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New Townsville Stadium
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Fizzler
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Oh that’s cool, looks very NFL. I’ll check it out when it’s built if I ever head up there.
The NRL need schedule a good game on the V8 weekend.
They're next to each other so I'd hope so.
This design was released in Dec 2016 I'm sure? Having said that just about anything would be an improvement on the dump they hold the games at now. It's a nightmare.
I doubt they'll play proper footy there though - there's already a pretty good Aussie Rules ground ( And cricket ) elsewhere in Townsville. I'd say the dual use for the NRL ground will be concerts mostly.
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I see they're going to build a copy of Optus Stadium's Locker Room at Townsville Stadium, I hope they copy some of the features from Optus like the wide seats, a few food outlets merged with bars and of course, the first row of seats being around a meter off the ground
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This is only done at Optus for the rectangle game conversion and wont be required at Townsville.
hitthepost
Norm Smith Medallist
It's still not necessarily a bad thing for the spectators in the front row - being that bit higher gets linesmen, cameramen, etc out of view a bit more and helps with visibility on the far side of the pitch.
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Ah that's a cracking looking little ground, definitely reminds me of those ones in the US they use for soccer. I like the idea of an open end at one ground in a modern stadium, gives it a good boutique feel and when you see it on summer and TV, you feel like scheduling a trip there.
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Dual use probably means Rugby Union and Rugby League ... after all, never the twain shall meet
Now I will say up front that I am not here stating that Townsville doesn't need a first class venue to host its NRL team games.
However I've said it once and I'll say it again that $250 million is an exorbitant amount of money to spend for a 25,000 seat limited use stadium. It works out at $10,000 per seat. The Liberal Party in Victoria squealed like stuffed pigs over $15 million spent to build Ballarat's multi-use 5,000 seat (11,000 capacity) Mars Stadium which so far has cost $3,000 per seat yet go very quiet when challenged about their Federal counterpart's shameless attempt at pork-barelling in Townsville during the last Federal Election.
But common sense is usually the first casualty of a government desperate to win a seat in Queensland.
I suspect that Townsville could have built a very special venue for considerably less. It might have made better sense to develop the Riverways Stadium (which is located in the suburban heartland) into a multi-use ground by construction of new stands and an upgrade to its lighting. Under this proposal, by adopting a similar design to Ballarat's Mars Stadium, or even Metricon Stadium from the Gold Coast woulve delivered Townsville a 24,000 seat cricket, Aussie Rules, Rugby oval complete with video scoreboards, TV standard lighting, and by including fixtures such as permanent bars, toilets and food outlets for a figure closer to $85-100 million. Thus opening the door for Townsville to host BBL and AFL games which it has long aspired for, but keeps getting knocked back because of the lack of supporting infrastructure at the Riverways ground.
The new Townsville Stadium will be located in South Townsville on the fringe of the CBD but not in its heartland. Townsville's public transport is limited to busses and taxis only, while its road arterial network is mostly dual and single lane carriageways limiting its capacity to shift 25,000 people from its hearland to its fringe. It is likely that transport to the new facility will be a transport nightmare for both police and road users. To know the area is to appreciate that it is not abundant with car parking. To understand Townsville's topography and to make it relatable to Victorians, Townsville is a very expansive city. It's very spread out and while it has a smaller population than Geelong, it covers about twice the urban footprint with its suburbs entending inland from the coast up to 30km. It's population mainly live, work and shop around inland business and shopping hubs and rarely travel into its city which is mainly filled with offices, very limited shopping, but has mainly cafes, tourist zones and nightclubs. It's CBD is more targeted at tourists whist the nightclubs largely cater to Service personnel.
I suspect that the new stadium (as a very code-specific facility) perhaps is not what should have been built in a regional city baring in mind that Townsville is neither a Capital nor a metropolitan area. It is after all a remote population hub of 180,000. It's nearest major Capital city is 1.5 hrs flying time away. The nearest significant cities (Cairns (population 160,000) and McKay (85,000)) are at least 3.5 hours distant by road North and South respectively. Townsville has a healthy mixture of sporting codes that are played competitively and therefore a general purpose or multi use stadium being used all year round across different sporting codes would have been a better solution in preference to a facility which will only be used several times per NRL season.
While one might say kudos to the NQ Cowboys, it's the Australian taxpayers in Victoria, Tasmania, NSW, WA, SA and the territories who have funded what is for my mind an extravagant shrine to political pork barrelling in a remote regional city (which for the record hasn't voted in a Federal Liberal representative in decades).
Anyway that's only my opinion for what it's worth. Good luck with it Townsville, I hope that you can make it work and pay for itself.
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Agree. Farce.
Dual use probably means Rugby Union and Rugby League ... after all, never the twain shall meet
Now I will say up front that I am not here stating that Townsville doesn't need a first class venue to host its NRL team games.
However I've said it once and I'll say it again that $250 million is an exorbitant amount of money to spend for a 25,000 seat limited use stadium. It works out at $10,000 per seat. The Liberal Party in Victoria squealed like stuffed pigs over $15 million spent to build Ballarat's multi-use 5,000 seat (11,000 capacity) Mars Stadium which so far has cost $3,000 per seat yet go very quiet when challenged about their Federal counterpart's shameless attempt at pork-barelling in Townsville during the last Federal Election.
