Eureka Stadium (Mars Stadium)
- Thread starter BallaratBoy1987
- Start date
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Interesting to see, so it looks like the current social club will stay but will be behind this new stand. Hopefully the empty southern end will have grass banks along it at least to bump up the capacity somewhat. They've rotated the ground around as well which makes sense, but it basically means the Showgrounds are certain to be moved to vic park now. For $15 million though these stands are going to be as basic as they come. Looks like we'll all be lining up at the food trucks, the forge pizzeria, round the way bagel burgers, masala valley Indian, the Ballarat hamburger cart, the chips and gravy van, the spud tornado tent...better than anything you'll get at the mcg.
thegreig
Club Legend
It's strange that Ballarat has a population of 96,940 thats 50,000 less then Bendigo but if a AFL team was to move regional Ballarat would probably be picked first. The new stadium and full time VFL team certainly help their case.
- Jul 9, 2010
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What's the better town? Or the major differences these days?
If the official Ballarat limits covered the same area as Bendigo we would be slightly bigger.
Basically there is no great difference between Ballarat and Bendigo except being roughly twenty minutes closer to Melbourne and having a bigger tourism industry means more people from Melbourne have been to Ballarat over Bendigo, can remember reading that in the courier somewhere. That and when we have a mosque no one bats an eyelid, when Bendigo does it's a national story.
On the Showgrounds, the plans look great! Good to see the ultimate plan is an all seater undercover. I'd personally say a 16000 seat stadium with rail access for melburnians and marshians would be spot on. As much as I'd love to see a Ballarat team one day the best I think we can ever hope for is three or four games a year if we're lucky...and that's only if all the big businesses here like Mars and mccains decide to prop up the dogs.
- Sep 14, 2015
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I think what also makes Ballarat an easier sell relative to Bendigo is that it is an hour and a bit from Melbourne (less from the Footscray end of town) and is also closer to Adelaide than any other non-SA AFL venues, so is quite marketable to non-locals.
For a lot of Dogs fans, getting to Ballarat would be easier than the old Waverley VFL Park games, although looking at the above plans the car parking will need to be developed.
Bendigo is that bit further away from Melbourne (more like 1.5-2 hours). I would like to see Bendigo get games someday too though, great ground there.
For a lot of Dogs fans, getting to Ballarat would be easier than the old Waverley VFL Park games, although looking at the above plans the car parking will need to be developed.
Bendigo is that bit further away from Melbourne (more like 1.5-2 hours). I would like to see Bendigo get games someday too though, great ground there.
thegreig
Club Legend
I just typed in Ballarat/Bendigo 2014 population into google and got the first result that came up so it's probably not the most accuret number. I know that no clubs will be relocated there it was just a hypothetical, I can see the doggies playing more games at the stadium in the future though
Would be good if they got to stage 3 or atleast 2 ahead of the schedule mentioned above. Probably not possible but it just smells of the same slow process the cats have gone through.
You make valid points and I now completely agree. I guess they will be looking at the long term.Probably best that it is not rushed, as the development is being funded by a number of bodies, and the Ballarat City Council will be picking up the tab for the redevelopment of surrounding roads, the building of car parks, landscaping etc. To that end they can only do so much each year within the limits of the their budgets. We experienced a similar thing where I live in Seymour with the building of the Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk (Okay, not a stadium, but a big project for a community of 6500 people). It was built slowly over six years (Between 2008-14) in stages to fit into Council budgets and not tick off a lot of rate payers in the process. The result so far has been well worth it, and well supported by the local community. ;-)
The Eureka Stadium will be developed much the same, and staged development also allows for planners to incorporate improvements in latter stages learned from the mistakes made in earlier stages.
Below: Okay not a footy stadium, but a good example of staged development of a major civic project - The Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk in Seymour. The memorial has been built up in stages with the Mitchell Shire Council only finishing surrounding road works in 2014, but now are adding all of the finishing touches such as drinking fountains, bins, seating, signage, etc. The image below shows the commemorative wall featuring the names of 60,800 Aussies and four tracker dogs who served. The digiglass panels depict images that tell the story of a ten year campaign. The trees to the right are growing now and planted to look like a rubber plantation, whereas the the grass beds on the left symbolise the rice paddys of Vietnam.
Below: The Restored Huey was put in place in 2013 at the Western end and is fully lit up at night complete with strobing navigation lights and a green lit cockpit. The surrounds below have since been landscaped and developed and further final developments will be completed in 2016 at the Eastern end of the 400m long memorial. Recent additions have included more pavers with names of families and donors as well as a 105mm Howitzer used in Vietnam. In 2016 a fully restored Armoured Personnel Carrier will be installed at the far Eastern end.
Unlike Melbourne with its Federation Square, Museum, Southern Cross Station, and City Link which all went massively over their budgets by hundreds of millions of dollars on each one of those projects, smaller towns and regional cities cannot afford to absorb such financial risk or loss. They must take the slow and steady staged approach to any developments in order to ensure that they get it right and within their budget.
Surprised that Seymour has this^ just goes to show what smaller councils and shires can do when they do their due diligence and not just bang something out only to cost a gut load in repairs every year.
thegreig
Club Legend
I'm surprised the master plan has a capacity of only 15 thousand, does anyone know if there are other plans to go beyond that? Does the staged development take this into account at all or will it be capped at 15
I'll agree with that, I feel like the 15k capacity would be fine for us if we wouldn't get supporters from Melbourne coming up. But honestly I can see at least 5k coming up and for there to be crowds of potentially 20k, especially against the likes of Port.
