Western Bulldogs and their partnership with Ballarat a success

[SonOfScray]

Do you really think people just come straight to the ground and immediately leave?

Hosting an AFL game brings millions of out of town revenue into Ballarat through footy fans visiting cafes, restaurants and shops across the game day weekend. Why else would the local council spend 6 figures a year on the partnership?

Have been to all but two of our Ballarat games. Caught the train twice and on those days, got on the beers and had a counter meal in town. The other times though, it has been an in and out mission. Not to disagree, just to highlight that my experience has been a bit of both.

I'd prefer to get the train up in future FWIW. And next opportunity tie it in with a weekend away, maybe stay at Clunes.

 

[Iamspock]

Thank goodness there hasn't been any footy played there these last couple of days, that really would have sorted out the chaff from the wheat supporters

 

[Sentinel]

Clarendon, St Pats and Loretto could easily open their gates and provide parking throughout their campus’s.

If I had only ever been to Ballarat to watch an AFL game at Mars I’d think it’s the biggest shithole ever.

Clarendon has no significant onsite parking beyond what is on Sturt St in the service lane. St Pats has a little but not much. And Pleasant St Primary has none either.

 

[Mr. Walker]

[QUOTE="Roogal, post: The Council are already planning to secure much of the land on the old Eureka Valves site as well as the Showground when it closes.
[/QUOTE]
May be slightly off topic but gee they made good valves. Another good Aussie manufacturer over run by a Chinese line of cheaper products. A shame.

 

[Roogal]

Thank goodness there hasn't been any footy played there these last couple of days, that really would have sorted out the chaff from the wheat supporters

I suspect that shifting the State of Origin game from the MCG to Townsville on Wednesday night probably turned out for the best too. On a lighter note, it was bin night in my sisters part of Ballarat on Wednesday night, she said that on Thursday morning there were bins blown over and garbage everywhere. At least we all got off reasonably lightly, I feel dreadful for the poor buggers who live in outer Eastern Melbourne and in Gippsland ATM.

 

[Roogal]

Ballarat Council call for tenders for construction of Gate 1 and other amenities.

From their website:

Tender # 2021/22-002 | Closing: 30/06/2021 12:00 AEST | Released: 10/06/2021 08:41 AEST | Type: RFT

City of Ballarat is seeking submissions from suitably qualified and experienced individuals and companies to construct Gate 1 entry upgrades at Mars Stadium. Works include new food and beverage zone, behind goal camera platform, behind goal net structure (tender option) and accessible seating improvements to the existing Western and Eastern stands.

The architectual design work has been already been completed by Peddle Thorp to compliment the remainder of the stadium.

A photo below shows one of the dreaded Portaloo replacements taking shape behind the scoreboard:


Note: Image courtesy of The Ballarat Courier.

 

[Freshwater]

I haven’t been to Ballarat since the last game we had there pre covid. I’m watching Suns v Giants now. Who in their right mind would put the new toilets where they have now built them? Madness!

 

[Mattdougie]

Shows how interested Ballarat people are in AFL

Get an many people to a local game up there.

 

[Boristown]

Shows how interested Ballarat people are in AFL

Get an many people to a local game up there.

Lol another hit and miss.

Melbourne has a population of 5M and the Suns v Richmond game got 9k to it.

Ballarat has a population of 120k and managed a crowd of 2.5k to a game between the 2 least followed clubs in the entire league.

What are you actually talking about?

 

[Mattdougie]

Whoever keeps lighting the thread up you are on ignore so move on

 

[Bald]

Lol another hit and miss.

Melbourne has a population of 5M and the Suns v Richmond game got 9k to it.

Ballarat has a population of 120k and managed a crowd of 2.5k to a game between the 2 least followed clubs in the entire league.

What are you actually talking about?

Nobody knows.

 

[Roogal]

[QUOTE="Roogal, post: The Council are already planning to secure much of the land on the old Eureka Valves site as well as the Showground when it closes.

May be slightly off topic but gee they made good valves. Another good Aussie manufacturer over run by a Chinese line of cheaper products. A shame.
[/QUOTE]
It's okay to drift a little from time to time. I recall that among one of Eureka Valves major projects was to manufacture all of the valves and taps for the Collins Class Submarines and Anzac Class of frigates for the Royal Australian Navy back in the nineties and early naughties. If you think about how many valves there are in a warship and submarine (litterally 1000's) and the specifications and quality has to be so exact. I wonder where South Australia is sourcing those in the future for the Navy's big build of ships and subs over the next two decades. The Western Australian ship builders "Hendersons" who are building 12 new offshore patrol vessels for the Navy rejected a massive shipment of aluminium from China earlier this year which was well below specification to be used in those ships forcing them to use an Australian supplier (which they bloody well should have used in the first case).