But common sense is usually the first casualty of a government desperate to win a seat in Queensland.
I suspect that Townsville could have built a very special venue for considerably less. It might have made better sense to develop the Riverways Stadium (which is located in the suburban heartland) into a multi-use ground by construction of new stands and an upgrade to its lighting. Under this proposal, by adopting a similar design to Ballarat's Mars Stadium, or even Metricon Stadium from the Gold Coast woulve delivered Townsville a 24,000 seat cricket, Aussie Rules, Rugby oval complete with video scoreboards, TV standard lighting, and by including fixtures such as permanent bars, toilets and food outlets for a figure closer to $85-100 million. Thus opening the door for Townsville to host BBL and AFL games which it has long aspired for, but keeps getting knocked back because of the lack of supporting infrastructure at the Riverways ground.
The new Townsville Stadium will be located in South Townsville on the fringe of the CBD but not in its heartland. Townsville's public transport is limited to busses and taxis only, while its road arterial network is mostly dual and single lane carriageways limiting its capacity to shift 25,000 people from its hearland to its fringe. It is likely that transport to the new facility will be a transport nightmare for both police and road users. To know the area is to appreciate that it is not abundant with car parking. To understand Townsville's topography and to make it relatable to Victorians, Townsville is a very expansive city. It's very spread out and while it has a smaller population than Geelong, it covers about twice the urban footprint with its suburbs entending inland from the coast up to 30km. It's population mainly live, work and shop around inland business and shopping hubs and rarely travel into its city which is mainly filled with offices, very limited shopping, but has mainly cafes, tourist zones and nightclubs. It's CBD is more targeted at tourists whist the nightclubs largely cater to Service personnel.
I suspect that the new stadium (as a very code-specific facility) perhaps is not what should have been built in a regional city baring in mind that Townsville is neither a Capital nor a metropolitan area. It is after all a remote population hub of 180,000. It's nearest major Capital city is 1.5 hrs flying time away. The nearest significant cities (Cairns (population 160,000) and McKay (85,000)) are at least 3.5 hours distant by road North and South respectively. Townsville has a healthy mixture of sporting codes that are played competitively and therefore a general purpose or multi use stadium being used all year round across different sporting codes would have been a better solution in preference to a facility which will only be used several times per NRL season.
While one might say kudos to the NQ Cowboys, it's the Australian taxpayers in Victoria, Tasmania, NSW, WA, SA and the territories who have funded what is for my mind an extravagant shrine to political pork barrelling in a remote regional city (which for the record hasn't voted in a Federal Liberal representative in decades).
Anyway that's only my opinion for what it's worth. Good luck with it Townsville, I hope that you can make it work and pay for itself.
You got it mostly right, except for the fact that the sitting Labour Federal MP won the seat from the Libs in 2016. And Mackay. It's quite easy to get around Townsville by car, the traffic is virtually non-existent in comparison to places with the population density of , say, Geelong. I sure can't disagree with you about the cost.
I suspect you don't know a whole lot about Townsville but you try to give the impression you do.
I'm not even an NRL fan - it's a s**t game to watch live IMO, much better on TV. Opposite of my opinion of Aussie Rules , great live but not much chop on TV
You want to talk about money wasting by pollies - You'll get an argument from people living in "remote" Australia just about every time. The amount of money pissed into capital cities road networks compared to the s**t-fights we have for highways for starters. Not to mention the taxpayers building roads in said capital cities and then discovering they have to pay to actually travel on them cos their road somehow ended up in the hands of a private company, without their consent.
The bus network in Townsville on gamedays out to ( Insert sponsor's name ) Stadium was actually pretty good. I see no reason it'll change with the new joint in town.
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Lived there for nine years (2001-2010) when I was married and served in the Army, I left there to move back to Geelong in 2010. My points about the dispersement of its populace, its expansiveness, and the issues of traffic and massed movement of spectators are valid. The existing facility out at Kirwan is considerably smaller than what is being built and it is built in the suburban heartland. Therefore getting 16,000 spectators to and from there is less of a challenge. Anyway, that's all speculation. Shifting tens of thousands primarily along Boundary Street might present a significant challenge.
We both agree that Townsville deserved a better facility to replace the old stadium which was only ever temporary in the first instance and was built from recycling a trotting complex which opened back in 1985 replacing the old and very dated trotting facility at its old showgrounds on Ingham Road (See I do know a lot about Townsville
). I think that we both agree that this new stadium is an opportunity lost because politicians rushed to provide funding to buy cheap votes without consulting the wider sporting community around the area. Many in Southern Australia might think that because Townsville is in QLD that it is dominated by Rugby League. If you take the NQ Cowboys out of the equation, when you stand the two major local footy comps up side by side, then one appreciates that AFL is very well supported and played in Townsville. The city certainly has a strong and competitive cricket competition and while it may never host test or Sheffield Shield cricket, BBL would easily fill a 25,000 seat cricket ground in the Ville.
