BBL Big Bash League Expansion Thread

[Roogal]

That's the thing about York Park, in total its hard something like $60m spent on it in just shy of 20 years. And a quarter of that was the lights.
That spend has taken it from a venue where temporary seating was on the back of flat trays when a crowd of 2500 was expected for a TFL preliminary final to being able to handle around 20k.
And don't the southerners love to bitch about it.

That was the brief for Ballarat's Eureka Stadium. Build it to be World Class, a show piece ....and BTW you've got only $15.5 million to build your first stage with. The architects are among the best in Australia and have done a seriously good job to take basic warehouse design principles and materials and apply them as a modern stadium. As the stadium is progressively built, the main stand will extend as a ring around 75% of the perimeter. At night, the geometric acrylic panels on the back of the stands will be backlit with coloured LED lights that change colours to match the teams and seasons.

This section of the ground is specifically designed to have the roof and rear removed and a further 16 rows of seats added behind to boost capacity by a further 2000 seats. It is designed effectively as the same first eight seating rows of the new Western Stand:

 

[nobbyiscool]

That was the brief for Ballarat's Eureka Stadium. Build it to be World Class, a show piece ....and BTW you've got only $15.5 million to build your first stage with. The architects are among the best in Australia and have done a seriously good job to take basic warehouse design principles and materials and apply them as a modern stadium. As the stadium is progressively built, the main stand will extend as a ring around 75% of the perimeter. At night, the geometric acrylic panels on the back of the stands will be backlit with coloured LED lights that change colours to match the teams and seasons.

This section of the ground is specifically designed to have the roof and rear removed and a further 16 rows of seats added behind to boost capacity by a further 2000 seats. It is designed effectively as the same first eight seating rows of the new Western Stand:

I think that's pretty sexy.

I know from having grown up in Launceston, and having seen the progressive redevelopment of York Park (then Aurora Stadium, and now UTAS Stadium) in the early stages that you can still build pretty great looking stands for a much cheaper price if you take out all the corporate bullshit, and if you are happy to just build "terrace" stands rather than full-on "stadium" stands that have the whole box and dice incorporated into the structure. You don't need that at regional grounds that are only hosting a couple of "major" or "elite level" sporting events a year - you can bring in food trucks and make a shit ton of money from the tenders, and you can then use that money to offset other infrastructure like toilets for those events and still make a profit.

 

[Roogal]

I think that's pretty sexy.

I know from having grown up in Launceston, and having seen the progressive redevelopment of York Park (then Aurora Stadium, and now UTAS Stadium) in the early stages that you can still build pretty great looking stands for a much cheaper price if you take out all the corporate bullshit, and if you are happy to just build "terrace" stands rather than full-on "stadium" stands that have the whole box and dice incorporated into the structure. You don't need that at regional grounds that are only hosting a couple of "major" or "elite level" sporting events a year - you can bring in food trucks and make a shit ton of money from the tenders, and you can then use that money to offset other infrastructure like toilets for those events and still make a profit.

That's pretty much the plan, the only fixed infrstructure beneath the stands is toilets and shelter. You're dead right, it makes no sense to have corporate suites when the smaller numbers of VIPs can be easily hosted in the sports club's private function rooms. As far as I am aware there will mainly be mobile food and beverage vendors in the main public areas of the ground, but sufficient space has been allowed for beneath the newer stands to protect patrons from inclement weather.

 

[madmug]

That's the thing about York Park, in total its hard something like $60m spent on it in just shy of 20 years. And a quarter of that was the lights.
That spend has taken it from a venue where temporary seating was on the back of flat trays when a crowd of 2500 was expected for a TFL preliminary final to being able to handle around 20k.
And don't the southerners love to bitch about it.

Its such a pity, the poor bugger me mentality.
The problem for people like me & the sports orientated people I associate with has nothing to do with York Park. It was the use of AFL football for purely political reasons in the seat of Bass to the exclusion of the states biggest city & the people sudennly divorced form football. I'm critical of the AFL for allowing it to happen.