- Jul 9, 2010
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I reckon they're overrating the appeal this place has to SA fans, unless these Crows/Port supporters are living incredibly inland. I just believe most people like a footy trip to Melbourne because it's not just a lot of footy, but Melbourne – this city has an appeal to interstate people, and it bloody well should.
Are people really going to spend the extra two hours to go to Ballarat? Barely. They'll wait another month and save their money until their side's playing at Etihad or the 'G.
Are people really going to spend the extra two hours to go to Ballarat? Barely. They'll wait another month and save their money until their side's playing at Etihad or the 'G.
South Australians who travel to ballarat will be few and far between. The areas along the SA/VIC border and surrounds are not as highly populated as people may think. Most of them around that area would be involved in local sport and wouldn't be able to make it anyway...
Working at a certain big tourist attraction I can tell you a huge portion of our visitors are South Australian families. Think about it, the kids want a weekend away so they go to this particular tourist attraction for two days while the dad goes along to watch port play. I can honestly vouch for the big number who travel down the highway to Ballarat.
I reckon plenty would visit Ballarat on a day trip, but very few would go just because their team is playing in a 3rd rate ground. It'd be for the diehards only, for those of us that might travel to watch our team once or twice a year there's no way they're picking a game at Ballarat to attend. Not when you could go to a game at the MCG or Etihad.
I can see the suns being scheduled to play there.
My annual trip down to watch them play in melbourne will always be for a game at the MCG. or Etihad.
Which is a shame as I have always enjoyed the Bulldogs games we play at Etihad ...
My annual trip down to watch them play in melbourne will always be for a game at the MCG. or Etihad.
Which is a shame as I have always enjoyed the Bulldogs games we play at Etihad ...
It's not because of where it is, it's because that hardly any money is being spent on it.
Most of the seating will be scaffold FFS. The bulk of facilities will be temporary, portaloos and the like. You get what you pay for, and they're not paying for much.
And i'd be surprised if after the first game or 2 there will be that many locals watching. It's too close to Melbourne - most locals aren't going to support either team, and for those people they probably already go to plenty of footy games as they're not far away. It's not like Tassie or Canberra where they have to travel long distances to go.
For that reason I can easily see crowds well under 10k for the sort of fixtures that will be played there. Say Dogs v GWS - a couple of thousand locals, a few thousand diehard Dogs fans from Melbourne and that's it.
I'd like to see geelong play there. We'd show up in droves.
This is impressive.Probably best that it is not rushed, as the development is being funded by a number of bodies, and the Ballarat City Council will be picking up the tab for the redevelopment of surrounding roads, the building of car parks, landscaping etc. To that end they can only do so much each year within the limits of the their budgets. We experienced a similar thing where I live in Seymour with the building of the Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk (Okay, not a stadium, but a big project for a community of 6500 people). It was built slowly over six years (Between 2008-14) in stages to fit into Council budgets and not tick off a lot of rate payers in the process. The result so far has been well worth it, and well supported by the local community. ;-)
The Eureka Stadium will be developed much the same, and staged development also allows for planners to incorporate improvements in latter stages learned from the mistakes made in earlier stages.
Below: Okay not a footy stadium, but a good example of staged development of a major civic project - The Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Walk in Seymour. The memorial has been built up in stages with the Mitchell Shire Council only finishing surrounding road works in 2014, but now are adding all of the finishing touches such as drinking fountains, bins, seating, signage, etc. The image below shows the commemorative wall featuring the names of 60,800 Aussies and four tracker dogs who served. The digiglass panels depict images that tell the story of a ten year campaign. The trees to the right are growing now and planted to look like a rubber plantation, whereas the the grass beds on the left symbolise the rice paddys of Vietnam.
Below: The Restored Huey was put in place in 2013 at the Western end and is fully lit up at night complete with strobing navigation lights and a green lit cockpit. The surrounds below have since been landscaped and developed and further final developments will be completed in 2016 at the Eastern end of the 400m long memorial. Recent additions have included more pavers with names of families and donors as well as a 105mm Howitzer used in Vietnam. In 2016 a fully restored Armoured Personnel Carrier will be installed at the far Eastern end.
Unlike Melbourne with its Federation Square, Museum, Southern Cross Station, and City Link which all went massively over their budgets by hundreds of millions of dollars on each one of those projects, smaller towns and regional cities cannot afford to absorb such financial risk or loss. They must take the slow and steady staged approach to any developments in order to ensure that they get it right and within their budget.
Say what? I remember us playing you guys once at Etihad and that's it. We always play you in Cairns now.
Oh yeh, it was just once.
Anyway, my point stands. If this goes ahead, I can't see the family heading down for that weekend if and when it happens.
- Dec 19, 2015
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Im looking forward to this. As a cats fan I like having point of difference stadiums, I'm happy with our redevelopments but we are starting to lose what made kardinia park what it was.
I use to love going to Princess Park so very much looking forward to watching a game at an alternative stadium. I hope it becomes a popular move with fans.
I use to love going to Princess Park so very much looking forward to watching a game at an alternative stadium. I hope it becomes a popular move with fans.
So if you're a fan of a team like Port/Freo, GC etc that is likely to get shunted to a game here. If you fly into Melbourne, how difficult is the journey from Southern Cross to this stadium using transport that isn't a personal car? Train to Ballarat, then what?
Train to Ballarat and get a shuttle bus straight there I would presume, it's not that far.
- Jun 30, 2014
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It won't be difficult. The people of Melbourne expect perfect public transport service
