Western Bulldogs and their partnership with Ballarat a success

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VogonProsthetnic said:
Walk down to your local footy. You don’t get bombarded with noise, gambling ads and gimmicks and only $10 to get in. Free after half time.
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Few things in life take one out of oneself better than strolling off to a local footy game and chatting with the folks who volunteer their time to support the day. They are there to just take themselves out of their day to day routine and to just be themselves too. :)
 
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There's the potential in the next two games to steal 9th place on the ladder against what seems to be an evenly matched (well on paper and percentages) 9th placed Collingwood this Friday (the 13th) and a better chance to at least consolidate that position if the Dogs can seriously put away the Suns with a good percentage boosting win in Ballarat on Election day. These two games will be crucial to getting the team within that critical position of the ladder as we are only a couple of rounds from the season's mid point. The team needs to put the dramas of the last few weeks behind them and get back to their best game which we know that when they pull together should see them finish at least in the top eight. It won't be easy as the top 6 ATM are definitely playing better football but ATM your team is still the best of the current cluster of five teams that have three wins a piece. The Dogs are perhaps a better team ATM than either Richmond (who aren't really setting the world on fire this year) or Collingwood who have four wins a piece and holding the 8th and 9th positions respectively. What the Dogs do over the next two rounds I deeply suspect will probably define the second half of their season.
 
From today's Ballarat Courier:

Western Bulldogs in Ballarat: Doug Hawkins, Scott West, and Lindsay Gilbee at past players night ahead of Suns clash​

r936_583_4511_2603_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

Sons of the West: City of Ballarat Councillor Ben Taylor, Doug Hawkins, and Hop Temple's Jordan McPhan and Brian Taylor in Hop Lane. Picture: Luke Hemer​

Western Bulldogs stars of today - and yesterday - will be in Ballarat next weekend, with a number of events planned throughout the city to tie in with the round 10 match against the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday. As well as the game at Mars Stadium, to tie in with the Ballarat Heritage Festival, some big names will appear at Hop Temple on Friday night for a free meet-and-greet and panel discussion. Among them - Doug Hawkins, who'll be stepping up with Scott West and Lindsay Gilbee - Mr Gilbee also designed this year's Indigenous Round guernsey. "We're going to have a lot of fun, they'll hear things they might have forgotten about or not be aware of," he said. "I love Ballarat, I've coached in Bacchus Marsh, it's a good town with a great footy ground in Mars Stadium. Between me and Scotty West, who wore number 7, we won eight best and fairests - he won seven and I won one, but we're still great mates - we'll tell some tales from years gone by."

Hop Lane has been transformed back into Bulldogs Lane, with bright new umbrellas and photos of footy legends to be installed with council's support. Councillor Ben Taylor said he hoped the extra events around the game would encourage fans to stay a little bit longer in the city. "It's bringing the Bulldogs in as part of the city and also part of other events through the city," he said. "Come (to Hop Temple) on the Friday night, watch the game Saturday, head out for dinner, and be part of the city." Bulldogs Ballarat engagement manager Campbell Waring said the extra events were a great way to cement the relationships between the club, the council, and the city. "At our round six game there was a record crowd against Adelaide, so we're hoping the numbers are going to be really strong next round against the Gold Coast Suns as well," he said. The event, on Friday, May 20, begins at 6pm, with a Q&A from 7pm and casual meet and greets with supporters afterward.
 
Ballarat's looking good for Saturday, this is the latest forecast from Elders:

Ballcast.PNG
 
Nice cool breeze straight into the face of the members stand.
 
Covid running quite rampant in Ballarat at the moment. Gastro and other cold/flu's also running through schools and early learning.

My sons primary school have had 100-140 kids away every day this week. There's only 400 odd at the school.

That factored in with the timeslot being smack bang when majority of community sport is on might mean crowd numbers slightly down.

Hopefully the weather forecast brings a few extra from around the state.

Sitting/standing on the hill is a great spot to watch the game. If you haven't had a chance to get to a Ballarat game, then this week is the time. Doubt we will see a better day than what's forecast this time of year again.
 
BeMoreBont said:
Covid running quite rampant in Ballarat at the moment. Gastro and other cold/flu's also running through schools and early learning.

My sons primary school have had 100-140 kids away every day this week. There's only 400 odd at the school.

That factored in with the timeslot being smack bang when majority of community sport is on might mean crowd numbers slightly down.

Hopefully the weather forecast brings a few extra from around the state.

Sitting/standing on the hill is a great spot to watch the game. If you haven't had a chance to get to a Ballarat game, then this week is the time. Doubt we will see a better day than what's forecast this time of year again.
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I'd be fascinated to know how many people have caught the flu so far this year and how many it has killed. There's so much being made about COVID and yet 34% of Victorians over 16 have made a clear choice to not get a booster shot despite them being free and readily available. Just as concerning is that twice as many have chosen not to be vaccinated against the flu.