The old mantra of Football in the North & cricket in the south was petty, stupid, indefensible, dumb economic, pork barrelling politiking at its worst.

We had 2 stadiums, for better or worse. Initial funding came from the Howard Gument doing its usual pork barrelling.
Thankfully that stupidity has now ended. I look forward to seeing some BBL cricket at York/Aurora/Tasuni stadium & it getting some modernisation as a result.

Having the best sport more available to more of the public is a good thing IMO. Even if it doesn't suit some small minded people.

 

[BobbyMorri]

Its such a pity, the poor bugger me mentality.
The problem for people like me & the sports orientated people I associate with has nothing to do with York Park. It was the use of AFL football for purely political reasons in the seat of Bass to the exclusion of the states biggest city & the people sudennly divorced form football. I'm critical of the AFL for allowing it to happen.

The old mantra of Football in the North & cricket in the south was petty, stupid, indefensible, dumb economic, pork barrelling politiking at its worst.

We had 2 stadiums, for better or worse. Initial funding came from the Howard Gument doing its usual pork barrelling.
Thankfully that stupidity has now ended. I look forward to seeing some BBL cricket at York/Aurora/Tasuni stadium & it getting some modernisation as a result.

Having the best sport more available to more of the public is a good thing IMO. Even if it doesn't suit some small minded people.

should read the facebook page of the Hurricanes atm. i love/hate this state sometimes. People(Mike Fitzpatrick) will say that this is the North/South thing and i guess the reaction should have been expected. afterall, no "home" fans like homes games moving away from them. I remember reading Victory's homepage when they sold a game down to Geelong. Total overreaction, similar to junk being written on the cane page atm, for a game just an hour down the road.

As expected, The Hurricanes are playing a game in Launny on Sat 30th of December. You think that will be the highest attended home game for the Canes due to York Parks higher capacity. Heres hoping the northerners will still travel down for some Hobart games and vice versa. Hopefully this working relationship between CT(Boot Park) and York can build and can help with certain other sporting bids down the line

 

[Father Jack]

I went to Hobart for a game last year, it was horribly one sided as the Hurricanes got thrashed, but on the bonus side of things it ended early so the Pontville pub was still open for a feed on the way back up the highway

Have every intention of travelling into Launceston for the game this year though, fully expect it to be an epic crowd

 

[BobbyMorri]

I went to Hobart for a game last year, it was horribly one sided as the Hurricanes got thrashed, but on the bonus side of things it ended early so the Pontville pub was still open for a feed on the way back up the highway

Have every intention of travelling into Launceston for the game this year though, fully expect it to be an epic crowd

i have heard great things about that pub. huge meals.

it is great move having a game in Launny. A lot of people cant travel down to Hobart will now be able to go to a game. i expect the Bass Highway to be very very busy. It will be a sell out i reckon.

 

[Tassieboy]

Convenient having a game in Launceston this year. I look forward to it and I expect it to sell out (18k or so in cricket mode?). Will also be nice going to a Hurricanes game and not be stuck in the most awful traffic gridlock.

 

[Van_Dyke]

Meanwhile the Scorchers will be playing in Alice Springs. Still don't understand why we're the ones playing there myself

 

[Matchu]

Meanwhile the Scorchers will be playing in Alice Springs. Still don't understand why we're the ones playing there myself

So we know the Hurricanes will play their regional match in Launceston and the Scorchers will be playing in Alice Springs.

Do we know where the other teams are playing? I would have thought the Strikers would play in Darwin and the Heat would play on the Gold Coast.

 

[Van_Dyke]

So we know the Hurricanes will play their regional match in Launceston and the Scorchers will be playing in Alice Springs.

Do we know where the other teams are playing? I would have thought the Strikers would play in Darwin and the Heat would play on the Gold Coast.

I only know the Scorchers through this article.

https://thewest.com.au/sport/cricke...l-his-future-with-the-franchise-ng-b88369592z

Darwin would be pretty risky with the weather at that time of year would it not?

