News PeopleFirst (Bank) Stadium and Precinct

[Matchu]

Gold Coast Suns to benefit from Carrara redevelopment for Games

THE Gold Coast Suns will move into a new $20 million headquarters within a $106m redevelopment of the Carrara precinct that will be transformed after the Commonwealth Games into a high-performance centre for hire.

The vision of the Government and the Games planning committee is for Carrara to become an elite training destination that targets international sporting organisations such as English Premier League clubs and international rugby sides for pre-season training camps and potentially pump millions annually into the Queensland economy.

The plans for the redevelopment of Carrara, released by Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney include two multi-sport indoor stadiums, an upgrade of Metricon Stadium and another outdoor sporting field.

There will also be an aquatic centre.

The finals plans will be submitted to the Commonwealth Games planning committee next month. Work will begin later this year and is expected to be completed in 2016.

The Suns must contribute $20m to their training and administration centre and vacate it during the Games so the facility can be used for badminton and fencing tournaments as well as the control hub for Games officials.

Suns chairman John Witheriff said the philosophy behind the planning for the precinct was that it became a financial asset for the city after the Games as a key elite sporting destination.

He said the Suns, as major tenants, would have a role to play in managing the facility.

“If you look at the Indian situation after their Commonwealth Games, a lot of those assets are simply being bulldozed and knocked down,” he said.

“That's not going to happen in Queensland, the Gold Coast Suns are going to have to wear the costs and expense of ensuring that a number of those legacy assets are maintained for benefit of community.

“It just won't be a piece of Gold Coast Suns infrastructure, it will be one where the Suns interact with a whole lot of other sporting teams and our skills are shared and our medical information shared and out athletic knowledge is shared.”

Last month senior Suns officials and senior architects from BVN Donovan Hill toured the facilities of AFL clubs Essendon, the Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne, Carlton and GWS.

Senior Suns official Andrew Travis, who oversaw the development of Metricon Stadium, is closely involved in the planning process.

Travis worked on the AAMI Park precinct in Melbourne and has been seconded to the planning committee for the new AFL venue in Perth.

Witheriff said his presence ensured the Suns' designs requirements would be met.

“What is really positive is we're deeply included in the process, our staff are working with the planning staff and architects and we have been intimately designed with the design process,” he said.

Pretty much confirming what we already knew. The Carrara Sport and Leisure Centre will become the Suns' training and admin facilities. Also great to see an aquatic centre in the plans which will mean the Suns won't need to travel to a high school to do their recovery anymore. I'd like to see what the actual plans are for Metricon Stadium in terms of the seating upgrade (and anything else) but I can't seem to find pictures anywhere. The article states the final plans will be submitted next month and is expected to be completed in 2016!

If I'm reading that correctly, that means the Suns will have a 40,000 seat stadium for the 2017 AFL season! The article also gives the impression that the club will have first class training and admin facilities for the 2017 season as well.

 

[CQSUN]

Gold Coast Suns to benefit from Carrara redevelopment for Games


Pretty much confirming what we already knew. The Carrara Sport and Leisure Centre will become the Suns' training and admin facilities. Also great to see an aquatic centre in the plans which will mean the Suns won't need to travel to a high school to do their recovery anymore. I'd like to see what the actual plans are for Metricon Stadium in terms of the seating upgrade (and anything else) but I can't seem to find pictures anywhere. The article states the final plans will be submitted next month and is expected to be completed in 2016!

If I'm reading that correctly, that means the Suns will have a 40,000 seat stadium for the 2017 AFL season! The article also gives the impression that the club will have first class training and admin facilities for the 2017 season as well.

Good find Matchu , sounds like we are getting the right people involved, hopefully we can have some facilities in time for the 2017 season but I doubt it.

 

[Matchu]

Good find Matchu , sounds like we are getting the right people involved, hopefully we can have some facilities in time for the 2017 season but I doubt it.

Well we're going to find out pretty quickly whether they stick to the schedule because they have said work will start later this year. You can basically throw the old plans out the window at this point because these plans include an aquatic centre which has never been in previous plans. I just hope they have finally re-thought the temporary upgrade of the stadium and the design itself looks more clean.

Something that is interesting is the fact that it mentions they intend to rent the facilities out to Premier League (Soccer) clubs and international Rugby sides. The AFL is going to invest $20m into this redevelopment so would it be fair to assume they are going to have a similar deal with the QLD Gov like they have with the stadium? By that, I mean, management rights so that they get a cut of the money when the high performance centre is rented by these Premier League and Rugby teams? I think this might be the case. Which is great for the Suns because it results in more revenue.

