News Adelaide Oval Redevelopment - Thunderbirds Are Go

[_Christoh_]

The 9m width difference leaves me gobsmacked. Was this made clear from the outset? Cos half
a billion $'s worth of our dough should add up a really smick oval without compromises.
Words fail to cover my reaction I'm really f#*ken pissed off

What 9m are you talking about?

EDIT - I see it is in relation to AAMI Stadium.

 

[Byrons Firen]

What 9m are you talking about?

EDIT - I see it is in relation to AAMI Stadium.

Previous post stated it was a metre or 2 longer than AAMI but 9m narrower now I know this amounts to 4m or so either side but to me its a massive mistake. Went there for the opening looksee and thought is the ground a bit small or is it dwarfed by the new stands and only "seems" a bit small. To have my suspicions confirmed is a shock and will stifle open fast footy. Hope the narrowness is not a rollover so more 6's are scored cos a criticism of AO in the past was the short boundaries square of the wicket.
My paranoia tells me this is a cricket based decision. Incidently I heard that CA didn't/haven't put in 1$ towards the cost yet have had their $80m odd debt retired. I know its all too late and I'm basically
widdlingly into the wind but due diligence should have prevailed from the outset ggrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

 

[raman]

^ Not sure if serious.

 

[Byrons Firen]

^ Not sure if serious.

If the dimensions of AO are indeed right re its narrowness then yep I'm dinkum in what I said

 

[raman]

If the dimensions of AO are indeed right re its narrowness then yep I'm dinkum in what I said

You realise footy grounds have always been different shapes, right? And you realise AO has always been narrow, right? And not that it matters but it's actually slightly wider now than it was before the redevelopment, right?

 

[Byrons Firen]

You realise footy grounds have always been different shapes, right? And you realise AO has always been narrow, right? And not that it matters but it's actually slightly wider now than it was before the redevelopment, right?

Ok alright. Hope I'm worrying over nothing. That open, fast footy will prevail.
Just that for the $'s involved dimensions should not be an issue, but if fast open footy is
harder to achieve cos of narrowness then its more than a shame

 

[FishingRick04]

Previous post stated it was a metre or 2 longer than AAMI but 9m narrower now I know this amounts to 4m or so either side but to me its a massive mistake. Went there for the opening looksee and thought is the ground a bit small or is it dwarfed by the new stands and only "seems" a bit small. To have my suspicions confirmed is a shock and will stifle open fast footy. Hope the narrowness is not a rollover so more 6's are scored cos a criticism of AO in the past was the short boundaries square of the wicket.
My paranoia tells me this is a cricket based decision. Incidently I heard that CA didn't/haven't put in 1$ towards the cost yet have had their $80m odd debt retired. I know its all too late and I'm basically
widdlingly into the wind but due diligence should have prevailed from the outset ggrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

I think you're implying SACA and not cricket Australia?

 

[Byrons Firen]

I think you're implying SACA and not cricket Australia?

Yep SACA's $80m debt gets "retired" ( what a bloody euphamism that is ). Rucci mentioned the AFL had put in $25m towards the AO cost
but that CA had put in sweet FA. Would be good to get balance sheet re AO and
who put in what. Not holding my breath tho

 

[Power2Win]

Ok alright. Hope I'm worrying over nothing. That open, fast footy will prevail.
Just that for the $'s involved dimensions should not be an issue, but if fast open footy is
harder to achieve cos of narrowness then its more than a shame

Subiaco, Skilled Statium, anz Stadium are all Narrower- but if Wikipedia is to be believed at 190m ,we will have the longest oval - Hope we have Burgess beefing up their endurance as they are going to need it

 

[powermacs]

Yep SACA's $80m debt gets "retired" ( what a bloody euphamism that is ). Rucci mentioned the AFL had put in $25m towards the AO cost
but that CA had put in sweet FA. Would be good to get balance sheet re AO and
who put in what. Not holding my breath tho

If the SACA went into debt paying outrages salaries for district cricketers I'd be with you. The SACA went into debt building the western stand. I'm sure CA would've put money in then.

