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Pretty sure Eastern Stand will get Football names, as Western Stand gets/has Cricket names.
How are there 5 pavillions in the Eastern Stand? Unless they're dividing it under the roofing sections:
How are there 5 pavillions in the Eastern Stand? Unless they're dividing it under the roofing sections:
I spoke to SMA CEO Andrew Daniels on Level 3 of the Southern Stand for about 15 minutes whilst waiting for a mate to rock up and then after play finished, my mates friend knows curator Damian Hough and we bumped into him as we were walking towards the northern gates and chatted to him for about 15 minutes.
By next Friday the grass will be put in at the southern end all the way to the southern grandstand fence, that I mentioned in my previous post. In some spots they only need a couple of metres and other positions they need about 15 metres. Both told me that the playing boundary rope will go right up to where the existing temporary construction fence and temporary site screen is. They both said that they will try and minimise what new soil and grass that goes in this week, will be inside the boundary rope and playing field.
Andrew Daniels confirmed that where the boundary rope in front of the western grandstand is, will be where the boundary will be for footy. He said that artificial turf that goes from about 15m north of the southern corner of the western stand to the site screen of the northern end, but will eventually go all the way round the ground.
He said that next week they will fill in the eastern side of the ground which as you can see below has a gap of about 12 metres. He said they will leave about 4m of soil between fence of level 1 and the playing surface as they need that for the machines to drive along to finish off the eastern stand. That 4m gap will be filled in with the artificial grass. I didn't ask if they are putting artificial grass at the southern end.
I asked about soccer and he said that the A league finals will happen after the cricket pitch is taken out so it won't be a problem for the finals if Adelaide United want to play there. He said no game before the finals has been negotiated for AO. I looked up the A league fixture and the final will clash with the footy weekends April 17-20, April 24-27 and GF is May 4.
When I spoke to curator Damian Hough he said the pitch is 200mm of soil and turf on a concrete slab. They have 8 wickets/slabs. He said they are growing the turf for the footy on another 8 concrete slabs so it will be a straight swap after the season's end. I had a chat to him about the machinery and also about the preparation for the Test.
He said the drop in wickets are playing pretty flat and will probably continue to be that way. We talked about if he could leave it a green top and he said it has crossed his mind but it wouldn't be AO if he prepared it that way. He is pretty happy how the outfield and pitch is progressing. A lot of work goes into the area in the back of the western grandstand, the workers had done a fair bit of damage to the area where Boof's and Dizzy's statutes are and the village green area takes up a lot of Oval no. 2 and there are a lot of poles driven into the soil for the marquees. He reckons that they had to develop a system with a cement base that they could drive the poles into those spots otherwise they would always be ripping up the soil and drainage. Based on what I saw the set was going to be, I wouldn't be surprised if 5,000 people are out the back during most of the first 3 days of the Test.
The little bit of level 3 we were allowed access to and could see was fantastic. The City View Restaurant 2 weeks ago was renamed The William Magarey Room. Its views are spectacular. We weren't allowed in so I stood at the door and used my zoom lense to take some photo's looking towards the city. It will be open 365 days a year and will sit 700 at a fully catered function.
Spoke to one of the catering supervisors who has been working at AO since the western grandstand was opened in 2010. He confirmed that the idea is that the venue will be open 365 days a year for functions, using all of the catering rooms in all 3 stands. He said there was a permanent catering staff of over 40, which confirms what I've been saying that the original SMA operating budget $2mil and only 20 staff was a farcical model.
