Manuka Oval Canberra

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Matchu said:
So no additional seating? Just more roofs over existing seats?
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Adding seats would be a big undertaking. You could go higher in the non-stand areas I guess. Without building stands it would just be a patch on a patch.

The ACT government has shown willingness to fund a full redevelopment but Nimby's are an issue with complaints about the noise and lights. There's logic in not patching something you'd like to rebuild.

Cover is pretty urgent though with officially 75% of the ground uncovered. I think it's higher depending on the wind and it's direction. $2.7m is not very much iif it achieves the result of providing dry options.

Pretty hard for parents to take their kids to the footy with a forecast chance of rain right now, and that's reflected in our crowds there.
 

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Matchu said:
So no additional seating? Just more roofs over existing seats?
Click to expand...
It doesn't really need more seating, capacity is about right for the demand for footy and cricket. Better amenities would be nice, including more covered seating. Its a small, secondary, venue that pretty much meets its demand as is and isn't going to be getting any more high profile games of any sport than it currebntly does any time soon. Making it a 25k venue wouldn't change that.
 
Howard Littlejohn said:
It doesn't really need more seating, capacity is about right for the demand for footy and cricket. Better amenities would be nice, including more covered seating. Its a small, secondary, venue that pretty much meets its demand as is and isn't going to be getting any more high profile games of any sport than it currebntly does any time soon. Making it a 25k venue wouldn't change that.
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:thumbsu: meets demand :thumbsu:
 
I wonder, if Manuka Oval had better facilities, such as more roof cover, would it be likely that crowds might increase?
 
kranger said:
I wonder, if Manuka Oval had better facilities, such as more roof cover, would it be likely that crowds might increase?
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Probably not by a lot. Canberra isn't that big a city, the "home" team is out of town and people with a connection to Sydney have no connection to the AFL. It may see less of a drop when rain (or snow, bizarre one that was) is around but probably not a noteable increase in good conditions.
 
I mentioned this in the Canberra thread, but the stage 2 of the light rail should make the stadium a lot more accessible.

Transport to the stadium has never been great, and parking has been shocking for bigger games, but this will link much of the city to the stadium. Definitely important if the stadium ever gets expanded. The plan is for Stage 2B to be complete by about 2026.

Option one is the blue line, and the the Federal Government's preferred option.
Option two goes through the purple and orange circles and is the Territory Government's preferred option.

At the moment, it looks like option one will be actual route. The planned station (the red dot) is about a 1km walk from the stadium.

The purple circle is the planned station for route two, and it's only 550m from the stadium.

If route two is chosen, my preferred spot would be the orange circle. It's only 400m, and it's one straight road (Fitzroy Street) to the stadium gate. The road could be closed to cars on game days and create a cool atmosphere leading into the stadium.

For context, the SCG and Metricon are about a 2km walk from their closest station. Adelaide Oval is about 550m from its station, so similar to the purple option. So even the furthest station would make the stadium a lot more accessible.



Light-Rail-Gungahlin-to-Woden-e.jpg
 
Just watching the GWS v St Kilda game at Manuka Oval. One of the commentators mentioned ‘the chairman today announced GWS will be playing in Canberra for a further 5 years’. I’m not sure which chairman, as I can’t find any news on it.

But would this warrant an upgrade to Manuka Oval? Perhaps an expansion of the outer eastern wing? Increase the capacity and improve the facilities?
 
kranger said:
Just watching the GWS v St Kilda game at Manuka Oval. One of the commentators mentioned ‘the chairman today announced GWS will be playing in Canberra for a further 5 years’. I’m not sure which chairman, as I can’t find any news on it.

But would this warrant an upgrade to Manuka Oval? Perhaps an expansion of the outer eastern wing? Increase the capacity and improve the facilities?
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Interesting! I missed that. Was that the Fox broadcasters?

Had a quick look and couldn't find it either. Might not meant to have been public knowledge yet because I feel like that would have had an announcement on the GWS socials.

We're getting four AFL men's games for the first time this year. If we can pack them out, plus the extension, it would give us a good case. But there's also a lot of money being promised for other sports. Mostly the new Canberra Stadium (rectangular) and the LNP are promising a new stadium for our A-League Women's team.
 
Demonoid said:
As a Canberra resident and footy supporter, I have a vested interest in Manuka and I did some searching online as discovered these master plans that have been mentioned in above posts:

http://www.manukaoval.com.au/about/master_plan.php

There are 3 options, increasing in cost, size and scale.

Option 1 is a basic upgrade refurb.
Option 2 looks like its will ensure an all seater stadium and coverings over the seats. This raised capacity to around 20k and I reckon its good enough for the Giants. Also, the area in suburban and I cant imagine local residents want a monstrosity of a stadium around.
Option 3 means sending the AFL off to a redesigned Canberra Stadium and building a new rectangular stadium nearby. Something like this has been proposed recently in the Canberra Times (new rectangular stadium for the city).

