I'm sorry but why would East Fremantle move to Rockingham?
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For the same reason West Perth moved to Joondalup. East Freo are enclosed and the suburbs are growing south and south-east. They have a home ground that is apparently being improved but historically has had the worst facilities for spectators of any ground. Only Claremont has been historically close to being as bad, but at least you could get there by train.I'm sorry but why would East Fremantle move to Rockingham?
For the same reason West Perth moved to Joondalup. East Freo are enclosed and the suburbs are growing south and south-east. They have a home ground that is apparently being improved but historically has had the worst facilities for spectators of any ground. Only Claremont has been historically close to being as bad, but at least you could get there by train.
The more complex move that works better geographically (but will never happen) would be for South Freo to move south and East Freo to move to fremantle oval and East Freo oval becomes a community asset.
But surely that's an argument for relocation to Cockburn, not to Rockingham.Another consideration for where the Fremantle teams are based, is the travel after school for the teenagers in the junior teams for trainings.
With both of them being located on the coast, it’s a bit of a disadvantage for the kids in the Armadale area.
It’s a one way 40min trip by car or 90min trip by public transport if they don’t have someone that can drive them. That’s a big ask compared to the kids around Fremantle, and could see them less likely to commit to the teams.
If the two Freo teams were based at Cockburn (as an example) and one team covered east of the freeway and the other west of the freeway, it would balance that disadvantage a bit.
But surely that's an argument for relocation to Cockburn, not to Rockingham.
If the WACA Ground does get this development, I see that to the benefit of the WAFC, as it means their can be a boutique oval in the CBD should they ever want to use it. Instead the WAFC could focus their attention away from the CBD.
I imagine the WAFC have three pathways:
• coverage (which I’ll discuss now);
• consolidated (which I’ll discuss another time); and
• hybrid (which would be a combination of the two.
In the ‘coverage’ pathway for facilities development, the WAFC should look to this future population layout to develop one of their 2nd Tier AFL venues in the south, and one in the north. I’m thinking Joondalup and Rockingham, which will both be connected by train and a town centre in their area.
This could be the strategy to get all the current facilities upgraded, as well as the new 2nd Tier AFL venues.
Short Term
• WACA Ground can be used as a Tier 2 venue when available;
• East Freo move down to Rockingham and their new field becomes the Tier 2 venue of the south (paid for, by the local developer contributions for the new housings);
• Shark Park can be redeveloped to be community sports fields;
• South Freo‘s zone becomes all the area to the north and west of Cockburn; whilst East Freo’s zone becomes from south of Cockburn to Rockingham area;
• Joondalup Arena is the focus as a Tier 2 venue for the north;
• Subiaco temporarily remain at Leederville Oval to help get it redeveloped;
• Perth temporarily remain at Lathlain Park to help get it redeveloped;
• Bassendean Oval gets redeveloped with funding from land sales; and
• Fremantle Oval gets redeveloped through the interest from the City of Fremantle.
Long Term
• Perth later moves to Gosnells with a new field, that caters for the south-east corridor (paid for, by the local developer contributions for the new housings);
• East Freo lose the Armadale area from their catchment zone; Perth pick up the Armadale area but lose the South Perth / Vic Park area; East Perth pick up the South Perth / Vic Park area for their catchment zone;
• Subiaco later move to Yanchep along with their zone, leap frogging over West Perth and what they did 30 years ago, to a new field for the far northern suburbs(paid for, by the local developer contributions for the new housings);
• West Perth gets Subiaco’s and East Perth’s old northern sections; whilst Claremont get Subiaco‘s old southern section.
This would get every club in a venue with acceptable facilities, and make the layout of all of the grounds look like this.
View attachment 928957
Next time I’ll talk about the consolidated venue approach.
The Current record crowd for Fremantle Oval -In the hey day of the WAFL and our family was there.I went along on Sunday, and if that was half capacity then I shudder to think what it would be like with double the crowd. I guess you could have a lot of people standing in the carpark between the Victoria Pavilion and the oval, but most wouldn't be able to see a thing.
But yeah, demolish the current SFFC clubrooms, build a decent stand there that seats a couple of thousand, shift the oval west so there isn't a massive space between the main stand and the oval, build a big grass hill in the south east corner and hopefully some decent seats with cover in the north east corner.
I suspect this is one of those things though that the council will support in principle but will refuse any proposal that gets put forward.
The Current record crowd for Fremantle Oval -In the hey day of the WAFL and our family was there.
23,109, when South Fremantle beat East Fremantle on 4 June 1979.
I think the current capacity is 17,500 and can only ponder what any redevelopment will bring capacity wise, and what should it be.
As a non Western Australian, what was the thinking behind shortening the length of the WACA originally?The WACA ground has previous funding from the Feds, and today got funding from the state.
It will upgrade the facilities, decrease the capacity, and lengthen the field for footy, there’s a link available in my quote below from the WACA thread in the stadium forum on BigFooty.
The problem is, cricket is still played there during the AFL Women’s and AFL preseason, so it wouldn’t be available for this purpose, since it is still the state facility for cricket first and foremost.
The amount of cricket pitches there was:As a non Western Australian, what was the thinking behind shortening the length of the WACA originally?
Surely it would make more sense to have shortened the square and have less cricket pitches. Though in my time of watching cricket I don't remember there being that many pitches at the WACA as there are in that photo.
WATA bought the land for Gloucester Park off the WACA in 1915.The WACA has been through a few iterations:
View attachment 992833
This was due to baseball being played there back in the day and and an ongoing tussle with Gloucester Park (the trotting track next door) about redeveloping parts of the site. The two entities, the WACA and the trots are all on one land title, I think.
WATA bought the land for Gloucester Park off the WACA in 1915.
I think the cutting off the ends was just because they always had the boundaries roped off and you were a ******* mile away from the pitch.
With you there.Personally never liked the ground at all back in the WAFL hey day.
Perhaps the Community aspect of this ground as well is why it is getting a 20 Million dollar kiss of life. Once a facility like this disappears it is gone forever.
Have no idea what the surrounding catchment area is like for Sports Clubs and Schools.
Personally never liked the ground at all back in the WAFL hey day.
With everything going on in the world at the moment, councils still have time and energy to hold petty rivalries? Good grief.Historical Note -- In circa late 1990`s the Joondalup Council was created out of the original Wanneroo Councils Southern area. One of our wheelie bins has Wanneroo Council on it. There is no love lost behind the scenes between the Councils.