perth. You see, at our 2010 state election one proposal was to renovate the existing Royal Adelaide Hospital and build a roofed, 70,000-seat stadium west of the CBD. Instead, a new hospital is under construction on that site and Australia's best-looking cricket oval was turned into a lovely, yet very different ground.

Within a decade we will have the same capacity problem that Perthians have with Subiaco. As it is, most Crows matches are sold out weeks in advance, because the capacity of Football Park was 51,515 and Adelaide Oval can hold 53,500. Not a big improvement. Perth punters should count themselves lucky: you will have to wait longer and fork out more dough, but you will get a facility that was designed from scratch with you, the fan, in mind. You're even going to get cupholders for goodness sakes ... :p
 

Admiral Byng

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The Perth stadium itself will probably be good. The location is going to be terrible, along with all the urban infrastructure of Perth. It's going to sit alongside a major freeway that's only 2 lanes wide with a pissweak 80kph limit that struggles enough as it is. Being on the train line does help, but they would definitely need a lot more running to want to clear 40,000 people on game day. Even the train station car parks aren't enough at the best of times, they need to multi-storey most of them anyway but as far as I know there's been talk of it, but no action. It now costs $2 a day for parking regardless, so hopefully that money will be used for improving public transport. As for the casino which will be right next door, parking is terrible there every single weekend so a massive multi-level carpark is going to be needed. By that I mean like 10,000 spaces big.

tl;dr - Perth urban design SUCKS

Have you even looked at the published plans?
 

Rotayjay

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The main mistake with AO is that the stand on the best viewing side of the ground is the smallest just being built for cricket before footy was going there. Needed to be at least the same size as the new one on the opposite wing.

If money was no object, the 2010 west stand should have been somehow made taller/larger. Adelaide's population is about to tick over to 1.3 million. I think that the famous Hill and heritage scoreboard might have to make way for a northern stand one day, otherwise this nice shiny place will outlive its usefulness by 2030.
 
Have you even looked at the published plans?

Do you even see the point I was making? Yeah they can move most of the capacity out of the area in a very short time? But where do those people go? They will all just have to bottleneck somewhere else.

Instead of trying to be a smartarse maybe see the point of my post is regarding Perth & the surrounds, not the new stadium itself. Maybe things will change but improvement needs to be overall, not band aid certain areas & 'let the rest sort itself out'
 

Admiral Byng

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Do you even see the point I was making? Yeah they can move most of the capacity out of the area in a very short time? But where do those people go? They will all just have to bottleneck somewhere else.

Instead of trying to be a smartarse maybe see the point of my post is regarding Perth & the surrounds, not the new stadium itself. Maybe things will change but improvement needs to be overall, not band aid certain areas & 'let the rest sort itself out'

The points you raise have all been addressed. It's not like you're the first one to realise there needs to be some upgrades to the rail system to cope with the stadium. This is what is planned so far:

6 platform station to replace the Belmont Park station.
Marshalling yard east of the stadium that can hold up to 117 rail cars
Signals upgrade to allow trains to run at 120 second intervals on the inner parts of the network
Through trains to/from Fremantle and Joondalup without stopping in Perth city so passengers don't have to change trains (avoiding bottlenecks)
New marshalling area between Perth and Leederville so trains can turn around onto the Mandurah line
Rebuilding part of east Perth station to cope with larger numbers of people coming via the Midland line

It's a fairly comprehensive plan to get people home. Those that want to go home after the game will be well catered for. Those that want to go to Perth/Northbridge after the game to get on the piss will be well-catered for too.
 
Aug 14, 2011
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And.................... they said the engineering was superior because...............................?

Not being an engineer I accepted it as a fact - bringing a guy from the other side of the world for the job was credentials enough for me - if a Merc works engineer said one model was a step forward from an earlier I'd accept it too.
Are you suggesting engineering of stadiums has stood still for more than a decade?
 

cos789

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Not being an engineer I accepted it as a fact - bringing a guy from the other side of the world for the job was credentials enough for me - if a Merc works engineer said one model was a step forward from an earlier I'd accept it too.
Are you suggesting engineering of stadiums has stood still for more than a decade?

I'm interested how any engineering developments might impact stadia.
Are you suggesting engineering of stadiums cannot be incorporated in or improving on existing designs?
Because there are some good models out there just waiting to be updated.
 
Aug 14, 2011
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By that remark I can only take it that you work for BF and are trying to get the number of hits up.
But yes, I am an analyst. It's my job to analyse.

BF, no. Do such roles exist other than in the world of an analyst?

Paralysis from analysis, you across that cos ... I'd love to help you but my source is lazing it back home in the Caribbean so IF I catch him anytime soon, be sure I'll quiz him for you - googled it?
 
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