Opinion Bendigo

[King Corey]

Shepparton

 

[Masked Avenger]

No Bendigo or regional placement for me.

We have a workable model as long as we're playing at Docklands every second week which will happen sooner than later.

Winning and sustained success helps too.

There's the principle of diminishing returns at play here.

Our support and crowds are definitely lower in Melbourne because we only play 7 home games in Melbourne.

I guarantee for every Tasmanian member we picked up - we lost a potential member in Melbourne.

We've got to anchor in Melbourne.

 

[Engimal v3]

Albury-Wodonga for mine.

Greater population, old recruting zone - we have good support there already, and the ovals at Lavington or Albury are ready to go.

Also much more fun to say

 

[gokangas]

No Bendigo or regional placement for me.

We have a workable model as long as we're playing at Docklands every second week which will happen sooner than later.

Winning and sustained success helps too.

There's the principle of diminishing returns at play here.

Our support and crowds are definitely lower in Melbourne because we only play 7 home games in Melbourne.

I guarantee for every Tasmanian member we picked up - we lost a potential member in Melbourne.

We've got to anchor in Melbourne.

I think we would all prefer this scenario - just not sure it is practicable.

 

[Horace]

Shepparton

Warrnambool. Then Cunners can get involved again

 

[Boozeroo]

Am I mistaken, or did the Essendon VFL team have an affiliation with Bendigo?

If so, I'm all for it.

 

[shimaburnsgrieg]

Aligning with a big regional town makes sense - and Bendigo is the next available biggest town close to Melb's so we should be pursuing this.

However in terms of where we play our 11 home games that is a completely different question.

At present the 7-4 model is not workable for Melbourne members - we are now again in the middle of a 2 month gap in home games and that is just far too long. We are not allowing younger members to experience the 'every second week at home' feeling and when this happens for such a long time people find other things to do.

An 11/0 model is also not practical given our smaller crowd sizes.

A 9-2 model would represent a far better outcome.

In the first 3-5 years of the Tassie team I would propose that we continue to play those 2 games in Tassie. The AFL and Tassie govt would be prepared to pay up circa $1m a game to have Vic teams sell home games to play down there to get more use out of the stadium (while the AFL is anti selling home games to mainstream markets they will encourage this for a new team like Tassie - at least in the formative years). I envisage we would play one home game against Tassie and one against Hawthorn. The new stadium changes the economics of playing down there. This $2m in revenue would offset the money we currently get for the 4 games we play down there so we no longer have a hole in our budget.

During this period we continue to work with the AFL and Bendigo council to get the Bendigo facilities up to the standard of the Ballarat stadium and we play our 2 games there from circa 2032 onward.

 

[Engimal v3]

No Bendigo or regional placement for me.

We have a workable model as long as we're playing at Docklands every second week which will happen sooner than later.

Do we? It's believed our deal is worth slightly less than Hawthorn's ($20mi over 5 years), so we make between ~680k per game if we do a little bit of maths and make some assumptions.

That's against a median statutory net profit of $540k from 2018-2023.
Looking at the below, we've only made a net profit higher than our Tas contribution once in the last 5 years. If you look at the cumulative view over that period, Tasmanian games have made us 2x what our profit has been (221%).


I'm not saying this to bring doom and gloom, but to highlight that our post-Tasmania strategy is vital. We're not the 2008 Roos anymore, but we're far from a financial powerhouse that can choose to be stubborn on these issues.

 

[Gumble Frankieton]

In an ideal world we would bring the 4 Hobart games back to Melbourne. This may work out financially as by the time Tasmania has it's own team we should be doing much better on field and would hopefully attract much better crowds. But if wishes were horses then beggars would ride ... so we start talking about potential options for a 2nd venue.
At a guess the two obvious options would be Albury-Wodonga and Bendigo.

BENDIGO
The Pros:
traditional footy country, growing population, easy to get to from Melbourne by car and cheap by train, it's a free hit as no AFL club is playing games there, the QEO is a beautiful historic oval close to everything, Bendigo is a nice place to explore for a day trip or weekend away etc, easily reached for people from Castlemaine-Kyneton-Shepparton-Echuca etc, ground capacity around 10,000 with 900 seats.