 

[Byrons Firen]

Subiaco, Skilled Statium, anz Stadium are all Narrower- but if Wikipedia is to be believed at 190m ,we will have the longest oval - Hope we have Burgess beefing up their endurance as they are going to need it

190m long needs qualification as thats fence to fence. Look its all too late but sniffing around
on this topic Bailey and Richo both on the record saying the narrowness will result in more
stopages, harder to fast transition from defence to forward 50 and more boundary throw-ins.
Sounds great doesn't it ? Then in September we will have honed our game plan on a very different
playing field than the one that counts. Yes Kardinia Pk didn't stop the cats success but they get to
play umpteen more games per season on the G than we do.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I reckon they have some serious pedestrian modelling issues - particularly with integration between western and southern stands. The western stand is a ridiculous design, toilets a massive issue. Reckon they will need to make some changes down the track once they deal with the bottleneck of AFL football.

I'm surprised by the 9m width difference as well. I thought it was all being pushed well back on the eastern side to make the dimensions better?

Western stand was built for cricket with a limited capacity of 35,000 being the maximum ground attendance and not so many people go back and forth between the western stand and old Bradman stand as you got between the new southern and western stand during the test. For Footy you wont have the foot traffic between the 2 stands because as unlike SACA members who could move between the 2 stands, footy members are limited to one stand during game time.

AO was always going to be skinnier for footy. At no point did the say they would make it as wide as Footy Park. When the western stand was build the got rid of the D shape and curved the previously straight western fence and boundary and put in a curve. AO for footy is 124m wide from boundary to boundary east west and about 134 from fence to fence. The old Adelaide oval was only 125m fence to fence east west and 190m north south. There was no way that they would have pinched 10m + another 10-15m for the new grandstand from the parklands. It was tough enough to get that extra 10-15m.

Footy Park was 177m x 145m fence to fence and 165m x 133m boundary to boundary
Adelaide oval will be approx 183m x 134m fence to fence and 167m x 124m boundary to boundary.

AO was shortened slightly to get a larger southern stand and pinch a bit from the northern end to put in a couple of extra rows of seats.

 

[bringbackbucky]

Western stand was built for cricket with a limited capacity of 35,000 being the maximum ground attendance and not so many people go back and forth between the western stand and old Bradman stand as you got between the new southern and western stand during the test. For Footy you wont have the foot traffic between the 2 stands because as unlike SACA members who could move between the 2 stands, footy members are limited to one stand during game time.

Its not so much the movement at game time I'm concerned about (as you say - there isnt much anyway). The real issue will be getting everyone from the Western stand across to the footbridge. During the cricket there was massive bottlenecks of about 10 minutes wait. People were leaving the rear of the western stand and the only way to get to the southern plaza (and thus footbridge) was via a narrow stairway. I hope this will be fixed once they hgave finished building the cricket centre but I couldnt see how...

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Ok bringbackbucky I see what you mean.

What people will have to do is get to the front on the western stand at ground level and walk along the inside of stand as there is plenty of room between 1st and 2nd level, the big gap between the stands and then you have the wide area in the southern stand between the last seat at ground level and the kiosks.

A little tip for young players and the benefit of checking out AO at the cricket before the footy season.

 

[MrKK]

Yep SACA's $80m debt gets "retired" ( what a bloody euphamism that is ). Rucci mentioned the AFL had put in $25m towards the AO cost
but that CA had put in sweet FA. Would be good to get balance sheet re AO and
who put in what. Not holding my breath tho

What do you mean "who put in what"? The SA taxpayers footed the entire bill, except a token contribution from the AFL ($5m if memory serves, never heard the $25m figure before). The SACA and SANFL contributed zilch.
$80m of the funding went to the SACA to retire their outstanding debt for the western grandstand redevelopment. This is perfectly reasonable as the SMA agreement means that a lot of the revenue generated by that redevelopment now goes to the SMA rather than to SACA.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

What do you mean "who put in what"? The SA taxpayers footed the entire bill, except a token contribution from the AFL ($5m if memory serves, never heard the $25m figure before). The SACA and SANFL contributed zilch.
$80m of the funding went to the SACA to retire their outstanding debt for the western grandstand redevelopment. This is perfectly reasonable as the SMA agreement means that a lot of the revenue generated by that redevelopment now goes to the SMA rather than to SACA.

The western grandstand was built with state + federal government grants $25mil each, monies from cricket australia, saca funds and a bank loan from Westpac for $55mil and $30mil loan facility from the state government. The western grandstand cost $109,112,712 to build according to the 2011 saca annual report which you can download from their website. They spent $8mil on what they called property plant and equipment in 2011 to stick in the western grandstand. They called $109mil leasehold improvements.

