Universal Love Princes Park Update

[DangerousD]

We've already sold most of it, all the boundary side stuff is new signage, same with the second tier banners on the legends stand. The old stuff is mainly optus logos around the roofline and the coke sign on the gardiner stand, which could be painted solid blue if restored.

A few of the old big bits at the back of legends stand remain but the ones behind the goals are new.


Because they're back training there, after being evicted since last year wen the resurfacing began. None of our list played a proper game there except for simmo.

They're just happy they have a training base again instead of vising schools and parks in the outer burbs.


Yep. Hardly any seating, with most of the ground level seats infront of it ripped up, a useless carpark underneath it which only stores the tractor and a dozen cars at most, moudly interiors (walked around it last aflw season, the walls are leaky and falling apart) and the only thing of value is that it contains offices for a few groups other than the football club, YMCA, Umpires Vic and one or two other orgs.

If they tore it down, deepened the basement across the entire footprint of the stands, put in two changerooms and a warmup/gym in the basement below the ground level terrace, some carparking below those and then built a new stand on top it'd be the best outcome.

Expand the footprint of the stand by ~10m to house some offices for those existing orgs at the rear or a public gym, new commentary boxes and broadcast facilities inside, move the coaches boxes from the Pratt stand to this new northern stand and a scoreboard over next to the legends stand and it'd be perfect.

If it had 2 tiers you could have a function room above the coaches and commentary boxes underneath a top tier which would cover the entire length of the stand instead of one tiny corner as it does now. Built it ~5m taller than the existing roofline so only a little bit bigger, the local can't complain too much and the club gets to run a gym to make back some coin over time.

The ballarat stage 1 redevelopment (which is basic but pretty great) cost $15m, I'm imagining as a second (or third) tier built ontop of a ground level structure, of course that included ground works and other works on the smaller perimeter stands. So say the main stand there cost 10m or so. Double or even triple it for a larger grandstand with multiple levels and excavation required, throw in another $5m for internal fitouts given it wouldn't be as basic and that is plenty of money to spare in a 50m budget.

Mars Stadium created 38 construction jobs, with 55 workers on site every day, including 15 apprentices.

All up 3000 people worked 82,500 hours on the redevelopment.​

Of course demolition brings that cost up again but I'm certain we could easily get a new stand with offices, underground parking & training areas all for under $45m with 5m left over to upgrade other areas which don't honestly need too much work overall, painting, internal lighting and plumbing upgrades and other such works.

end rant.

The new stand at Bellerive oval is a good indication of what $35M gets you. Its a nice stand, to look at anyway.

 

[Dadadadaaaaaa]

We've already sold most of it, all the boundary side stuff is new signage, same with the second tier banners on the legends stand. The old stuff is mainly optus logos around the roofline and the coke sign on the gardiner stand, which could be painted solid blue if restored.

A few of the old big bits at the back of legends stand remain but the ones behind the goals are new.


Because they're back training there, after being evicted since last year wen the resurfacing began. None of our list played a proper game there except for simmo.

They're just happy they have a training base again instead of vising schools and parks in the outer burbs.


Yep. Hardly any seating, with most of the ground level seats infront of it ripped up, a useless carpark underneath it which only stores the tractor and a dozen cars at most, moudly interiors (walked around it last aflw season, the walls are leaky and falling apart) and the only thing of value is that it contains offices for a few groups other than the football club, YMCA, Umpires Vic and one or two other orgs.

If they tore it down, deepened the basement across the entire footprint of the stands, put in two changerooms and a warmup/gym in the basement below the ground level terrace, some carparking below those and then built a new stand on top it'd be the best outcome.

Expand the footprint of the stand by ~10m to house some offices for those existing orgs at the rear or a public gym, new commentary boxes and broadcast facilities inside, move the coaches boxes from the Pratt stand to this new northern stand and a scoreboard over next to the legends stand and it'd be perfect.

If it had 2 tiers you could have a function room above the coaches and commentary boxes underneath a top tier which would cover the entire length of the stand instead of one tiny corner as it does now. Built it ~5m taller than the existing roofline so only a little bit bigger, the local can't complain too much and the club gets to run a gym to make back some coin over time.