They also mention they are going to build another outdoor sports field which will no doubt be a Soccer/Rugby field for those teams who want to use the facilities at Carrara.

 

[CQSUN]

Very interesting times in the near future thats for sure.
Am I right in thinking that the Comm games aquatic center is not going to be at Carrara? So that means we might be getting one more so designed for sports recovery and rehab built at Carrara?
The fact that Andrew Travis is involved is promising. Given his role in AAMI park which houses a number of professional sporting teams, im confident that we will have a high quality facility that is, like stated in the article attractive to a number of big name teams.
I wonder how the 20 million will be fronted, surly we would require some assistance from the AFL but without seeing any financial statements fro the past few years it is hard to tell what sort of financial position we are in.

 

[Matchu]

Very interesting times in the near future thats for sure.
Am I right in thinking that the Comm games aquatic center is not going to be at Carrara? So that means we might be getting one more so designed for sports recovery and rehab built at Carrara?
The fact that Andrew Travis is involved is promising. Given his role in AAMI park which houses a number of professional sporting teams, im confident that we will have a high quality facility that is, like stated in the article attractive to a number of big name teams.
I wonder how the 20 million will be fronted, surly we would require some assistance from the AFL but without seeing any financial statements fro the past few years it is hard to tell what sort of financial position we are in.

You are correct in thinking the aquatic centre for the Comm Games is not the same as the one that will be built at Carrara. The one that will be used for the Comm Games is located in Southport and is basically finished. It will host the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in 4 months. I've attached a picture if you are interested in seeing what that one looks like:

It is fair to assume the one at Carrara will be designed specifically for recovery. I also like the fact that the design is taking into account the needs of the Suns. There is no doubt in my mind that the AFL will be paying most (if not all) of the $20m. They recently paid $15m for the Giants high performance centre so it would only be fair to do the same for the Suns.

 

[Iva Bigun]

I read the article in the Courier mail today and was confused about where the 20 million is coming from. We don't have the money and I doubt we would get a loan as the repayments would cripple us. I hope the AFL is coming to the party.

 

[CQSUN]

BVN Donovan Hill are the team that have scoped out other AFL Facilities and were the team behind the design of the Sydney Olympics, Athens Olympics and the Beijing Olympics. Seems that we are in pretty good hands here

 

[nutstar]

When I visited the gold coast for my honeymoon in February, we went to metricon to go to the club shop, the lady working there took us for a small tour there, and was telling us about this aquatic centre and facilities being built, as if it was already confirmed its happening, not sure where the money is coming from but it sounds like its simply happening.
but as has been pointed out before, as the Carrara precinct is going to be the hub if you will, does this confirm metricon will be going up in size?

 

[Matchu]

When I visited the gold coast for my honeymoon in February, we went to metricon to go to the club shop, the lady working there took us for a small tour there, and was telling us about this aquatic centre and facilities being built, as if it was already confirmed its happening, not sure where the money is coming from but it sounds like its simply happening.
but as has been pointed out before, as the Carrara precinct is going to be the hub if you will, does this confirm metricon will be going up in size?

Very interesting. I have no doubt the Suns are heavily involved in the process given it will affect/benefit them directly. Could you expand on what they told you? Did they show you exactly where it would be located? I'd be really interested to hear any other information.

We can only assume the previous plans for a temporary upgrade of Metricon are still in place. Until we get told something else there is no reason to believe something else will happen. Under those plans, the capacity will be increased to 40,000 and the article I posted claims it will be completed in 2016. I remember Tom Tate (GC Mayor) saying last year that Metricon would bid to host a State of Origin match in 2017 because the capacity will be increased to 40,000 so that certainly lines up with the plans revealed in the article I posted.

 

[nutstar]

Very interesting. I have no doubt the Suns are heavily involved in the process given it will affect/benefit them directly. Could you expand on what they told you? Did they show you exactly where it would be located? I'd be really interested to hear any other information.

From what I picked up from her this was to be happen outside where the club shop is now, Just out in the area outside gate 4. Where the car park and I believe indoor sport complex is.

 

[PREETY_FLY]

Yea it where the indoor sports centre is and all the demountable buildigs


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[Matchu]

nutstar and Ryano316, would it be fair to assume the current indoor stadium is going to be demolished? It certainly look past its expiry date...

This picture gives us a bit of a different perspective of what they could do with the spare land. I'd personally like to see them build a proper arena that could fit around 10,000 people so we can start hosting music concerts like they do in Brisbane with the Entertainment Centre.

