Lavington Sports Ground (Albury)

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Boyohboywowwee

Boyohboywowwee

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I know it’s not a ground used for premiership points just yet, I’m im under the impression it’s not to far away.

Was at the practice match tonight swans v giants. Very impressed with the new upgrades thay have recently completed.

Looked on the kayo highlights of the game, the main camera position was well cantered and up high. For me that is a big tick. For some people that does not cross their mind.

Just wondering if anyone has been to this venue and what are their thoughts?
 
Used to go here a bit in the day… but not since they’ve done the redevelopment .

It was always a great setup on the outskirts of town with a big grandstand on one side and the tiered hill on the other which allowed large crowds for the O&M GF and other big events.

I just never understood why they didn’t buy out the houses behind the grand stand 40 years ago which would have allowed them to expand the stand properly when they did this latest development.

1645847861816.jpeg
 
It looked a million dollars being there live last night. I'm sure those who attended will attest to how great the atmosphere was. When standing at fence level you feel like you are on the ground. It's very intimate.

The view from the grandstand with the setting sun and hills in the background is glorious.

The Albury council are absolutely kidding themselves if they don't attempt to lure a team up this way to sell a game or two.

I wonder if North Melbourne would be interested after their Tassie deal ends. They have history in this region with the Murray Kangaroos.
 

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Blackhawk42 said:
It looked a million dollars being there live last night. I'm sure those who attended will attest to how great the atmosphere was. When standing at fence level you feel like you are on the ground. It's very intimate.

The view from the grandstand with the setting sun and hills in the background is glorious.

The Albury council are absolutely kidding themselves if they don't attempt to lure a team up this way to sell a game or two.

I wonder if North Melbourne would be interested after their Tassie deal ends. They have history in this region with the Murray Kangaroos.
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It possibly shouldn't be off the cards for North Melbourne. Tassie are waiting on a decision by the AFL on whether they get their own team or not in August this year. North Melbourne in Hobart is a year by year proposition now with the club only getting their contract in Hobart extended by one year for season 2022. If Tassie get their own team then North will and Hawthorn likely too be both shown the door, make no mistake. Hawthorn can survive without the extra Tassie dollars but North need to sell games in order to remain viable because now that they are debt free, they are only making marginal club profits at the present time measured by $150-300,000 per-annum.

North last year had 6,696 Tasmanian members and it's a fair bet that many of those may chose to abandon that if Tassie has its own team. So yes North would be looking for another alternative venue and somewhere where they could build back at least 4,000 members. Albury would be a good fit, but so would Bendigo which is much closer to Melbourne (153 km). Bendigo games could be played at the QEO against Sydney teams given that Bendigo has direct Qantas flights to and from Sydney. That said, Albury which is 300 km from Melbourne also offers direct air services to both Sydney and Melbourne.

Albury-Wodonga have a combined population of about 98,000 while Bendigo has approximately 104,000 in its suburban area.

The QEO could be quite easily upgraded by construction of a new stand on its Northern boundary which has no heritage issues (On the left boundary of the oval in the image below), the installation of a video screen scoreboard and a lighting upgrade. Those modifications would cost in the order of $25 million and voila you have a highly accessible, high quality 13,000 capacity ground to rival Ballarat's Mars Stadium that is only six minutes walk from the heart of Bendigo and about 15 minutes walk to the Bendigo railway station with plenty of pubs and eateries in between.

QEO Bendigo.png
 
Roogal said:
It possibly shouldn't be off the cards for North Melbourne. Tassie are waiting on a decision by the AFL on whether they get their own team or not in August this year. North Melbourne in Hobart is a year by year proposition now with the club only getting their contract in Hobart extended by one year for season 2022. If Tassie get their own team then North will and Hawthorn likely too be both shown the door, make no mistake. Hawthorn can survive without the extra Tassie dollars but North need to sell games in order to remain viable because now that they are debt free, they are only making marginal club profits at the present time measured by $150-300,000 per-annum.

North last year had 6,696 Tasmanian members and it's a fair bet that many of those may chose to abandon that if Tassie has its own team. So yes North would be looking for another alternative venue and somewhere where they could build back at least 4,000 members. Albury would be a good fit, but so would Bendigo which is much closer to Melbourne (153 km). Bendigo games could be played at the QEO against Sydney teams given that Bendigo has direct Qantas flights to and from Sydney. That said, Albury which is 300 km from Melbourne also offers direct air services to both Sydney and Melbourne.

Albury-Wodonga have a combined population of about 98,000 while Bendigo has approximately 104,000 in its suburban area.

The QEO could be quite easily upgraded by construction of a new stand on its Northern boundary which has no heritage issues (On the left boundary of the oval in the image below), the installation of a video screen scoreboard and a lighting upgrade. Those modifications would cost in the order of $25 million and voila you have a highly accessible, high quality 13,000 capacity ground to rival Ballarat's Mars Stadium that is only six minutes walk from the heart of Bendigo and about 15 minutes walk to the Bendigo railway station with plenty of pubs and eateries in between.

View attachment 1337441
Click to expand...

I was in Bendigo last week and saw that ground. It looked beautiful.
 