The ballarat stage 1 redevelopment (which is basic but pretty great) cost $15m, I'm imagining as a second (or third) tier built ontop of a ground level structure, of course that included ground works and other works on the smaller perimeter stands. So say the main stand there cost 10m or so. Double or even triple it for a larger grandstand with multiple levels and excavation required, throw in another $5m for internal fitouts given it wouldn't be as basic and that is plenty of money to spare in a 50m budget.

Mars Stadium created 38 construction jobs, with 55 workers on site every day, including 15 apprentices.

All up 3000 people worked 82,500 hours on the redevelopment.​

Of course demolition brings that cost up again but I'm certain we could easily get a new stand with offices, underground parking & training areas all for under $45m with 5m left over to upgrade other areas which don't honestly need too much work overall, painting, internal lighting and plumbing upgrades and other such works.

end rant.

Do you know why the ground seats were ripped up? Its something I've always wondered considering they've kept all the seating in the Pratt/Gardiner stands

Still I personally think if the Elliott stand was demolished there would be no way that the club would invest in a new shiny grandstand with seating. The best you could hope for is some new corporate/media boxes and change rooms which kind of defeats the purpose considering those things are currently there.

Plus as you said there are many organisations based in that stand anyway. I reckon it would be great if they restored the seating on ground level. That would lift the grounds capacity and make the stand much more popular to sit in.

Also is that underground thing seriously a car park? I thought it used to be like a food stall area and the club just dumped some cars there recently cause its got space...

 

[My name geoff]

Has there been a media release or plans released for the proposed redevelopment?

I would hate to see the Pratt stand go but would love to see it upgraded. The Elliott stand however is garbage, such a big stand that barely holds 500 people. Knock it down.

Pratt stand all the way to the training centre would bump the capacity up, then renovate the other stands.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Interesting how many games are being played at the ground for pre-season. A few years ago there was quite literally one and the year after two, and these were the non-televised games. And that's without this recent proliferation of almost all scratchies being under lights and then on TV. I wonder if the AFL is scheduling way more events to entice the government and to say 'well look at how much is being played there...'

Not to mention the three or four other organisations there and surely funding wouldn't be as difficult as it's sometimes seen to be?

Plus how many new ad boards are being chucked up.

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Pratt stand all the way to the training centre would bump the capacity up, then renovate the other stands.
View attachment 467174

If it's feasible that's a great idea. Best way to expand capacity for now, because as maligned as the Big Jack Stand is, we need the corporate facilities.

 

[DangerousD]

Pratt stand all the way to the training centre would bump the capacity up, then renovate the other stands.
View attachment 467174

Where did you get the pic? The hole in between the Pratt and the training centre is decent and would be a great start. A small 2nd tier on the Legends stand would be easy. Get rid of the Elliott stand and do some maintenance on the gardiner stand.

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Where did you get the pic? The hole in between the Pratt and the training centre is decent and would be a great start. A small 2nd tier on the Legends stand would be easy. Get rid of the Elliott stand and do some maintenance on the gardiner stand.

Only issue here is that a 2nd tier on the Legends Stand would result in us going over the boundaries of our lease, NIMBYs would s**t their dacks and start flinging it

 

[My name geoff]

Where did you get the pic? The hole in between the Pratt and the training centre is decent and would be a great start. A small 2nd tier on the Legends stand would be easy. Get rid of the Elliott stand and do some maintenance on the gardiner stand.

I made the pic. Would probably be more practical to build a level of seating over the training centre than over the legends stand

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

I made the pic. Would probably be more practical to build a level of seating over the training centre than over the legends stand

View attachment 467215

If it's structurally sound to do so, or can be reinforced so that it is, I'd imagine that would be the idea. Don't think you'd need to up the capacity too much beyond that for our purposes, which I imagine would be a 25-26 k reserved seat ground for 3 home games a year. Each game on that basis would be a financial windfall, never mind that we could draw more elsewhere.

 

[The_Wookie]

I wonder if the AFL is scheduling way more events to entice the government and to say 'well look at how much is being played there...'