I dare say one of the Sydney teams will play in Canberra, and one of the Melbourne teams in Geelong. Heat to GC makes sense.

 

[Father Jack]

Thunder to ACT makes sense, and I guess Renegades to Geelong as well?

 

[JackOutback]

Meanwhile the Scorchers will be playing in Alice Springs. Still don't understand why we're the ones playing there myself

Dafuq?

 

[Van_Dyke]

Dafuq?

Yeah I don't know why we're the ones playing there. Everyone gets an additional home game in a 'regional area' and naturally the best option for Perth is Alice Springs

 

[Father Jack]

Launceston can count themselves lucky then, as Hobart could have just pointed out that they already play all their home games in a regional area

 

[Hellgood]

I like the regional area concept, but yeah I don't see/agree why Bunbury or say Geraldton not considered given much more relevance to WA cricket Alice Springs. Guess they were keen to take the game to the NT which is fair enough and someone had to take the deal.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Where would be the next best option for Perth?

I would've thought Adelaide would be more likely to go to the Alice, but I don't really know where else Perth would go.

I think most of the east coast teams are pretty straight forward. Brisbane could go to any of GC, Cairns or Townsville, Thunder will go to Canberra, Sixers will probably go to Newcastle, perhaps Coffs Harbour, or even to Bowral (that'd be magic), I'd imagine the Melbourne teams will look at Geelong and Ballarat, or possibly Bendigo, and Hobart to Launceston was clearly the most obvious of the lot.

Adelaide and Perth are the two that, to me, don't really seem to have a natural fit.

 

[Father Jack]

Does somewhere like Newcastle have a decent sized cricket ground?

 

[Docker82]

I like the regional area concept, but yeah I don't see/agree why Bunbury or say Geraldton not considered given much more relevance to WA cricket Alice Springs. Guess they were keen to take the game to the NT which is fair enough and someone had to take the deal.

Bunbury especially given its size compared to anywhere in SA that isn't Adelaide and Alice Springs and the fact it's reasonably close to Perth, Mandurah, Busselton, Dunsborough and Margaret River. Make it the early game in a weekend double header (gives people the time to travel back to Perth in daylight hours) and the only problem is the size of the ground which considering the capacity of Traeger Park is only 10000 anyway I can't see why temporary seating can't fill a lot of the gap between the 5000 Hands Oval holds without it.

Unless some place in South Australia has a quality country ground or the strikers are also playing outside SA as well it doesn't make a lot of sense. Wouldn't be surprised to see the strikers play in Canberra tbh.

 

[ioppolo]

Bunbury has hosted domestic one dayers.

 

[corbies]

Does somewhere like Newcastle have a decent sized cricket ground?

http://m.austadiums.com/stadium.php?id=186

 

[Matchu]

I like the regional area concept, but yeah I don't see/agree why Bunbury or say Geraldton not considered given much more relevance to WA cricket Alice Springs. Guess they were keen to take the game to the NT which is fair enough and someone had to take the deal.

Perhaps it was a way to cut down travel for the east coast teams? Alice Springs is pretty close to halfway between Brisbane and Perth. Don't forget Brisbane to Perth happens to be the longest trip in the BBL so don't be surprised if the Heat end up playing the Scorchers in the Alice.

 

[The_Reaper]

The problem is that outside of the WACA and the new stadium there is no stadium in Western Australia that meets minimal standards to host professional events.

Alice Springs does because having like 15% of the Territory's population, it gets a lot of pork barreling for a city of its size.

 

[Cleavy]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/1103196.html

might have to put the expansion on hold?

 

[nobbyiscool]

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/1103196.html

might have to put the expansion on hold?

It's probably neither here nor there. While it would've been nice for CA if Ten were bidding against 9 for the rights, I don't think anyone thought that Ten were going to be in a position to actually win the rights.

Of course it's hugely disappointing - for the most part I've really enjoyed Ten's coverage, and I've enjoyed that they've covered it in a different way to 9. But in a contest where the 2 networks were going to be comparing the size of their wallets, Ten were never going to win.