- May 13, 2012
- 15,809
- 5,960
- AFL Club
- GWS
- Other Teams
- Brumbies, Socceroos
Its a stupid point. It wasnt gifted to anyone - they rent the damn place.
Its even more stupid when you consider the total number of grants paid to AFL club training facilities in Melbourne, plus AFLW facitilies, plus 185m in government funded Kardinia Park upgrades, plus 160m in government funded MCG upgrades would dwarf any amount spent on Aami Park - which is used by 5 rectangular code teams in national competition AND the Demons.
It's an important point.
Melbourne's two major stadiums are paid for via private debt
Do you honestly believe that Docklands came about by osmosis?
The AFL drove it. They sold Waverley to put in the equity (which they completely owned and funded themselves I might add).
They had the buy-leaseback plan in place with the private consortium to eventually take over full ownership of the stadium.
Now let us contrast that situation with every other football code, where the expectation is that stadiums are paid for from the public purse AND they then complain bitterly about having to pay a rent which goes about half way to paying off the stadium over its life!
In fact the $160 million spend on the MCG is NOT dwarfed by the cost of building Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, and is a small fraction of what it cost to completely re-build the MCG.
So yeh, don't worry, it's an important point.