The Cons: the QEO has just the one stand and offers bugger all seating or protection from the weather, redevelopment of this historic venue might be difficult both financially and due to possible opposition on heritage grounds, North isn't exactly a drawcard these days either for crowds or for sponsorship, by playing in Sydney-Canberra-GC-Hobart is our appeal/brand damaged/diminished?, it's going to be hard to show we have an actual connection to the region with the club having no historical connection to Bendigo, unlike Hobart people can just come on a day trip from Melbourne which may not be a drawcard for local govt or local business support/sponsorship.

Playing games in Bendigo might well be one of those things that works best in theory; just like communism, soccer and threesomes.

ALBURY-WODONGA
The Pros:
traditional footy country, growing population and a similar population to Bendigo, it's a free hit as no AFL club is playing there, Lavington is superior to QEO in terms of facilities and has held lots of AFL practice matches/pre-season competition games with good crowds in the past, A-W is close to the wineries etc would make for a good weekend away with Rutherglen & Beechworth being nearby, historical connection to North being in the old North zone with lots of ex-North players (Snake Baker, Ziebell, John Byrne, Mick Nolan etc etc) & we could try to sell it as a 'coming home' type thing, historically we did have a reasonable level of support in the NE & Albury area, we could build up a Battle of the Border type thing playing Sydney & GWS each year, easily reached for people from Wang-Benalla-Beechworth-Yarra-Corowa etc, ground capacity is 12-15,000 with about 1500 seats : https://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/leisure/sport-and-recreation/lsg

The Cons:
Lavington isn't walkable to Central Albury & the train station etc, North isn't exactly a drawcard these days either for crowds or for sponsorship, by playing in Sydney-Canberra-GC-Hobart is our appeal/brand damaged/diminished?, may be too far for a day trip especially for people who live in the SE suburbs, it's been a long time since it was a North zone.

Playing games in Albury-Wodonga may have worked better in the past when we had a competitive team and a reasonable level of support in the area, but I'd still slightly favour this option for a couple of games a year if the financial side of things was viable.

 

[RightWingRoo]

It's practically a small city, bigger than Ballarat and doesn't lose that much up against Geelong.

Don't think there's anything more offensive, that can be said to a Ballaratian

We still have Bendigo covered in terms of urban area. The Bendigo council area is larger as it extends out to places like Heathcote and Elmore.
While the City of Ballarat boundaries don't extend much beyond 20km and rarely more than 5km from the urban area.

I like the idea of playing 2 games a year somewhere in regional Vic.
Bendigo is closer to Melbourne and has a train service. But Albury/Wodonga has a better venue and a historic link to the club.

Lavington would be AFL standard already and like MARS stadium is away from the CBD, with room to expand. QEO is a lovely ground, but little room to expand and develop. Eastern Oval and City Oval in Ballarat are the same and were passed over for a venue with more potential.
Not sure if any of the suburban venues in Bendigo have the potential for expansion?

 

[domiroo]

Don't think there's anything more offensive, that can be said to a Ballaratian

We still have Bendigo covered in terms of urban area. The Bendigo council area is larger as it extends out to places like Heathcote and Elmore.
While the City of Ballarat boundaries don't extend much beyond 20km and rarely more than 5km from the urban area.

I like the idea of playing 2 games a year somewhere in regional Vic.
Bendigo is closer to Melbourne and has a train service. But Albury/Wodonga has a better venue and a historic link to the club.

Lavington would be AFL standard already and like MARS stadium is away from the CBD, with room to expand. QEO is a lovely ground, but little room to expand and develop. Eastern Oval and City Oval in Ballarat are the same and were passed over for a venue with more potential.
Not sure if any of the suburban venues in Bendigo have the potential for expansion?

Wangaratta show grounds hosted North and Saints in a practice Match a few years back had about 9000 there . 30 minutes from me as it is my home town.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

No Bendigo or regional placement for me.

We have a workable model as long as we're playing at Docklands every second week which will happen sooner than later.

Winning and sustained success helps too.

There's the principle of diminishing returns at play here.

Our support and crowds are definitely lower in Melbourne because we only play 7 home games in Melbourne.

I guarantee for every Tasmanian member we picked up - we lost a potential member in Melbourne.

We've got to anchor in Melbourne.

How can you guarantee that? You are guessing. You have no statistically valid evidence. Perhaps some anecdotal accounts at best.

I think we would all prefer this scenario - just not sure it is practicable.

Absolutely, we would all prefer it. However, the practicable aspect that you refer to is not simply increasing memberships or crowds by a few thousand but replacing the $2 million + in revenue that the Spirit of Tasmania sponsorship provides. Memberships and gate receipts won't do that for us.

