GMHBA Stadium (Kardinia Park, Geelong)

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Information is correct as of July 2017

Getting to Kardina Park

Simonds Stadium is easily accessible by train, car and foot. Located 75 kilometres south-west of Melbourne and only a kilometre from the Geelong city centre.

Interstate travellers (Gold Coast, Adelaide, Sydney & Hobart) can fly Jetstar directly to Avalon airport which is approximately a 30 minute drive to Skilled Stadium.

Address:
Simonds Stadium—Kardinia Park
Latrobe Terrace, Geelong

Starting 2018, the stadium will be renamed GMHBA Stadium
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Train:

Approximately 60 minutes from Southern Cross Station, Melbourne.

There are two train Stations near Simonds Stadium—Geelong Railway Station and South Geelong Station. South Geelong Station is a short five minute walk and the Geelong Railway Station is a longer 20 to 30 minute along Latrobe Terrace to the stadium. If you are going straight to the football from the train, get off at South Geelong Station.

The regular Vline timetable can be downloaded at: https://www.vline.com.au/Timetables/Train-coach-timetables

In addition to the regular services, Vline will also run ‘Football Special’ trains. You can sign up for Football Special alerts at: https://www.vline.com.au/footy
When using this option, remember to select Geelong as your team.

Car:
Approximately 60 minutes from Melbourne CBD, Geelong is 75 kilometres down the Princes Highway from Melbourne via the Westgate Bridge. Entering Geelong requires no turns from the highway and finding the stadium is made easy via the 4 light towers that stand out in the Geelong skyline.

There is limited parking within Kardinia Park for patrons attending Simonds Stadium matches, and you are advised to arrive early.

Parking can be also found all around Simonds Stadium. You can park in the neighbouring streets. During the 2017 season, the Council has changed the parking restrictions in some neighbouring streets to 2hr parking until 9pm or 11pm at night—please pay away to parking restrictions as the Council loves to send parking officers out during matches (and open training sessions) to fine those breaking parking restrictions.

Alternate parking options also include South Geelong Primary School and South Geelong Train Station. There is a cost for parking in these locations—South Geelong Train Station parking is operated by The Scouts on match days and it costs $10.
If anyone is aware of the cost to park at South Geelong Primary School please advise so we can update.

Please refer to Google Maps, Melways, Apple Maps or other mapping app/program for an overview of the area:
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Ticketing

General ticketing enquiries:
For information about purchasing tickets to up coming 2017 Geelong matches (home & away), please visit: http://www.geelongcats.com.au/ticketing

Members:
For information about on sale dates, reserved seat upgrades, interstate members, pricing and stadium ticket agents please visit: https://membership.geelongcats.com.au/ticketing

Seat returns and forwards:
2017 members with reserved seats at Simonds Stadium (not Etihad or MCG) have the option to return their seat for resale or forward their seat.

Seat returns: Members with a season Reserved Seat at Simonds Stadium are encouraged to use the Seat Return option if they're unable to attend a SS game in 2017. You will receive a credit towards your 2018 Membership if your seat sells, and your vacant seat can be used by another Cats Member or fan to help us fill Simonds Stadium each home game (and also give Richmond fans the shits due to the inflated prices of seats available for resale).

Important: Please note, once you return your seat you cannot change your mind. Your Membership barcode will be cancelled for that game and your Membership card will not scan you in at the gate.

Seat forwards: If you're a Season Reserved Seat Holder at Simonds you have the option to forward your seat to family and friends to use for a selected game. This option allows family and friends to print out a ticket via email to use for the selected game so you don’t have to hand over your Membership card. Please note, Credit Rewards do not apply to seat forwarding.

More information about the seat return and the seat forward programs can be found here: https://membership.geelongcats.com.au/seatreturn
There is meant to be the option (especially for seat resale) that you can control through the myaccount section for members; I tried that this year but was unable to put my seats up for resale that way and instead had to contact the club via phone and they were able to assist that way.

Where do I sit?

One of the biggest changes with seating at KP in 2017 is the new labelling for the Bays in each stand. The stadium has converted to a more conventional bay numbering system with the Reg Hickey Stand starting with Bay A1 (ground level) and all bays following on numerical rather than reverting to “1” when moving into a new stand as in previous years. The second tier of seating in the Reg Hickey Stand starts at B1, and where their is an upper level of seating—Reg Hickey Stand, Players Stand & the Brownlow Stand they start at C1, and follow the name numbering convention as the A level below them.

Generally most seats are taken by reserved seat holders. That being said there is general admission standing and seating available. There is also a selection of seating around the ground. A seating chart of Simonds Stadium can be found:

Members seating chart:
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General seating map:
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Or online here: https://www.kardiniapark.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MAP-Simonds-Stadium-Overview.jpg

Where to get food at or near Simonds Stadium?
An mobile ATM is located behind Ablett Terrace (at least it was when I sat at that end of the stadium).