Anyway, the new venue is being built as we speak. Yes Townsville will host a one-off St Kilda v Suns game in June at Riverway, but now Riverway will remain a 10,000 capacity oval ringed by a grass berm with limited seating, Class III standard cricket lighting and a kick-arse scoreboard. It may have to now wait for decades for serious funding for the upgrades at Riverway which the Local Aussie Rules, Cricket, and Council have now lobbied for since 2010:
Townsville Bulletin Article 1
Townsville Bulletin Article 2
Townsville Bulletin Article 3
All the best.
Lived there for nine years (2001-2010) when I was married and served in the Army, I left there to move back to Geelong in 2010. My points about the dispersement of its populace, its expansiveness, and the issues of traffic and massed movement of spectators are valid. The existing facility out at Kirwan is considerably smaller than what is being built and it is built in the suburban heartland. Therefore getting 16,000 spectators to and from there is less of a challenge. Anyway, that's all speculation. Shifting tens of thousands primarily along Boundary Street might present a significant challenge.
We both agree that Townsville deserved a better facility to replace the old stadium which was only ever temporary in the first instance and was built from recycling a trotting complex which opened back in 1985 replacing the old and very dated trotting facility at its old showgrounds on Ingham Road (See I do know a lot about Townsville
I think that we both agree that this new stadium is an opportunity lost because politicians rushed to provide funding to buy cheap votes without consulting the wider sporting community around the area. Many in Southern Australia might think that because Townsville is in QLD that it is dominated by Rugby League. If you take the NQ Cowboys out of the equation, when you stand the two major local footy comps up side by side, then one appreciates that AFL is very well supported and played in Townsville. The city certainly has a strong and competitive cricket competition and while it may never host test or Sheffield Shield cricket, BBL would easily fill a 25,000 seat cricket ground in the Ville.
Anyway, the new venue is being built as we speak. Yes Townsville will host a one-off St Kilda v Suns game in June at Riverway, but now Riverway will remain a 10,000 capacity oval ringed by a grass berm with limited seating, Class III standard cricket lighting and a kick-arse scoreboard. It may have to now wait for decades for serious funding for the upgrades at Riverway which the Local Aussie Rules, Cricket, and Council have now lobbied for since 2010:
Townsville Bulletin Article 1
Townsville Bulletin Article 2
Townsville Bulletin Article 3
All the best.
Yep, again well argued.
I live about 2km from the new stadium, and I’m probably in a better position to argue the current traffic dispersion but that can slide.
As far as the shitfight in Kirwan goes, it’s far from being in the Suburban heartland. It’s as much on the fringe as the new one is, just at the opposite side. And getting out of that if you’re driving is also an absolute nightmare. And it’s so far sub standard that it’s incredible. It makes the old Western Oval seem palatial. ( Spent 4 years in Melbourne, only “ Traditional “ suburban ground I didn’t get to was Arden st )
I’ve been here since 96 and have seen a lot of change. I do think having the new stadium in the city was a good move. The cost - well that’s a different story.
People in the capital cities can GAGF as far as I’m concerned if they begrudge a few bucks going back to regional centres, places that often contribute disproportionately large revenue back to their government in relation to their population. To qualify that statement I grew up in Perth, and saw, first hand, how badly a capital city can leach off others who produce plenty but don’t get much back because they’re overwhelmed at the ballot box.
Respect for being an ex-servicewoman. Thank you for what you contributed to our country.
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Good reply, and appreciate your thoughts Boris. Hope that you and yours have a great and safe new year. Look forward to many good and constructive discussions into the future. All the best.
And you too Roogal. Intelligent conversation can sometimes be a little tough to come by on BF.
- Dec 7, 2016
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Are you talking reference to the recent St Kilda v GC Suns at Riverway Stadium?
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The weather in Townsville is at its best for my mind in July/August. I hope that Riverway gets the nod for another AFL game in 2020 with the same teams too, in order to build up a following.
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I enjoyed the Suns Saints game. there were about 7000 there which was pretty busy- 10k would be a nightmare. ITs great seeing an AFL standard game in a surburban setting where you can wander around the ground and watch from different vantage points and get pretty close to the action.
The new stadium will be great but I agree its a shame it wasnt built with a larger field to also accommodate AFL and cricket. I think it will have a great flow on effect for the city centre which has struggled for decades.
The new stadium will be great but I agree its a shame it wasnt built with a larger field to also accommodate AFL and cricket. I think it will have a great flow on effect for the city centre which has struggled for decades.
hitthepost
Norm Smith Medallist
If it was built as an oval the major tenants (whose use of the stadium is what is allowing for the upgrade) would not be happy.
Yeah I know, but * em.
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Thurston shows off new Cowboys stadium
North Queensland Cowboys favourite son Johnathan Thurston gives NRL.com reporter Katie Brown a tour of the new stadium and an update of where his famous statue will be placed
www.nrl.com
The reporter Katie Brown has mentioned that NQ Stadium will now fit 26,500 people up from 25,000.