 

[RightWingRoo]

Wangaratta show grounds hosted North and Saints in a practice Match a few years back had about 9000 there . 30 minutes from me as it is my home town.

There still a strong amount of North support in the North-East?
Would push things heavily into Lavington's favour if there is.

 

[nelroo]

Yes please !

Living in Kyneton, I’d love games in Bendigo to replace our Tassie ones

 

[Gasometer]

Warrnambool. Then Cunners can get involved again

Shepparton and then Sammy Wright from Katamatite can home and Coach Nmfc and Ross Henshaw can start a Bye Bye Sammy after he has Coached 12 games

 

[Gasometer]

But either way Bendigo is fine. An hours drive, the Showground Markets in the Morning then wander down to idk where because there ain’t many bloody seats when I drove past a few weekends back

 

[JRW9]

I’m from Bendigo so my heart loves this idea. But using my head, as others have pointed out, the QEO isn’t up to AFL standards sadly. I’d love the investment and if it happened, that’d be so amazing.

 

[Gasometer]

I’m from Bendigo so my heart loves this idea. But using my head, as others have pointed out, the QEO isn’t up to AFL standards sadly. I’d love the investment and if it happened, that’d be so amazing.

It’s a full blown facility re build yeh

But with the Comnonwealth Games coming there’s hope of som

 

[Roostorm]

Don't think there's anything more offensive, that can be said to a Ballaratian

We still have Bendigo covered in terms of urban area. The Bendigo council area is larger as it extends out to places like Heathcote and Elmore.
While the City of Ballarat boundaries don't extend much beyond 20km and rarely more than 5km from the urban area.

I like the idea of playing 2 games a year somewhere in regional Vic.
Bendigo is closer to Melbourne and has a train service. But Albury/Wodonga has a better venue and a historic link to the club.

Lavington would be AFL standard already and like MARS stadium is away from the CBD, with room to expand. QEO is a lovely ground, but little room to expand and develop. Eastern Oval and City Oval in Ballarat are the same and were passed over for a venue with more potential.
Not sure if any of the suburban venues in Bendigo have the potential for expansion?

Ballarat had us and turfed us for………. Nah just having a giggle…
Agree Ballarat is more density packed vs regional boundary Benders…
As l stated previously QEO is built in and around with heaps of heritage overlays near by( art gallery, rosy park, fire station, Dudley house, art gallery….) not much room to expand…
Some of the suburban grounds around Benders will have the same problem as QEO…heritage overlay( thinking of Eaglehawk…) parking around suburban housing ( golden square) and that they are further out of the CBD ….not an easy find for out of Towners and public transport options to each would be limited…..and are limited for major re development…being near residential dwellings.
Off the top of my head Kangaroo Flats home ground has space for redevelopment and is on the Melbourne side of town ….but not near train station….then there would be the need for significant funding that would be needed … and approval…which l can’t see happening…
Both places Bendigo and Albury Wodonga have pros and cons…both have similar issues but would both be worthy of investigation…and l like both areas ( lived in and visited many times) …but as pointed out we don’t have a recent physical connection to both areas.
Travelling to grounds from surrounds / Melbourne consistently over a period of time might be key to any investigation.

Edit…Shepparton l see was suggested…and living two blocks away from Deakin (the “wreck” ) parking is the issue…all around side streets….significant distance to train station…but there are bus shelters / stops as it shares a boundary with the Notre Dame Collage.
The whole ground takes up one street block…but the gap between boundary and fence is tight….
Expansion is limited…but you could redevelop shep and shep United club rooms into a new grand stand wing….doable ….but not sure if it would be supported by both teams members….
Council tends to be progressive with buildings …..

I guess we will just wait and see if any options are considered.

 

[RightWingRoo]

Ballarat had us and turfed us for………. Nah just having a giggle…
Agree Ballarat is more density packed vs regional boundary Benders…
As l stated previously QEO is built in and around with heaps of heritage overlays near by( art gallery, rosy park, fire station, Dudley house, art gallery….) not much room to expand…
Some of the suburban grounds around Benders will have the same problem as QEO…heritage overlay( thinking of Eaglehawk…) parking around suburban housing ( golden square) and that they are further out of the CBD ….not an easy find for out of Towners and public transport options to each would be limited…..and are limited for major re development…being near residential dwellings.
Off the top of my head Kangaroo Flats home ground has space for redevelopment and is on the Melbourne side of town ….but not near train station….then there would be the need for significant funding that would be needed … and approval…which l can’t see happening…
Both places Bendigo and Albury Wodonga have pros and cons…both have similar issues but would both be worthy of investigation…and l like both areas ( lived in and visited many times) …but as pointed out we don’t have a recent physical connection to both areas.
Travelling to grounds from surrounds / Melbourne consistently over a period of time might be key to any investigation.

