The old suburban VFL/AFL grounds

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Whiten Oval held up pretty well with 10k people on the weekend. Peter Gordan has said he wants to look into maybe playing a few AFL games in the near future, would need a fair bit more work but it's getting there. New lights and a new scoreboard are going up this year.
 
doggies ftw said:
Whiten Oval held up pretty well with 10k people on the weekend. Peter Gordan has said he wants to look into maybe playing a few AFL games in the near future, would need a fair bit more work but it's getting there. New lights and a new scoreboard are going up this year.
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Will be very hard to get the AFL and Etihad/MCG to budge on their deals.
 

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Hope the dogs can start playing a few games there in the future.

Just wrong that 9 teams play out of 2 stadiums in Melbourne.

Would give my left nut just to see North play a scratch match at Arden St against another Afl club.
 
doggies ftw said:
Surely they could allow us to play 2 or 3 games there against GWS/GC/Freo etc, just give us the chance to stand on our own feet for once :(
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Why not move the game vs Fremantle there in May? Then you get your wish and the A-league could play the Grand Final at Docklands, if Melbourne hosts it.
 
Borussia Teeth said:
Why not move the game vs Fremantle there in May? Then you get your wish and the A-league could play the Grand Final at Docklands, if Melbourne hosts it.
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The club would jump at that, all depends on if the AFL would allow it. Makes perfect sense though, grounds probably not quite up to AFL standard yet.
 
doggies ftw said:
Whiten Oval held up pretty well with 10k people on the weekend. Peter Gordan has said he wants to look into maybe playing a few AFL games in the near future, would need a fair bit more work but it's getting there. New lights and a new scoreboard are going up this year.
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the AFL & the clubs should, do as what the NRL has done for decades, hound the local politicians, & various levels of governments & turn it in to a political minefield.
thats how all of the NRL club grounds were built
 
I still don't understand why Princes Park isn't used for low-drawing games. By the looks of it the capacity would still be about 20k. Why not upgrade it a bit and give Melbourne the long-awaited 3rd stadium it needs???
 
Millsie69 said:
I still don't understand why Princes Park isn't used for low-drawing games. By the looks of it the capacity would still be about 20k. Why not upgrade it a bit and give Melbourne the long-awaited 3rd stadium it needs???
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I think that should be a possibility, friend - I would consider that one to think about, as having four clubs each at the Docklands and also the MCG is a bit crowded - too much for my liking.

However, would the powers that be let the Roos play a few home matches there? I have been noticing this ever since the side left Arden Street in the late eighties.
 
GeorgeMullins said:
I think that should be a possibility, friend - I would consider that one to think about, as having four clubs each at the Docklands and also the MCG is a bit crowded - too much for my liking.

However, would the powers that be let the Roos play a few home matches there? I have been noticing this ever since the side left Arden Street in the late eighties.
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Most of the other clubs in Melbourne have used it as a Home Ground at one time or another so why not! :p
 
Millsie69 said:
I still don't understand why Princes Park isn't used for low-drawing games. By the looks of it the capacity would still be about 20k. Why not upgrade it a bit and give Melbourne the long-awaited 3rd stadium it needs???
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ive heard Daniel Andrews in an interview about a month ago, on radio, talk of a 30k capacity stadium, in the plans, as melbourne needs one, but it will not be seriously looked at until 2017.

i haven't been able to find anything in print about it, to back it up, but it would be awesome for the AFL or melbourne to have a 30k capacity oval
 
doggies ftw said:
Whiten Oval held up pretty well with 10k people on the weekend. Peter Gordan has said he wants to look into maybe playing a few AFL games in the near future, would need a fair bit more work but it's getting there. New lights and a new scoreboard are going up this year.
Click to expand...

I like your sentiment but I think that ship has sailed unfortunately. When they were doing the refurbishment they destroyed too much of the existing amenities. I went to see the Northern Blues play there last year and I posted the pictures in this thread. They didn't even have a scoreboard, all they had was an LED sign on the back of a ute that took an age to update and had no timer on it, so it's good to see a new one being erected. It's such a shame that the scoreboards at places like Whitten Oval, Moorabbin and Vic Park were destroyed during their refurbishments. Also there weren't any permanent toilets in place for people to use outside of the staff ones in the cafe. They parked half a dozen portaloos in the forward pocket and you had to piss into a sink like trough (I don't know how but many people managed to miss the sink completely and there was piss all over the wall and floor). Then there's things like entrances and exits which were all in place before the refurbishment and were subsequently pulled down due to the short sightedness of those in the Bulldogs administration at the time. If you were in the outer and wanted something to eat, there was only a taco truck and Mr whippy van parked behind the goals trying their best, but only had the capacity to serve 5-6 people at a time.