Roogal said:
It possibly shouldn't be off the cards for North Melbourne. Tassie are waiting on a decision by the AFL on whether they get their own team or not in August this year. North Melbourne in Hobart is a year by year proposition now with the club only getting their contract in Hobart extended by one year for season 2022. If Tassie get their own team then North will and Hawthorn likely too be both shown the door, make no mistake. Hawthorn can survive without the extra Tassie dollars but North need to sell games in order to remain viable because now that they are debt free, they are only making marginal club profits at the present time measured by $150-300,000 per-annum.

North last year had 6,696 Tasmanian members and it's a fair bet that many of those may chose to abandon that if Tassie has its own team. So yes North would be looking for another alternative venue and somewhere where they could build back at least 4,000 members. Albury would be a good fit, but so would Bendigo which is much closer to Melbourne (153 km). Bendigo games could be played at the QEO against Sydney teams given that Bendigo has direct Qantas flights to and from Sydney. That said, Albury which is 300 km from Melbourne also offers direct air services to both Sydney and Melbourne.

Albury-Wodonga have a combined population of about 98,000 while Bendigo has approximately 104,000 in its suburban area.

The QEO could be quite easily upgraded by construction of a new stand on its Northern boundary which has no heritage issues (On the left boundary of the oval in the image below), the installation of a video screen scoreboard and a lighting upgrade. Those modifications would cost in the order of $25 million and voila you have a highly accessible, high quality 13,000 capacity ground to rival Ballarat's Mars Stadium that is only six minutes walk from the heart of Bendigo and about 15 minutes walk to the Bendigo railway station with plenty of pubs and eateries in between.

View attachment 1337441
Click to expand...
Has hosted AFLW and AFL PS games.
queen-elizabeth-oval.jpg

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Blackhawk42 said:
I was in Bendigo last week and saw that ground. It looked beautiful.
Click to expand...
You are right, the QEO is a lovely ground with a nice old fashioned vibe to it. It is quite centrally located in the city of Bendigo but parking around it for large games might be a bit of a nightmare because there's a lot of other stuff happening near it with the CBD, Sports Centre and hospital. There are certainly plenty of feeder roads around it and as I said, it's only about a 15 minute walk West along View Street from the railway station.
 
Roogal said:
It possibly shouldn't be off the cards for North Melbourne. Tassie are waiting on a decision by the AFL on whether they get their own team or not in August this year. North Melbourne in Hobart is a year by year proposition now with the club only getting their contract in Hobart extended by one year for season 2022. If Tassie get their own team then North will and Hawthorn likely too be both shown the door, make no mistake. Hawthorn can survive without the extra Tassie dollars but North need to sell games in order to remain viable because now that they are debt free, they are only making marginal club profits at the present time measured by $150-300,000 per-annum.

North last year had 6,696 Tasmanian members and it's a fair bet that many of those may chose to abandon that if Tassie has its own team. So yes North would be looking for another alternative venue and somewhere where they could build back at least 4,000 members. Albury would be a good fit, but so would Bendigo which is much closer to Melbourne (153 km). Bendigo games could be played at the QEO against Sydney teams given that Bendigo has direct Qantas flights to and from Sydney. That said, Albury which is 300 km from Melbourne also offers direct air services to both Sydney and Melbourne.

Albury-Wodonga have a combined population of about 98,000 while Bendigo has approximately 104,000 in its suburban area.

The QEO could be quite easily upgraded by construction of a new stand on its Northern boundary which has no heritage issues (On the left boundary of the oval in the image below), the installation of a video screen scoreboard and a lighting upgrade. Those modifications would cost in the order of $25 million and voila you have a highly accessible, high quality 13,000 capacity ground to rival Ballarat's Mars Stadium that is only six minutes walk from the heart of Bendigo and about 15 minutes walk to the Bendigo railway station with plenty of pubs and eateries in between.

View attachment 1337441
Click to expand...
Won't be Albury or Bendigo. Both of those locations are aligned to Richmond.
 
The Victorian said:
Won't be Albury or Bendigo. Both of those locations are aligned to Richmond.
Click to expand...
It's a valid point. Once upon a time there were recruiting zones but those were eradicated when the AFL was created back in the 90's. Ballarat was always up to that point Saint Kilda and Bendigo had Carlton. No club really has a reserved area anymore for senior teams to play or recruit from. Those zones specifically relate to junior sports development programs.

Of course if the Hawks and the Roos are given the flick from Tassie then those Junior Development zones would be re-drawn to accommodate the Roos back on the mainland, because the new Tassie Club would assume all Junior Development program responsibility for the Apple Isle.
 
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Blackhawk42 said:
Just linking to the main site.

Regardless, I don't believe that means anything in regards to other sides selling games there.
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You're both right. Zones are purely for development programs as I have said. AFL Zones change and are quite fluid. After all as i said before back in the 80s and early 90s Bendigo was a Carlton zone, while from the mid 90s to the naughties it was an Essendon zone (anybody remember the Bendigo Bombers of the VFL?). And of course the images above ^^^ showing the QEO with an almost full house was indeed a pre-season Essendon game from 2013. If Tassie gets the nod for its own team then there will be a lot of re-structuring of the AFL besides re-arranging and re-stacking the fixtures. North Melbourne will need to be re-accommodated into a region of the mainland.

But time will reveal all, and many questions will be answered hopefully this August. What results from decisions made this August will no doubt generate a great deal of discussion and emotion.
 
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