Food and beverage outlets are located within the stadium on a match day. Some outlets may have EFTPOS facilities but this isn’t a standard across all outlets

Pubs close to KP that you may want to venture to before or after the game (please note some places may be closed after the game if it is a night match):
Other near by eating options include:
  • Kardina Cafe—Latrobe Terrace, open 24 hours
  • Ripper Roast—Latrobe Terrace, open 4pm to 8pm
  • Red Rooster—Corner Fyans St & Latrobe Terrace
Another options for before and after the match is the Sporting Globe, Ryrie Street. They offer the following specials for every Geelong home game:
  • 2 for 1 Furphys, 2 hours before and after all Geelong home games in Geelong
  • Shuttle bus from the venue to the stadium, 30 minutes before kick off
  • 3 Shuttle buses back to the venue after the match—bus leaves from the corner of Moorabool St & Foster St (Opposite Gate 5/Bernie Smith Gate). The first bus leaves 20 minutes after the game, with the other buses leaving at 30 minute intervals.
  • http://www.sportingglobe.com.au/whatson
Training
Open training sessions are generally held during school holidays, with information about when they will be held generally released within a month of the scheduled session.

Match day information
The club has created a very useful page that they update prior to each home match (KP, MCG & Etihad) during 2017: http://www.geelongcats.com.au/match-day-information

Information on this page includes:
  • Match information (opponent, day & time, venue)
  • Predicted weather
  • Gate opening
  • What’s on, i.e. giveaways
  • What’s happening on the ground
  • Geeing there (car, train, tram, bus, ferry, parking etc)
  • Event day live events
  • Membership
  • Ticketing (general admission areas & cheer squad locations)
  • Cats Shop
  • Social Club
  • Stadium Facilities & Maps
  • Team Selection
  • Broadcast Information
  • Social Media handles
  • Updates

This should be used as a guide only. If you have a more detailed question or something relevant to the week’s game please post and a fellow poster will surely be able to help you.

If you have more information to add, or would like something else covered in this post feel free to give feedback

Go Catters

Full credit to cats_09 for outstanding work here
 
Last edited:
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #3
The Wookie
Please edit thread title to show Simmonds Stadium, which as of next year will be GMHBA Stadium at Kardinia Park - so maybe its best to just do that title now.

Cheers

Go Catters
 

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Roogal

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Dec 7, 2016
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How should we pronounce gmhba?
'gmmhubbah' :)

Mind you, the stadium formerly known as 'Simonds Stadium' has some stiff competition out there in the world:
  • Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium (India)
  • Mend-A-Hose Jungle home of Castleford Tigers Rugby League Football Club (UK)
  • The Dripping Pan home of English football club Lewes
  • Bargain Booze Stadium (Witton Albion - England)
  • Wankdorf Stadion (BSC Young Boys - Switzerland)
  • KitKat Crescent (York, England)
  • Middelfart Stadium (Middlefart, Denmark)
  • Gaylord Entertainment Center (Nashville, USA)
  • Kuntz Stadium (Indianapolis, USA)
Suddenly G.M.H.B.A. Stadium in Geelong isn't sounding so bad.
 
Last edited:

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Nov 28, 2011
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far out - I've mentioned how much I hate commercial stadium names before, but this one is right up there with the worst


The thing I don't understand is how so many people jump on board with the arse-licking and end up referring to stadiums by their bought names amongst themselves and on bigfooty etc

The commercial broadcast stations are beholden to $ so we know they are bought, but us mere laypeople have the agency to only ever refer to it as Kardinia / Princes Park / Football Park / Docklands / etc etc but so many people dont....
 

JohnZ

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 10, 2016
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far out - I've mentioned how much I hate commercial stadium names before, but this one is right up there with the worst


The thing I don't understand is how so many people jump on board with the arse-licking and end up referring to stadiums by their bought names amongst themselves and on bigfooty etc

The commercial broadcast stations are beholden to $ so we know they are bought, but us mere laypeople have the agency to only ever refer to it as Kardinia / Princes Park / Football Park / Docklands / etc etc but so many people dont....
How exactly is this one of the worst? GMHBA is a member's owned health insurance company, ie $0 profits (in theory). Better than being sponsored by the UAE government (Etihad) or Singaporean government (Optus) etc. Local company, local brand can hardly be the worst commercial stadium name.
 

hitthepost

Norm Smith Medallist
Oct 26, 2010
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Actually pretty neutral
https://www.kardiniapark.vic.gov.au/2017/09/bbl-blockbuster-set-for-kardinia-park

Go give the oval a bit of wear and tear right before footy comes back
If January is "right before footy comes back" what do we define last season's February T20I as?
Any groundstaff worth its salt can remove a dropin pitch and have the ground ready for JLT or Round 1 in much less than 6 weeks, as last season proves. Hell, Adelaide Oval did that s**t overnight for International Rules!
 
If January is "right before footy comes back" what do we define last season's February T20I as?
Any groundstaff worth its salt can remove a dropin pitch and have the ground ready for JLT or Round 1 in much less than 6 weeks, as last season proves. Hell, Adelaide Oval did that s**t overnight for International Rules!

That's true. It's at least good to see the Big Bash somewhere else other than the MCG and Etihad.
 

hitthepost

Norm Smith Medallist
Oct 26, 2010
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Actually pretty neutral
Re the pitch alignment - it has to be on that angle so that the boundaries at deep cover each side of the pitch are long enough for ICC regulations. With a standard north-south pitch the ground is too narrow.
 

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