Frees up Etihad for stuff like

 

[DangerousD]

Only issue here is that a 2nd tier on the Legends Stand would result in us going over the boundaries of our lease, NIMBYs would s**t their dacks and start flinging it

Any upgrades to PP in the future will have to offer something to the community, upgrades to the main ground would need to be accompanied by upgrades to the rest of the park, surrounding roads, royal park train station.

As long as any expansion is not huge and doesn't require to demolition of big old trees, i think we'd be ok.

 

[Dadadadaaaaaa]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...w/news-story/28ca820b87aa3d7e6a3702972bd1f79f

Outraged tbh, one of the worst business decisions you'll ever see. Apparently the Pratt stand is going to be demolished while the Gardnier and Heroes/Elliott stands stay???

They say the ground has 22K yet I highly doubt in the 50 million they're gonna build another stand on that wing. Probably be some stupid grass hill to make a capacity no more than 15K.

Liddle keeps going on and on about womens footy yet that $50 million could have been poured into upgrading Princes Park for AFL matches, you've all said that it would take around $100 million to get the ground fit. Should have retained the Pratt and Legends stand due to their capacity, demolished Heroes stand and build new coaches boxes, built a GMBHA Stadium like stand where the Gardiner is. Put in the lights and you've got venue fit for AFL matches. I just find it ironic that the point he keeps going on and on about, making the the "home" of womens footy, has made things worse. When I went to the games the Pratt Stand was full for each game with Carlton fans, the change rooms of the players are there, the viewing of the game is great yet hardly anyone sat in the Gardiner stand and next to no one sat in the Heroes stand.

This current plan completely wrecks our ground, its history, its capacity and basically kills of any chance of AFL games being played there once again. And after such a great start to the year last night, this marks a very sad moment for our footy club. Well done Liddle, hope your proud.

 

[Lace_Out]

I beleive the Gardiner stand is heritage listed. Was going to be demolished years ago but they were thwarted by the council as the metal fancy lattice under the roof was heritage protected. This was coming from someone at the ground when i did a job there (in the M storm area).

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Hope this doesn't go ahead, the Pratt Stand really is unique and makes no sense to get rid of it. Building our training centre right on the ground really has stuffed us up.

 

[drunkill]

Wrong place to redevelop. Pratt stand while old is usable and fine. It is where the majority of people sit because it has seating and an elevated position.

The northern side is rubbish and falling apart (Gardiner & Heroes) while Gardiner can be fixed up, Heroes stand needs imploding. 70% of the capacity of Princes Park would be the Southern side + Legends stands, why rebuilt existing capacity, why not upgrade/improve capacity where there is none.

Edit: Of course, the southern side is what you see on tv so they obviously want that to be the showcase, vain.

 

[Dadadadaaaaaa]

I beleive the Gardiner stand is heritage listed. Was going to be demolished years ago but they were thwarted by the council as the metal fancy lattice under the roof was heritage protected. This was coming from someone at the ground when i did a job there (in the M storm area).

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Ahhh so its just this metal lattice that is heritage protected. Well then demolish everything on the Gardnier stand site expect that, build a shiny new grandstand with the lattice on top. If your right, than legally that lattice is the only thing actually protected by heritage...

 

[AlecDuncan]

On the plus side, we shouldn't need to pay to demolish the Pratt Stand. Hawthorn officials will do it for nothing.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Ahhh so its just this metal lattice that is heritage protected. Well then demolish everything on the Gardnier stand site expect that, build a shiny new grandstand with the lattice on top. If your right, than legally that lattice is the only thing actually protected by heritage...

No, the whole stand is protected. It's one of two examples left in the state (or at least the city), the other at Brunswick Street Oval - which has been magnificently restored by the way.

You're right about $50M though. That won't go far. Restore the Gardiner, replace the exposed bench seating, slap some paint on and that'll take most of that $50M.

 

[Aphrodite]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...w/news-story/28ca820b87aa3d7e6a3702972bd1f79f

Outraged tbh, one of the worst business decisions you'll ever see. Apparently the Pratt stand is going to be demolished while the Gardnier and Heroes/Elliott stands stay???

They say the ground has 22K yet I highly doubt in the 50 million they're gonna build another stand on that wing. Probably be some stupid grass hill to make a capacity no more than 15K.