The $85mil of debt was extinguished on the approval by the SACA members to go ahead with the redevelopment and the SACA handed over their lease over AO and control to the SMA.

And the feds have thrown in monies to redevelopment of the WHOLE PRECINCT.

Edit - before anybody asks here is a breakdown of the $100mil of so called contingencies I posted back on page 64.

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threa...nderbirds-are-go.821181/page-64#post-30689190

 

[Andre]

The 9m width difference leaves me gobsmacked. Was this made clear from the outset? Cos half
a billion $'s worth of our dough should add up a really smick oval without compromises.
Words fail to cover my reaction I'm really f#*ken pissed off

WTF? As someone who, when living in Melbourne, saw too many matches where the team developed a strange fascination with going out wide, wide, wider! on the wings instead of the centre, an oval that forces more direct play is music to my ears.

 

[Jonts]

That whole southern stand bottle neck problem could be changed with a temporary entrance behind the plaza like they had for the South Africa test in 2012

 

[Portsmeff]

Its not so much the movement at game time I'm concerned about (as you say - there isnt much anyway). The real issue will be getting everyone from the Western stand across to the footbridge. During the cricket there was massive bottlenecks of about 10 minutes wait. People were leaving the rear of the western stand and the only way to get to the southern plaza (and thus footbridge) was via a narrow stairway. I hope this will be fixed once they hgave finished building the cricket centre but I couldnt see how...
View attachment 37859

well I was in the western stand on Saturday, and at stumps we walked out to the southern plaza using the ground level of the new southern stand (by going through the members crossover) and straight out with absolutely no bottleneck, so all those people need to explore the ground properly and not be dopey sheep.

I doubt there would be a SACA members crossover during football anyway. Those in the above tier of the western stand naturally exit at the back so I guess you have a point of improving their access to the southern plaza, but those down the bottom of the western stand just simply need to walk into the southern stand and out, with ease

 

[rocket18]

The 9m width difference leaves me gobsmacked. Was this made clear from the outset? Cos half
a billion $'s worth of our dough should add up a really smick oval without compromises.
Words fail to cover my reaction I'm really f#*ken pissed off

If you were designing a ground for AFL you wouldn't end up with what we have. Cricket have done very well, it looks great - perfect for watching cricket.

Its going to be great to be in the CBD to watch AFL but footy has certainly compromised to acheive that.

 

[_Christoh_]

Talk that the size of the ground being a hindrance to good footy is absolute crap. I watched many games in the 80's on that ground when it was narrower and it was fine. The biggest issue back then was to not get lost in the huge pockets. They are gone now.

AAMI was way too wide as an oval anyway, its part of the reason it was crap to watch footy at.

There was no issue with the size of the ground when Port played Melbourne in 2011.

 

[morton5]

Talk that the size of the ground being a hindrance to good footy is absolute crap. I watched many games in the 80's on that ground when it was narrower and it was fine. The biggest issue back then was to not get lost in the huge pockets. They are gone now.

AAMI was way too wide as an oval anyway, its part of the reason it was crap to watch footy at.

There was no issue with the size of the ground when Port played Melbourne in 2011.

Wish they kept it narrow. Hold in the atmosphere for footy and keep the short square boundaries for cricket.

 

[finbarr]

If it hasn't been mentioned here already all after match functions are going to be held in the big function room in the southern stand overlooking the river torrens.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

If it hasn't been mentioned here already all after match functions are going to be held in the big function room in the southern stand overlooking the river torrens.

Unless this has changed recently, all the promotion is that the after match function for both Port and the crows will hold their post match function in the new indoor cricket centre being built at the moment in the area between the southern stand, western stand and the tennis centre and can hold 3,000 people.

The William Magarey Room ( formerly called the City View Restaurant) in the southern stand supposedly can hold 1,200 people in cocktail mode when the dividing wall is taken down and they use the area by the Peter Carey and Neil Kerley bar ie upto the windows looking out to the field.

Where did you here the change finbarr

 

[finbarr]

I was just down at the club renewing my membership REH, and Ben from membership came over to say hello (his family has always sat a few rows behind me). Knowing that my new seats are in Tier One of the southern stand he told me that the after match functions are going to be in the main function room overlooking the Torrens right behind my seats.