Personally, as an AFL supporter who wants to see quality football in the capital, option 2 is the way to go.
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I stumbled onto this webpage today. And going through this thread I can see it was posted previously. However the masterplan documents are no longer available.

But they are using the Wayback Machine website:

2009 Draft Master Plan – Manuka Oval

web.archive.org web.archive.org

Anyway I thought it was an interesting read and thought I would share them a decade later.

It would be good if the seating capacity was lifted from 13,550 to 18,000 with a total capacity of 20,000.

IMG_5172.JPG

IMG_5170.JPG

IMG_5169.JPG

But this option seems like an interesting idea

IMG_5171.JPG

One way that capacity could be increased if neighbours keep complaining about any new grandstands, would be to sink the playing surface by 2m, bring the boundary line in by 4m at all edges and install 5 extra rows of seating at the front.

That would increase capacity by about 4,000 seats, and result in a playing surface 154m long x 130m wide.

From the SCG to Kardinia Park — do ground sizes contribute to the end result in AFL games? - ABC News

amp.abc.net.au amp.abc.net.au
 

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kranger said:
But this option seems like an interesting idea

View attachment 1725953
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It is an interesting idea. Having separate but adjacent oval and rectangular stadia has worked well for Sydney and Melbourne, so why not Canberra too? Perhaps a spur from the light rail line can be brought to the precinct through MacArthur Avenue and Fairfax St, then cutting across the nature reserve to the transit hub on the map. It could then proceed via Haydon Dr to Bruce, and via College St to Belconnen.
 
For any locals out there who have been to Manuka Oval, planning to go watch GWS vs. St. Kilda in R5 and wondering if it was worth it buying general admission seating behind goals between Bay 8-10 and Bay 20-22 (how big are those areas) and how fast do those areas generally fill up pretty quickly during matches over there with the first come first basis method.

There is hill seating according to Ticketek and I have been there a couple times now but I would rather prefer the unreserved seating and was just how early should I get there to guarantee a seat and etc in those bays as I’m unsure how busy it gets?
 
Cubs2Lions said:
For any locals out there who have been to Manuka Oval, planning to go watch GWS vs. St. Kilda in R5 and wondering if it was worth it buying general admission seating behind goals between Bay 8-10 and Bay 20-22 (how big are those areas) and how fast do those areas generally fill up pretty quickly during matches over there with the first come first basis method.

There is hill seating according to Ticketek and I have been there a couple times now but I would rather prefer the unreserved seating and was just how early should I get there to guarantee a seat and etc in those bays as I’m unsure how busy it gets?
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I've only ever had a GA membership, so I can't tell you how much better the other options are, but I've never had an issue finding a decent spot with unreserved seating. But that being said, the Giants said they were expecting a sell-out, so wouldn't hurt getting there early to be safe.

I usually tend to sit at the media centre end. I think it's in the Bay 20-ish area. It's a pretty good spot behind the Giants cheer squad.
 
Canberra Pear said:
I've only ever had a GA membership, so I can't tell you how much better the other options are, but I've never had an issue finding a decent spot with unreserved seating. But that being said, the Giants said they were expecting a sell-out, so wouldn't hurt getting there early to be safe.

I usually tend to sit at the media centre end. I think it's in the Bay 20-ish area. It's a pretty good spot behind the Giants cheer squad.
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Thanks for the tip mate, was only concerned about how small the GA area could be and if their would be like a mad rush for that seating but by the sounds of things it won’t be as busy until near the first bounce, which should be okay to find a decent seat now without being attacked inside the cheer squad for eternity :laughv1:

Realised last night that the VFL teams will be playing in the curtain raiser beforehand so if Manuka Oval open their gates in the morning, might entice me now to get there earlier than usual cause two matches are better than one.
 
Cubs2Lions said:
For any locals out there who have been to Manuka Oval, planning to go watch GWS vs. St. Kilda in R5 and wondering if it was worth it buying general admission seating behind goals between Bay 8-10 and Bay 20-22 (how big are those areas) and how fast do those areas generally fill up pretty quickly during matches over there with the first come first basis method.

There is hill seating according to Ticketek and I have been there a couple times now but I would rather prefer the unreserved seating and was just how early should I get there to guarantee a seat and etc in those bays as I’m unsure how busy it gets?
Click to expand...

First game of the season usually sells out. Last year, our group got to the hill about 20 minutes before first bounce and the hill was mostly occupied.
 
Johnny Bananas said:
It is an interesting idea. Having separate but adjacent oval and rectangular stadia has worked well for Sydney and Melbourne, so why not Canberra too? Perhaps a spur from the light rail line can be brought to the precinct through MacArthur Avenue and Fairfax St, then cutting across the nature reserve to the transit hub on the map. It could then proceed via Haydon Dr to Bruce, and via College St to Belconnen.
Click to expand...
Polishing turds. Crap stadium in a crap location. The tram line is miles away, so no possibility of building a “spur”.

A “transit hub” in this case means that buses and cars leave from the same car park. Why do some people think that use of the word “hub” is enough to make something appear sophisticated or efficient??
 
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