Universal Love Princes Park Update

[The_Wookie]

Jack and his lib mates had the underground going all the way to the ground and a car park under most of the tan from memory.
It was a pretty big ask to pull off, the rest of the board at the time must have been blinded and bullshitted into somehow thinking that he could pull it off.

underground car park was part of smorgons proposal in 2006 too. maybe not on the same scale - but then smorgons was a 120 million development...not sure about jacks.

 

[The Facepainter]

According to the Princes Park Redevelopment Facts sheet released by the AFL in 2006, the Gardiner Stand was supposed to be demolished as part of stage 1.



Stage 2, under Smorgon was supposedly going to cost 106 million and demolish parts of the Legends and Pratt Stands according to this. It was supposed to include an underground car park.



Actually its a condition of the lease which currently expires in 2035 according to this council ten year plan released in 1998. Big difference between a lease condition and it being law.


ref: Melbourne City Council, Princes Park Ten Year Plan, 1998 page 5.


If they can play games in Hobart, Manuka, Cairns and Marrara, they can play them at Princes Park. Of those grounds only Marrara has decent night lighting. As long as games can be played on a saturday or sunday afternoon you'd be laughing. The nature of the comp would mean that its realistically only going to be 2 or 3 games anyway. ie. GWS, Gold Coast, Port Adelaide etc.




First Ive heard of this, got a reference for that?



Some fun stuff to note:

In May 2009, Swann told the Age (Blues talking up AFL return to Visy Park):



This was backed by the City of Melbourne Lord Mayor at the time, Robert Doyle.



Evidently this got put on the backburner when the Etihad deals were renegotiated.

Finally, The request for submissions for the new Park masterplan in March 2012, noted that as part of the lease renegotiations the Southern Sport Area had been removed from available parking areas under the Carlton lease. This reduces parking by about 1400 vehicles.

I like the thorough nature of this info and thank you for displaying it.
Just one question that I need to ask is Could we put a roof on it to keep me dry and warm like Etihad?

 

[kingkingston]

well it is 2014 and where are club on this situation ? will we ever return to our rightful home

 

[Robbo's my hero]

well it is 2014 and where are club on this situation ? will we ever return to our rightful home

Rumour file.

 

[Teagueeee15]

I've been taking regular photographs at the ground over the last few years and it really has fallen into a state of disrepair in some areas. Some areas look as they do after the last game in 2005. I will let people judge for themselves whether they think the facilities are upto standard and if not, how much it will cost to remedy.

Inside the Legends Stand concourse:

 

[Azul]

No. Only way PP will be redeveloped is if Melbourne again bids for the Olympic Games.

And we'd need to have that new underground train line stopping nearby.

Either that or convince the Emirati businessman that now owns Melbourne City FC that AAMI Park isn't a suitable home venue for A-League.

 

[ShanDog]

Fix it up. Make it a 35,000 seat ground with drafted plans for upgrades to 40,000 and 50,000 to cover the next 30-50 years.

Get money from the AFL, the government and banks. Make the deals necessary (legitimate kickbacks to AFL coffers etc) and make it happen. Would go a long way to ensuring Carlton survives long term!

Even if we have to sign a new 5 year stadium deal whilst all the development gets done, it will be worth it in the long run. How much could it possibly cost these days to rip out some old stands, build new steel contruction ones and refurbish a few facades?

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

The place is a bit of a dump now. I get scared walking through the walkways it's that dark. The toilets are feral and the Gardiner Stand looks like it will collapse at any moment.

 

[Teagueeee15]

Richard Pratt Stand:

 

[ShanDog]

Few bottles of AJAX and a couple volunteers and she'll be right for 2015!

 

[Teagueeee15]

Pratt Stand Continued

 

[LanceRomance]

Looks like we could get Zak Bagans to do a Ghost Adventures Special there.

 

[koutamarto]

Ive never been to PP but looking from the top of that stand down on the oval it looks a million bucks. All the crap in the photos (junk etc, tractors etc, is that under this stand that the photos are taken from? (the last photo)

 

[Teagueeee15]

Inside Heroes Stand

 

[AB_Blue]

It would be great but I can't see it. Any upgrade would be 100mil at least and as posted earlier anything short of an Olympics/World cup we would have no chance

 

[LanceRomance]

HOw come no one has stolen those choice tv's?

 

[Teagueeee15]

Heroes Stand Continued

 

[HBF]

I've been saying for a few years that the club really need to do something about the Legends and Pratt Stand.
It really it is a disgrace that the club can't spend a bit of money just to tidy up the place.
I used the toilets at the bottom on the Pratt Stand they were disgusting.

 

[Teagueeee15]

Exterior Shots

This is a more up to date photo of the back of the Pratt Stand compared the one a few pictures above. These windows have been smashed for months and nothing's been done about it

 

[Teagueeee15]

Ive never been to PP but looking from the top of that stand down on the oval it looks a million bucks. All the crap in the photos (junk etc, tractors etc, is that under this stand that the photos are taken from? (the last photo)

All that junk is sitting on the concourse on the bottom level. Pretty much every concourse in the ground is used as a tip. I have plenty more pictures of junk laying about, trust me.

 

[SBYM]

A return to PP certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility, but it's pretty ******* close to the border…

Unfortunately when some foresight and innovative thinking could have had an impact we were at our lowest ebb and bereft of both…

The person who could get something like this off the ground would become as big as Jezza.

 

[Teagueeee15]

Gardiner Stand

This is the pateo Sam Rowe built when he was recovering from cancer, along with Ellard.

 

[kanye_best]

can't believe someone nicked the public phone!

looks like the money needed to fix it up would be more than it's worth

 

[passmark]

The economic rationalists and marketing spivs will give you 400 different reason why it won't work.

And every single one of them misses the point.

Back to PP would ensure Carlton as powerhouse for years to come.

The tricky bit is getting someone to pay for it.

 

[Big_Luch]

Shame they cannot clean all the crap that has been dumped under the stands.