 

[Roogal]

I haven’t been to Ballarat since the last game we had there pre covid. I’m watching Suns v Giants now. Who in their right mind would put the new toilets where they have now built them? Madness!

It's a bit of a TV camera illusion, they are a bit further back than they appear to be. They are built back far enough away from the boundary fence to allow sufficient space for eventual Southward extension of the Eureka Stand. Also to allow unimpeded access for their use by spectators if/when any future construction work occurs to extend that stand. In that eventuality it is likely that the scoreboard would be included as part of the new stand or be shifted to the top of the hill. The new loos are currently strategically located to allow easy access for people who use the old scoreboard hill and the main hill. There are also more similar toilets being built incorporated into the new entry gate behind the main hill. These are directly accessed from the hill by new stairs. The new amenities are designed by the same architects who did the design work for the grandstands and everything is being designed as part of a grand plan to compliment existing designs and to have facilities appropriately distributed. Eventually, as stands are extended and expanded the stadium will be a real showpiece. It's hard for many to completely visualise how different the area there looks now to what it was 10 years ago, and how different and vastly improved it will look in ten years from now.

The image below shows the Council's concept of the ground with an extra two light towers and a widened and rebuilt Midland Highway to the right. I note the entrance 1 (top right) where there is a new canopy that isn't connected to the Eastern Stand making allowance for the fact that the architects had made provision in the first stage build to extend that stand rearward and unimpeded by up to another 14 rows of seating which would make it as large as the existing Eureka Stand.

 

[Freshwater]

It's a bit of a TV camera illusion, they are a bit further back than they appear to be. They are built back far enough away from the boundary fence to allow sufficient space for eventual Southward extension of the Eureka Stand. Also to allow unimpeded access for their use by spectators if/when any future construction work occurs to extend that stand. In that eventuality it is likely that the scoreboard would be included as part of the new stand or be shifted to the top of the hill. The new loos are currently strategically located to allow easy access for people who use the old scoreboard hill and the main hill. There are also more similar toilets being built incorporated into the new entry gate behind the main hill. These are directly accessed from the hill by new stairs. The new amenities are designed by the same architects who did the design work for the grandstands and everything is being designed as part of a grand plan to compliment existing designs and to have facilities appropriately distributed. Eventually, as stands are extended and expanded the stadium will be a real showpiece. It's hard for many to completely visualise how different the area there looks now to what it was 10 years ago, and how different and vastly improved it will look in ten years from now.

The image below shows the Council's concept of the ground with an extra two light towers and a widened and rebuilt Midland Highway to the right. I note the entrance 1 (top right) where there is a new canopy that isn't connected to the Eastern Stand making allowance for the fact that the architects had made provision in the first stage build to extend that stand rearward and unimpeded by up to another 14 rows of seating which would make it as large as the existing Eureka Stand.

View attachment 1180137

Thank you, it looked very close on the TV. I would love to see this stadium get fast tracked because covid is teaching us not to be so city centric. I would love to see a couple of game at the Whitten oval and a couple in Ballarat for the long term.

 

[Roogal]

Lol another hit and miss.

Melbourne has a population of 5M and the Suns v Richmond game got 9k to it.

Ballarat has a population of 120k and managed a crowd of 2.5k to a game between the 2 least followed clubs in the entire league.

What are you actually talking about?

Yep, I wouldn't think that the AFL were worried about that. The game was scheduled there with two days notice between two teams that have virtually no support in Victoria, and those that attended would have been local die-hards who'd cheerfully turn up for the opening of a letter. Added to that was a pretty nasty cold front that blew across the whole state and kept many indoors for the weekend everywhere. Likely, given more notice and better weather on the day there would have possibly been 4-4500 local die-hard footy fans there. After all lets not forget that only 3500 turned up to a GC Suns v North Melbourne game in Hobart only a month ago.

This latter point didn't escape the venom of serial North Melbourne Hater - "Carro" Wilson who has consistently led the media charge calling for North to be relocated to Tasmania (and to the Gold Coast before that). Three weeks ago, she said on her Monday Night show that "North Melbourne have no future in Tasmania, the Tasmanian public have made that abundantly clear". I wish that the commentators would get their narrative straight.