So basically to get it into a fit state for AFL matches they would have to spend millions putting in scoreboards, toilets, entrances/exits and refreshment kiosks after spending millions tearing down scoreboards, toilets, entrances/exits and refreshment kiosks. I think the only old suburban ground that has any chance of hosting AFL matches again is Princes Park as there is at least enough remaining amenities to make it somewhat feasible.
 

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Millsie69 said:
I still don't understand why Princes Park isn't used for low-drawing games. By the looks of it the capacity would still be about 20k. Why not upgrade it a bit and give Melbourne the long-awaited 3rd stadium it needs???
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It wouldn't be too hard to replace the seats and upgrade the toilet areas. It's a question of food stalls, though. The AFL would want a number of food outlets to be installed to maximise profit. Not to mention Carlton's training facility which is placed where a stand should be.
 
Gibbsy said:
Such an awesome stadium, seeing the stand chopped in half makes me sad, RIP the Heatley Stand. I hope that footy returns to that ground one day.
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It certainly does, especially as I see it all the time from my bicycle.

I understand the politics involved in the demise of Princes Park: it needed lights to survive in a road lobby- and TV-dominated age, yet there is no way locals would have allowed lights to be installed at Princes Park, a fact which the VFL/AFL knew before lights were installed at the MCG thirty years ago. If one looks at the NRL, the same would hold with only minor differences for all the suburban grounds except Moorabbin, where lights would have been politically feasible but which was unfortunately too close to Waverley.
 
bombersfan4000 said:
the AFL & the clubs should, do as what the NRL has done for decades, hound the local politicians, & various levels of governments & turn it in to a political minefield.
thats how all of the NRL club grounds were built
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No. It's how they were renovated. And even then, only if they were in a marginal seat or were supported by the PM (I'm looking at you John Howard & St George Dragons...)
Leichhardt is still stuck in the 1940s.
 
mianfei said:
It certainly does, especially as I see it all the time from my bicycle.

I understand the politics involved in the demise of Princes Park: it needed lights to survive in a road lobby- and TV-dominated age, yet there is no way locals would have allowed lights to be installed at Princes Park, a fact which the VFL/AFL knew before lights were installed at the MCG thirty years ago. If one looks at the NRL, the same would hold with only minor differences for all the suburban grounds except Moorabbin, where lights would have been politically feasible but which was unfortunately too close to Waverley.
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Moorabbin actually does have lights. They are primitive, but they are there. The issue is capacity and spectator comfort. I am very familiar with Moorabbin and went to a game at Princes Park shortly before it was abandoned as a venue, and in the condition they were in they were not viable, meaning the clubs, government and AFL would have to spend tens of millions upgrading the venues to the 30,000 boutique stadium the city desperately needs. Both stadiums also have issues with parking, and Carlton is only accessible on public transport by tram, which would be a logistical nightmare on game day if a large crowd were to show up.

It's fairly obvious 2 large capacity stadiums are not viable by themselves, and there is work to be done to get at least one small to medium sized venue for lower drawing games. My preference is a mini-Dome at Arden Street, as it is close to the city and a major railway station and has the room around it for proper stands and facilities, unlike Punt Rd.
 
any one have any any idea on what Eddie & Collingwood are building at the westpac center? last time i was down there there was fences up around the oval
 
That's the training oval - the site of the old Olympic Park? I think the fences are just there to keep media/the public off the oval.
 
Riccardo11 said:
That's the training oval - the site of the old Olympic Park? I think the fences are just there to keep media/the public off the oval.
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its fenced off like its a construction yard. i realise the pies are updating the old glass house building, but i wonder if they plan to turn to build some stands around the ground. as last last year Gary Pert claimed the pies want to own a stadium one day
 
bombersfan4000 said:
its fenced off like its a construction yard. i realise the pies are updating the old glass house building, but i wonder if they plan to turn to build some stands around the ground. as last last year Gary Pert claimed the pies want to own a stadium one day
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That's our new community centre with our social club facilities.
 
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