 

[PREETY_FLY]

I would assume that too mate. It's pretty much just an
Old shed. One would assume with it being next to the main stadium it's gonna be showcased at the commonwealth games and a new building would look far more appealing within the new sporting area


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[exile]

if they really wanted, with all that open land on both sides of the highway they could pour money into devleoping a major sporting hub, similar to melbourne. with the new facilities from the com games, plus this proposed casino down the road, it could potentially be a major hotspot. i guess they only need plans and investors.

 

[Matchu]

I would assume that too mate. It's pretty much just an
Old shed. One would assume with it being next to the main stadium it's gonna be showcased at the commonwealth games and a new building would look far more appealing within the new sporting area

You can tell it's an old building. It almost looks industrial. Hopefully the plans involve a new slick design like Metricon.

if they really wanted, with all that open land on both sides of the highway they could pour money into devleoping a major sporting hub, similar to melbourne. with the new facilities from the com games, plus this proposed casino down the road, it could potentially be a major hotspot. i guess they only need plans and investors.

I think they are planning to turn it into a sporting hub. Not sure how many people know this but just over the river there is an establishment called Royal Pines which is a resort and sports complex. They hold the Australian PGA (golf) tournament there and they used to host a professional tennis tournament. So there is already is a fair amount of good sports facilities in the area but Royal Pines is privately owned so I guess you can't really count that.

The main problem with the area is that a lot of it is floodplain. You can see the amount of spare land west of the stadium at the top of the picture I have provided below but (unfortunately) that entire area is floodplain.

I suppose something similar to the Runaway Bay Sports Centre (pic below) would be good for the Carrara precinct.

 

[Matchu]

This picture below shows the current set up of the Carrara precinct. You can see the indoor arena is quite dated and awkwardly positioned.

 

[sunsofanarchy]

Matchu with the new developments will there be any more shade for the broadcasted side during the day games? The match looked so empty on the weekend and it detracted a bit from the spectacle and rivalry that was talked up during the week.

 

[Matchu]

Matchu with the new developments will there be any more shade for the broadcasted side during the day games? The match looked so empty on the weekend and it detracted a bit from the spectacle and rivalry that was talked up during the week.

I don't believe so. You could see the fans were sitting right up the back of the eastern side where the limited amount of shade was. I'm not sure you can really avoid it anyway because of the direction the stadium is facing. The sun sets to the west and games are never played before midday so any day games at Metricon will always result in direct sun light for the eastern side of the stadium. A similar situation occurred for the Titans a few weeks back but there were reports they had to deal with 40 degree weather while it was only 27 degrees at Metricon yesterday.

I guess the idea was to locate the broadcasting equipment/corporate area on the side that will always be shaded. I would like to see them extend the roof though because it currently protects about 75% of stadium from rain. Why not make it 95% by extending the roof to protect the entire first tier? That is something to consider in the future but you can't really do anything about the sun. Just schedule less early afternoon games?

 

[nutstar]

One would assume its going to be demolished, it really doesn't seem to fit with what is being built. Guess we will have to wait a couple of months for the confirmation of the announced plans.

 

[Matchu]

One would assume its going to be demolished, it really doesn't seem to fit with what is being built. Guess we will have to wait a couple of months for the confirmation of the announced plans.

The article I posted above does mention the plans are to have two indoor stadiums. I've mentioned this before but I think the state election later this year/early next year could have a big impact on what we get at the Carrara precinct. The current QLD LNP gov in power has outlined a strict budget that they are extremely unwilling to falter from. The previous ALP government not only built Metricon Stadium but they also provided extra funding half way through the project to build a roof over the southern stand. It was under the ALP's tenure that the Gold Coast was awarded the Comm Games in the first place so I think they'd have more interest in it than the LNP.

I guess it's just a wait and see prospect. It'd be nice if the state government provided more funding for the Comm Games after the next election but I can really only see one party doing that.

 

[PREETY_FLY]

Can't see ALP winning even with the way LNP are running this plaxe


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[PREETY_FLY]

If only they'd built that roof when the funding was guven


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[Matchu]

Can't see ALP winning even with the way LNP are running this plaxe

If the Redcliffe by-election held in February is anything to go by then it could be closer than you think. There was an article in the Brisbane Times a few weeks ago that found LNP would lose the election if it was held that weekend. It was based on a survey of 3000 Queenslanders.

If only they'd built that roof when the funding was guven

Built the roof? Do you mean fill in the open section of the stadium? Bit hard to justify building a stadium any bigger than 25,000 before your main tenants have even entered the national league...

 

[nutstar]

Please see the light QLD, get rid of this Current government

 

[Iva Bigun]

Yes let's go back to flood cover ups, health care pay debacles and massive debt