 

[Roogal]

Thank you, it looked very close on the TV. I would love to see this stadium get fast tracked because covid is teaching us not to be so city centric. I would love to see a couple of game at the Whitten oval and a couple in Ballarat for the long term.

Yes interestingly, COVID has not impacted regional towns or cities in Victoria to the same extent as Melbourne. While Melbourne's population growth has slowed without the influx of immigrants, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Geelong have had record building numbers and applications for new housing construction as many Melbournians seek a change from what has developed into a serious rat race most noticeably over the last 10 years. If anything good comes from this pandemic, it may force many people in Australia to re-appraise metropolitan living for quality of life. The difference between servicing a million dollar mortgage compared with a $400,000 mortgage. The hours spent commuting in the cities compared with 10-15 minutes in the regions.

Time will tell, and the Census next month will reveal a lot.

 

[dogwatch]

Yes interestingly, COVID has not impacted regional towns or cities in Victoria to the same extent as Melbourne. While Melbourne's population growth has slowed without the influx of immigrants, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Geelong have had record building numbers and applications for new housing construction as many Melbournians seek a change from what has developed into a serious rat race most noticeably over the last 10 years. If anything good comes from this pandemic, it may force many people in Australia to re-appraise metropolitan living for quality of life. The difference between servicing a million dollar mortgage compared with a $400,000 mortgage. The hours spent commuting in the cities compared with 10-15 minutes in the regions.

Time will tell, and the Census next month will reveal a lot.

COVID and the realisation that you don’t always have to be in the company office to do your work has forced lots of people to consider an escape to the country. Regional house prices have easily outstripped city prices over the last 12 months. (And capital city prices are still going up steeply.) Places like Ballarat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Kilmore and Kyneton which have good rail links to Melbourne are all in demand.

 

[Roogal]

The Ballarat Council have awarded a $1.77 million contract to local construction company H. Troon to commence construction of a new roof to cover the Gate 1 and forecourt area. The works also will include food and beverage outlets, additional toilets, a permanent fixed behind-goal TV camera platform, new nets to block the ball, upgraded ticketing facilities and some additional disabled seating.

Meanwhile, the works to finish Gate 2 are coming to an end with asphalt being laid between the gate and the scoreboard and linking up new toilets to the ground. Other works at the present involve finishing off the area by fixing up landscaping, fences and installing banister rails around the hill and on the stairway from the rear of the hill.

I think that we will have to wait until at least October to hear what future playing arrangements are put in place beyond 2021. I expect that it will be generally situation no change except there may be a guarantee of either a pre-season or AFLW game each year in addition to the 2 Home games. But in the mean time I imagine that the club is presently focused on other much bigger priorities ... Like winning a flag

 

[Roogal]

Would somebody please take the keys off this "Lockdown" master

 

[mackem]

Would somebody please take the keys off this "Lockdown" master

While I agree with this but if everyone would do the right thing then there would be no need for lockdowns.

 

[Pugz89]

While I agree with this but if everyone would do the right thing then there would be no need for lockdowns.

It's inevitable it leaks. We could have 100% compliance in community, but the mere fact we have returned travellers and a mutating virus means it is going to continue to occur.

 

[Mattdougie]

While I agree with this but if everyone would do the right thing then there would be no need for lockdowns.

Stop letting people in from overseas.

problem solved

 

[mackem]

Stop letting people in from overseas.

problem solved

I agree whole heartedly.

 

[Brass Dog]

Would somebody please take the keys off this "Lockdown" master

The state premiers are the ones copping heat for lockdowns, while the Feds have delivered one of the worse vaccination roll outs in the OEDC and have only just recently agreed to build purpose built quarantine facilities. Lockdowns suck, but they work. If we had the majority of the population vaccinated it would be a different story.

 

[LittleG]

The state premiers are the ones copping heat for lockdowns, while the Feds have delivered one of the worse vaccination roll outs in the OEDC and have only just recently agreed to build purpose built quarantine facilities. Lockdowns suck, but they work. If we had the majority of the population vaccinated it would be a different story.

The Feds could also easily define who am essential worker is and then Pay everyone else to stay at home…. Then there would be no ‘lockdowns’ just a period of paid stay at home time. Vaccines and Quarantine are ALL on the Feds.

Lockdowns are the last resort…. What else can a state premier do?