Universal Love Princes Park Update

[Teagueeee15]

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.

The legends stand gets worse every time I visit. I was staggered to see this all dumped in the concourse of the Heroes Stand. It is pitch black and you can make out what it is with your eyes, but better with the flash turned on. Seems to belong to the rebels, but staggering that you wouldn't dispose of this stuff properly. Hard drives, laptops...etc and It's there every VFL game just waiting to be snatched.

 

[Jeremias]

Love those pictures but boy is it sad to see just how run down the stadium has become.

Would love to see the club invest some money to at least get the facilities up to scratch and to get the place cleaned up.

They could do worse than organize for a group of dedicated supporters to develop the means to get PP back to a reasonable standard. I'm sure there are hardcore supporters out there who would be willing to lend a hand.

Obviously we no longer play there and that's not likely to change any time soon but the club and its supporters should still be able to be proud of what PP has become. Right now it doesn't look like there's a hell of a lot to be proud of.

 

[ShanDog]

Grab that ironing board for us will ya? Mine is on its last legs....

 

[ShanDog]

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

Really? $100 million? Not being sarcastic - that just seems like a huge figure to me.

 

[tencentpiece]

Redevelopment would be in the 100-120 million dollar range, I don't think a bit of graffiti or junk is really an issue guys. More concerning are some of the large cracks you can see in one of the photos. That said Geelong nets $1 milll+ per home game at the cattery, assuming we played ~8 matches a year at PP that would be 8 million a year.

If we gave good deals to teams like North, Bulldogs, St Kilda & Richmond it's not unfeasible that we could net another 2 million per year. That's close to a 10% ROI without taking into account stadium name licensing and additional corporate sponsors we could take on. I'm sure the AFL would kick in something to improve their bargaining power for the Etihad purchase and the state government would also contribute.

The issue is that the club doesn't have a hope in hell in raising the rest of the money that will be needed. We need an angel!

 

[ShanDog]

Really? $100 million? Not being sarcastic - that just seems like a huge figure to me.

Actually disregard, I just looked up the Adelaide Oval redevelopment and it was in the range of $500 million.

Having said that, now that the big unions are being smashed by Royal Commissions etc, the cost of these things will probably halve!

 

[etsal1]

I think the issue is more about getting permission to do it from council, residents etc. than money.

 

[thylacine60]

I think the issue is more about getting permission to do it from council, residents etc. than money.

Never.

 

[The_Wookie]

I think the issue is more about getting permission to do it from council, residents etc. than money.

Smorgons 2006 proposal had some council support i believe. Well, at least the support of the ayor of the city of melbourne anyway

 

[gbatman]

To get things up to scratch would be enormous. The grandstands aren't up to scratch and much of the internal stuff isn't either, you're pretty much have to bulldoze the lot and build a new stadium.

The issued I have are...

The Location:
- Parking. If you weren't lucky enough to park in the park and not get boogg, you ended up in the next suburb somewhere, fingers crossed you don't get a ticket!
- Public transport. It barely handled the crowd. If our supporter base grows like we hope then it probably wont.

The Stadium:
- Slope on the grandstands was too flat. If you were a kid, you got a great view of the back of everyones head and some of the footy. Modern seating involves steep grandstands where having the person in front of you being in your way isn't an issue and seeing over the field id great, practically a good view from anywhere you sit, not so much at Princes park.
- Stadium seating condition. All the old wooden bench seating just is miles off from modern standards.
- Catering, is it up to modern food standards and would it support a larger capacity stadium, probably not.
- Big Screen. The old screen had it's nostalgic 1980's charm but it's not good enough.
- Capacity. We are aiming at having 50,000+ members. In 10-20 years time that could be 60,000+ members. Our average attendances in 2013 was a bit over 44,000 people, if we ever start winning that could jump to around 50-55K.
- When we draw low crowds in Melbourne they are commonly 30-45K crowds. This would suggest that the previous capacity of 35K is too low, particularly when you factor in the growth of our supporter base and the sudden rise that would be cause by success. We wouldn't want a stadium under 40K, it would want to be more like 45K.

Local Council
- I believe there are issues with the local council where they do not want the venue to host night games. as the ground is surrounded by houses and is in a residential area.

We all have a lot of good nostalgic memories of going to PP and watching us win but the truth is that there is a lot against redeveloping the ground for AFL games and creating a stadium that isn't out of date 20 years after it's built. The costs would be enormous and the location isn't very good. I could see us doing a patch up job to the old stadium and it still having the same old problems it did in it's hay day plus a few more. The money also needs to come from somewhere. I am not sure we'd be keen to jump into debt over a stadium that may not be all that popular or necessary.

 

[Quazza]

wow, great photos. But as they say, a picture tells a 100 words, and it's fair to say The Prince has REALLY let himself go

 

[ShanDog]

The issued I have are...

- Capacity. We are aiming at having 50,000+ members. In 10-20 years time that could be 60,000+ members. Our average attendances in 2013 was a bit over 44,000 people, if we ever start winning that could jump to around 50-55K.
- When we draw low crowds in Melbourne they are commonly 30-45K crowds. This would suggest that the previous capacity of 35K is too low, particularly when you factor in the growth of our supporter base and the sudden rise that would be cause by success. We wouldn't want a stadium under 40K, it would want to be more like 45K.

Is there really a need for that many seats right now? Adelaide Oval has something like 55,000 and there are only two teams who call it their home ground who have the support of an entire city (essentially) to themselves.