That said, with COVID we aren't seeing the statistics of age groups, the dosage statuses of those that have died and when you consider that over the last week Victoria has had 87,365 new cases and 111 deaths, that means that the death rate is 1 per 783 cases which I would suggest are people with pre-existing underlying chronic health conditions while others are simply very aged.

At the present time, I am triple vaccinated and have many times over the last couple of months been directly exposed to people who have caught COVID and at this stage I seem to have dodged that bullet. The people that I have known who have tested positive were all vaccinated and have all seemingly recovered quite well with only a couple complaining of some lingering effects. I hope that if I get infected that the vaccines will work equally well for me.

On a note of hope, on the news last week a story ran were a Melbourne developed COVID vaccine is about to go into trial. The story said that the early signs were that the vaccine would be more effective (I'm not sure how) than any of the existing vaccines.
 
It's marvellous what a difference six years has made. Eureka Stadium as it was back then looking back onto the oval from where Gate 2 now stands (About where those two trees left of shot were).

EStadium 2015.PNG

At least the oval was in pretty good shape

Wendouree Eureka stadium.jpg
 
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I don't think you are ever going to get a better day in Ballarat in the middle of May.

Screenshot_20220520-164206_Chrome.jpg
 
Playing games at Ballarat in May against low attendance drawers like Gold Coast,.Is terrific .
At the indoor marvel stadium on sunny days at least. And in the early afternoon games their are shadows and no atmosphere. Just don't play in Ballarat in June and July.That then is ideal for the Western Bulldogs. Until they put a roof on.
 
I have been a couple times and went yesterday it is a terrible viewing ground especially looking into the sun on the outer side. Could hardly see a thing when the the play was on the grandstand side.
 
Optimistic Dog said:
I have been a couple times and went yesterday it is a terrible viewing ground especially looking into the sun on the outer side. Could hardly see a thing when the the play was on the grandstand side.
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Your title is optimistic, yet if it’s cold people complain and if it’s sunny still people complain. The sun is the same everywhere. You are probably not as elevated as usual, but being lower helps get a better view when the play is close to your part of the field and worse when further away, there is the trade off. It is a great place to enjoy the footy, I enjoy these games more than Marvel because of how close I get to the play. And the standard this weekend was very high standard of football.
 
Freshwater said:
Your title is optimistic, yet if it’s cold people complain and if it’s sunny still people complain. The sun is the same everywhere. You are probably not as elevated as usual, but being lower helps get a better view when the play is close to your part of the field and worse when further away, there is the trade off. It is a great place to enjoy the footy, I enjoy these games more than Marvel because of how close I get to the play. And the standard this weekend was very high standard of football.
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Not really complaining enjoyed the sun but next time will get a seat in the members stand. Just liked the old suburban way of standing like I did the Whitten Oval. However as I have gotten older eyesight not as good as it was just have to succumb to old father time.
 
I enjoy Ballarat. The best game was one against Brisbane a few years ago. It was drizzly rain, but not too cold, good atmosphere, banter. You could get a drink and food easily, just a great day. Saturdays game was good, and I get to catch up with Pugz89 too.
 
I have to admit to being a bit surprised by the final official attendance figure, because it definitely looked more than 6,040 in there. A good indicator is that if there is a healthy spread of people across the hills and the stands are three-quarters full at Mars Stadium then that suggests a figure closer to 7,500 - 8000. But anyway that's academic. If they could technically only half fill an 11-12,000 capacity venue last Saturday with absolutely perfect playing conditions then it suggests that there were other factors at play. We certainly couldn't blame Ballarat's weather. I was more surprised by the low attendance figure in consideration that this was an absolute "make or break" game for the Dogs. Yes we had an election where at least 66% of Victorians who hadn't yet voted had to line up at local polling booths, and Ballarat had the Masters National Rowing titles on Lake Wendouree which was a free public event.

The other factor is of course the Gold Coast Suns. While we know that their support in Victoria is at best minimal the following table tells the picture for games at Mars Stadium. They clearly draw the lowest crowds with an anomaly being the Port Adelaide Game on 29 July 2018 which was a total stinker weather and scheduling wise:

Atts.png

There is also the fact that to date despite crowd restrictions being lifted in Victoria AFL crowd attendances for 2022 are down almost 25% across the board from 2019. But the fact remains that the AFL will not play the Suns against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium in front of a crowd of 12-13,000 where they (the AFL) lose money hand over fist. It's barely worth turning the lights on. So I am afraid that the Bulldogs are likely to continue playing the Suns regularly at Mars Stadium where the Bulldogs can at least make some money and the AFL have no overheads.