Liddle keeps going on and on about womens footy yet that $50 million could have been poured into upgrading Princes Park for AFL matches, you've all said that it would take around $100 million to get the ground fit. Should have retained the Pratt and Legends stand due to their capacity, demolished Heroes stand and build new coaches boxes, built a GMBHA Stadium like stand where the Gardiner is. Put in the lights and you've got venue fit for AFL matches. I just find it ironic that the point he keeps going on and on about, making the the "home" of womens footy, has made things worse. When I went to the games the Pratt Stand was full for each game with Carlton fans, the change rooms of the players are there, the viewing of the game is great yet hardly anyone sat in the Gardiner stand and next to no one sat in the Heroes stand.

This current plan completely wrecks our ground, its history, its capacity and basically kills of any chance of AFL games being played there once again. And after such a great start to the year last night, this marks a very sad moment for our footy club. Well done Liddle, hope your proud.

Gardiner stand is Heritage listed.

 

[Teagueeee15]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...w/news-story/28ca820b87aa3d7e6a3702972bd1f79f

Outraged tbh, one of the worst business decisions you'll ever see. Apparently the Pratt stand is going to be demolished while the Gardnier and Heroes/Elliott stands stay???

They say the ground has 22K yet I highly doubt in the 50 million they're gonna build another stand on that wing. Probably be some stupid grass hill to make a capacity no more than 15K.

Liddle keeps going on and on about womens footy yet that $50 million could have been poured into upgrading Princes Park for AFL matches, you've all said that it would take around $100 million to get the ground fit. Should have retained the Pratt and Legends stand due to their capacity, demolished Heroes stand and build new coaches boxes, built a GMBHA Stadium like stand where the Gardiner is. Put in the lights and you've got venue fit for AFL matches. I just find it ironic that the point he keeps going on and on about, making the the "home" of womens footy, has made things worse. When I went to the games the Pratt Stand was full for each game with Carlton fans, the change rooms of the players are there, the viewing of the game is great yet hardly anyone sat in the Gardiner stand and next to no one sat in the Heroes stand.

This current plan completely wrecks our ground, its history, its capacity and basically kills of any chance of AFL games being played there once again. And after such a great start to the year last night, this marks a very sad moment for our footy club. Well done Liddle, hope your proud.

Agreed that the Pratt stand gives you a great view due to the elevation. The top level of the Heroes Stand also gives you a great view during the winter months, except during the late afternoon/early evening in the summer, you can barely see anything due to the position of the sun.

 

[DangerousD]

Ahhh so its just this metal lattice that is heritage protected. Well then demolish everything on the Gardnier stand site expect that, build a shiny new grandstand with the lattice on top. If your right, than legally that lattice is the only thing actually protected by heritage...

Surely you can’t cririsize the club for wanting to knock down the Pratt and then talk about knocking down the Gardiner.

As far as I know the Gardiner stand is Heritage listed and is the 2nd oldest in the country (in some capacity).

I would be livid if the Pratt goes, it’s an iconic stand that is easily updated. The Gardiner stand it seems has to stay so the Elliott stand should go, it’s an eyesore and only holds 40 people

 

[DangerousD]

Do you know why the ground seats were ripped up? Its something I've always wondered considering they've kept all the seating in the Pratt/Gardiner stands

Still I personally think if the Elliott stand was demolished there would be no way that the club would invest in a new shiny grandstand with seating. The best you could hope for is some new corporate/media boxes and change rooms which kind of defeats the purpose considering those things are currently there.

Plus as you said there are many organisations based in that stand anyway. I reckon it would be great if they restored the seating on ground level. That would lift the grounds capacity and make the stand much more popular to sit in.

Also is that underground thing seriously a car park? I thought it used to be like a food stall area and the club just dumped some cars there recently cause its got space...

Have you got a headline for the article you attached today? It’s behind a pay wall.

Thanks

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[DangerousD]

Pretty disappointing article, provides little to no info. I would hate the Pratt to go

 

[Doro]

Pretty disappointing article, provides little to no info. I would hate the Pratt to go

Wasn’t the Latrobe Uni facility floated as being where the Pratt stand was? Not sure what that means regards seating in that part of the ground.