 

[Freomaniac]

Redevelopment would be in the 100-120 million dollar range, I don't think a bit of graffiti or junk is really an issue guys. More concerning are some of the large cracks you can see in one of the photos. That said Geelong nets $1 milll+ per home game at the cattery, assuming we played ~8 matches a year at PP that would be 8 million a year.

If we gave good deals to teams like North, Bulldogs, St Kilda & Richmond it's not unfeasible that we could net another 2 million per year. That's close to a 10% ROI without taking into account stadium name licensing and additional corporate sponsors we could take on. I'm sure the AFL would kick in something to improve their bargaining power for the Etihad purchase and the state government would also contribute.

The issue is that the club doesn't have a hope in hell in raising the rest of the money that will be needed. We need an angel!

Sadly I never got a chance to go to Princes Park. I would of wanted to go there at least once. I miss the old fashioned suburban grounds. Geelongs home ground is the last one left.

I wish Richard Pratt was still alive as well. He was a billionaire. He would forked out the 100 million to do this.

 

[SBYM]

Never.

What if you and I went door-knocking?

 

[thylacine60]

Ever.

 

[SBYM]

I'll wear my Queen Vic Market pompom beanie.

 

[thylacine60]

You are dead to me.

 

[SBYM]

 

[Deep Blue]

Still angry with Collins - there was always a potential role for Princes (Visy) Park as a boutique stadium. No long-term vision at all - look at Geelong now. Missed opportunity, or can we work towards something?

 

[ShanDog]

Still angry with Collins - there was always a potential role for Princes (Visy) Park as a boutique stadium. No long-term vision at all - look at Geelong now. Missed opportunity, or can we work towards something?

Can always work towards something. So long as those who have the power decide we are going to work towards it...

 

[Deep Blue]

Love those pictures but boy is it sad to see just how run down the stadium has become.

Would love to see the club invest some money to at least get the facilities up to scratch and to get the place cleaned up.

They could do worse than organize for a group of dedicated supporters to develop the means to get PP back to a reasonable standard. I'm sure there are hardcore supporters out there who would be willing to lend a hand.

Obviously we no longer play there and that's not likely to change any time soon but the club and its supporters should still be able to be proud of what PP has become. Right now it doesn't look like there's a hell of a lot to be proud of.

This is a great idea - working bee to help preserve CFC history! I have sent half-a-dozen constructive emails to the club over the last several years and never received a reply to even one - one of the emails suggested a working bee (I even offered to buy a tin of paint myself to help paint the seats and help spruce the place up) after I witnessed first-hand the poor state of many parts of the ground around six months ago.

 

[The_Wookie]

To get things up to scratch would be enormous. The grandstands aren't up to scratch and much of the internal stuff isn't either, you're pretty much have to bulldoze the lot and build a new stadium.

The issued I have are...

The Location:
- Parking. If you weren't lucky enough to park in the park and not get boogg, you ended up in the next suburb somewhere, fingers crossed you don't get a ticket!
- Public transport. It barely handled the crowd. If our supporter base grows like we hope then it probably wont.

• Club could provide express buses from various locations. This is done in Adelaide.

- Big Screen. The old screen had it's nostalgic 1980's charm but it's not good enough.
- Capacity. We are aiming at having 50,000+ members. In 10-20 years time that could be 60,000+ members. Our average attendances in 2013 was a bit over 44,000 people, if we ever start winning that could jump to around 50-55K.
- When we draw low crowds in Melbourne they are commonly 30-45K crowds. This would suggest that the previous capacity of 35K is too low, particularly when you factor in the growth of our supporter base and the sudden rise that would be cause by success. We wouldn't want a stadium under 40K, it would want to be more like 45K.

• You can hire screens for the few matches a year that a big screen would be required. Cricket used to do this in Adelaide and other places, and Im almost certain the AFL does this in the NT and Cairns.
  
• Capacity doesnt have to be that great, you simply have two categories of members - Princes Park and Regular (see Geelong)

Local Council
- I believe there are issues with the local council where they do not want the venue to host night games. as the ground is surrounded by houses and is in a residential area.

• Its actually law that Princes Park cant have lights I believe.

We all have a lot of good nostalgic memories of going to PP and watching us win but the truth is that there is a lot against redeveloping the ground for AFL games and creating a stadium that isn't out of date 20 years after it's built. The costs would be enormous and the location isn't very good. I could see us doing a patch up job to the old stadium and it still having the same old problems it did in it's hay day plus a few more. The money also needs to come from somewhere. I am not sure we'd be keen to jump into debt over a stadium that may not be all that popular or necessary.

• If we can play games at Marrara, Trager Park, Cairns, Bellerive and York Park, then we can play games at Princes Park, which even now has a greater capacity that all of those.

 

[ShanDog]

The_Wookie FOR CEO!!

 

[happydude]

If we aren't going to play there again we either need to:
-look after it, clean it up a bit have some respect for our home. If I lived closer I would call the club and offer to do it on my days off as long as they provided the skip etc.

- Tear it down. We can't have such a structure surrounded by picturesque Park land look like this, rotting seats, smashed windows, etc I love going there for the memories (you can even see my seat in one of the photos of the ground from the stands) but it hurts to see it like this.

I think a clean up PP committee, even a petition needs to be started.

 

[SBYM]

Perhaps Teagueeee15 has found the Bummers' missing records…craftily deposited under the Legends Stand at PP to make it look like we were behind the recent shenanigans…

Are there no lows to which they will not stoop??!?!