This situation is not likely to improve unless Mars Stadium is expanded significantly to accommodate 20,000 and subsequently can allow fixturing of smaller Melbourne clubs such as St Kilda, North and Melbourne coupled with the flexibility of broadcast lighting to allow Saturday twilight or night games.

There were a number of key factors that influenced the initial capacity of Mars Stadium being capped at 11,000. While the initial construction budget for Stage 1 was $22 million, that money only funded the construction of the existing stands seating 5,000; the installation of the scoreboard; the existing lighting; and re-construction of the two ovals. Of course in that initial outlay there were sacrifices as funds could not be stretched to provide adequate toilets, hard standing areas, unisex change rooms, catering facilities or permanent entry gates. However that initial budget might have at least stretched to create a much bigger viewing berm to lift initial capacity to 15,000.

The designers and planners must have considered factors such as the sea of portaloos and food vans that would have resulted if initial capacity had been 15,000 with only the basic amount of amenity to support it. Further they would have considered the lack of available off-street parking and minimal public transport access as determining factors as to why the ground was capped at 11,000.

However, the Council, the Government and Commonwealth Games planners/organisers have an opportunity to finally get it right. If Mars Stadium is to be expanded to hold another 9,000 people then the train station must be built, construction of at least 1,000-1,500 off-street parking bays non-negotiable, and covered seating capacity must (at the bare minimum) be doubled, if not tripled to 15,000 in addition to a comfortable standing capacity of 5,000. A virtual doubling of capacity means that there must be adequate permanent toilets, and fixed kiosks. It means that the main road (Creswick Road) needs to be at least turned into a dual carriageway all the way out to the Western Freeway interchange.

The decisions that the planners make in relation to the permanent development and expansion of Mars Stadium and its surrounds for the Commonwealth Games will determine whether the Bulldogs make the Ballarat venture a permanent part of their playing future, or the Bulldogs ultimately abandon Ballarat after 2025. In that scenario, should another team (North Melbourne potentially having been shown the door out of Tassie) wished to move in and play in Ballarat then they most likely would demand that the ground is expanded beyond its 11,000 anyway. In either scenario, unless the ground gets expanded to 20,000 capacity by 2026 I cannot see any team wishing to continue playing there.

That's my opinion.
 
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Roogal said:
I have to admit to being a bit surprised by the final official attendance figure, because it definitely looked more than 6,040 in there. A good indicator is that if there is a healthy spread of people across the hills and the stands are three-quarters full at Mars Stadium then that suggests a figure closer to 7,500 - 8000. But anyway that's academic. If they could technically only half fill an 11-12,000 capacity venue last Saturday with absolutely perfect playing conditions then it suggests that there were other factors at play. We certainly couldn't blame Ballarat's weather. I was more surprised by the low attendance figure in consideration that this was an absolute "make or break" game for the Dogs. Yes we had an election where at least 66% of Victorians who hadn't yet voted had to line up at local polling booths, and Ballarat had the Masters National Rowing titles on Lake Wendouree which was a free public event.

The other factor is of course the Gold Coast Suns. While we know that their support in Victoria is at best minimal the following table tells the picture for games at Mars Stadium. They clearly draw the lowest crowds with an anomaly being the Port Adelaide Game on 29 July 2018 which was a total stinker weather and scheduling wise:

View attachment 1407310

There is also the fact that to date despite crowd restrictions being lifted in Victoria AFL crowd attendances for 2022 are down almost 25% across the board from 2019. But the fact remains that the AFL will not play the Suns against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium in front of a crowd of 12-13,000 where they (the AFL) lose money hand over fist. It's barely worth turning the lights on. So I am afraid that the Bulldogs are likely to continue playing the Suns regularly at Mars Stadium where the Bulldogs can at least make some money and the AFL have no overheads.

This situation is not likely to improve unless Mars Stadium is expanded significantly to accommodate 20,000 and subsequently can allow fixturing of smaller Melbourne clubs such as St Kilda, North and Melbourne coupled with the flexibility of broadcast lighting to allow Saturday twilight or night games.

There were a number of key factors that influenced the initial capacity of Mars Stadium being capped at 11,000. While the initial construction budget for Stage 1 was $22 million, that money only funded the construction of the existing stands seating 5,000; the installation of the scoreboard; the existing lighting; and re-construction of the two ovals. Of course in that initial outlay there were sacrifices as funds could not be stretched to provide adequate toilets, hard standing areas, unisex change rooms, catering facilities or permanent entry gates. However that initial budget might have at least stretched to create a much bigger viewing berm to lift initial capacity to 15,000.

The designers and planners must have considered factors such as the sea of portaloos and food vans that would have resulted if initial capacity had been 15,000 with only the basic amount of amenity to support it. Further they would have considered the lack of available off-street parking and minimal public transport access as determining factors as to why the ground was capped at 11,000.

However, the Council, the Government and Commonwealth Games planners/organisers have an opportunity to finally get it right. If Mars Stadium is to be expanded to hold another 9,000 people then the train station must be built, construction of at least 1,000-1,500 off-street parking bays non-negotiable, and covered seating capacity must (at the bare minimum) be doubled, if not tripled to 15,000 in addition to a comfortable standing capacity of 5,000. A virtual doubling of capacity means that there must be adequate permanent toilets, and fixed kiosks. It means that the main road (Creswick Road) needs to be at least turned into a dual carriageway all the way out to the Western Freeway interchange.

The decisions that the planners make in relation to the permanent development and expansion of Mars Stadium and its surrounds for the Commonwealth Games will determine whether the Bulldogs make the Ballarat venture a permanent part of their playing future, or the Bulldogs ultimately abandon Ballarat after 2025. In that scenario, should another team (North Melbourne potentially having been shown the door out of Tassie) wished to move in and play in Ballarat then they most likely would demand that the ground is expanded beyond its 11,000 anyway. In either scenario, unless the ground gets expanded to 20,000 capacity by 2026 I cannot see any team wishing to continue playing there.

That's my opinion.
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I've been it Ballarat quite a few times. Don't love it don't hate it (passionate Dogs fan so will go anywhere) but its a 100% gauge on paying members. If I buy a membership with a reserve seat, then that should apply at whatever ground we play at. If I chose not to go, then the club can on-sell the seat. Plenty of other clubs such as Carlton, Essendon, Geelong etc have 11 game memberships with reserve seats across 2 grounds. We get devalued and now and our membership is only worth 9 games (same price as when we had 11 games). What happens if they improve the ground for the Commonwealth Games and we end up playing 3 or 4 games there? Does my membership drop to 7 or 8 games? If they want to pack the ground out include it in our membership. Yet lets be honest, packing the ground out is not the motive here, its lets make as much money as we can. I get that too and its better than selling to Carins, yet its a money grab at the moment to the determent to paid up members. It could be done better.
 
LondonBulldog said:
I've been it Ballarat quite a few times. Don't love it don't hate it (passionate Dogs fan so will go anywhere) but its a 100% gauge on paying members. If I buy a membership with a reserve seat, then that should apply at whatever ground we play at. If I chose not to go, then the club can on-sell the seat. Plenty of other clubs such as Carlton, Essendon, Geelong etc have 11 game memberships with reserve seats across 2 grounds. We get devalued and now and our membership is only worth 9 games (same price as when we had 11 games). What happens if they improve the ground for the Commonwealth Games and we end up playing 3 or 4 games there? Does my membership drop to 7 or 8 games? If they want to pack the ground out include it in our membership. Yet lets be honest, packing the ground out is not the motive here, its lets make as much money as we can. I get that too and its better than selling to Carins, yet its a money grab at the moment to the determent to paid up members. It could be done better.
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There is absolutely no plan from what the club is saying to increase the number of games played there if expanded. All that Ameet Bains said recently was that if the ground is expanded to 20,000 capacity then they (The Bulldogs) would approach the AFL to replace one of the interstate team games currently being played there each year with an all Victorian team game. It will still only be two H&A games and one AFLW game per-season. The Ballarat Council don't want the ground expanded to host more AFL games, although if the bulldogs were to commit an extra game I dare say that they wouldn't turn it down. They see it being used to host other big sporting events including cricket, soccer and rugby in addition to concerts all year round.

As for how the club manages memberships I am not across how the Bulldogs manage the Ballarat memberships and access for non-Ballarat residents. If you feel that you aren't getting value for money from your 11 game membership, that is an issue that you need to bring to the attention of the club. The AFL Club's membership departments always take on "constructive" feedback. As I said, I am not sure how the club's membership arrangement works for non-Ballarat residents, perhaps somebody else (who goes frequently) can explain it better so that I can understand it. You possibly may not be getting as bad of a deal as you think, I don't know. :huh:
 
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Optimistic Dog said:
I have been a couple times and went yesterday it is a terrible viewing ground especially looking into the sun on the outer side. Could hardly see a thing when the the play was on the grandstand side.
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You need to attend a few more games to know what the weather will do to the spectators.

Looking good to me .:thumbsu:
 
Kwality said:
You need to attend a few more games to know what the weather will do to the spectators.

Looking good to me .:thumbsu:
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What ever they do at MS in the future to expand it must include covered seating and perhaps at least covering the standing areas with shade sails. They wouldn't stop all rain but they'd reduce its effect as well as improve spectator comfort in summer events.
 
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