Edit…Shepparton l see was suggested…and living two blocks away from Deakin (the “wreck” ) parking is the issue…all around side streets….significant distance to train station…but there are bus shelters / stops as it shares a boundary with the Notre Dame Collage.
The whole ground takes up one street block…but the gap between boundary and fence is tight….
Expansion is limited…but you could redevelop shep and shep United club rooms into a new grand stand wing….doable ….but not sure if it would be supported by both teams members….
Council tends to be progressive with buildings …..

I guess we will just wait and see if any options are considered.

Lavington is the only ground that's AFL ready and the others seem to have limits to their development.
There's nothing like the old Northern Oval was, with oodles of space around it. Along with easy access to the freeway and CBD

 

[Gasometer]

Ballarat had us and turfed us for………. Nah just having a giggle…
Agree Ballarat is more density packed vs regional boundary Benders…
As l stated previously QEO is built in and around with heaps of heritage overlays near by( art gallery, rosy park, fire station, Dudley house, art gallery….) not much room to expand…
Some of the suburban grounds around Benders will have the same problem as QEO…heritage overlay( thinking of Eaglehawk…) parking around suburban housing ( golden square) and that they are further out of the CBD ….not an easy find for out of Towners and public transport options to each would be limited…..and are limited for major re development…being near residential dwellings.
Off the top of my head Kangaroo Flats home ground has space for redevelopment and is on the Melbourne side of town ….but not near train station….then there would be the need for significant funding that would be needed … and approval…which l can’t see happening…
Both places Bendigo and Albury Wodonga have pros and cons…both have similar issues but would both be worthy of investigation…and l like both areas ( lived in and visited many times) …but as pointed out we don’t have a recent physical connection to both areas.
Travelling to grounds from surrounds / Melbourne consistently over a period of time might be key to any investigation.

Edit…Shepparton l see was suggested…and living two blocks away from Deakin (the “wreck” ) parking is the issue…all around side streets….significant distance to train station…but there are bus shelters / stops as it shares a boundary with the Notre Dame Collage.
The whole ground takes up one street block…but the gap between boundary and fence is tight….
Expansion is limited…but you could redevelop shep and shep United club rooms into a new grand stand wing….doable ….but not sure if it would be supported by both teams members….
Council tends to be progressive with buildings …..

I guess we will just wait and see if any options are considered.

…lives in Shepparton

 

[Mr north man]

No Bendigo or regional placement for me.

We have a workable model as long as we're playing at Docklands every second week which will happen sooner than later.

Winning and sustained success helps too.

There's the principle of diminishing returns at play here.

Our support and crowds are definitely lower in Melbourne because we only play 7 home games in Melbourne.

I guarantee for every Tasmanian member we picked up - we lost a potential member in Melbourne.

We've got to anchor in Melbourne.

We’ll unfortunately our so called fair whether so called supporters will NOT attend games in Victoria for a number of BS reasons that’s why this club have sold games in the past to current day.
In the real world I would LOVE 11 Home games at Marvel like every other supporter of this club but it’s not going to happen.
We need to get between 30K to 50k per Home game depending on who we play not 15K to 20K as in the end this club needs to make $$$$ to survive that’s the big picture.

 

[Roostorm]

…lives in Shepparton

Taught their for 14 years….then escaped
Knight street milk bar was my place for fish and chips…just a skip from Deakin reserve…..and my old street of Norton ave….
Grandparents lived there…in town and had a farm out shep east…. ………visited as a kid.
Tungamah and it’s area is where they grew up…..love that pub…and held a 75 premiership medal when having a staff function there…
So yep ……Have many relatives around there….
What can l say ….l move a bit….around the state

 

[Passmore]

Surely Ballarat would want the stadium used more than the 2 or 3 times Footscray use it.

I assume it's a "clean" stadium arrangement. What could it be worth $ wise if we played 3 low drawing teams there?

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[Passmore]

Taught their for 14 years….then escaped
Knight street milk bar was my place for fish and chips…
Grandparents lived there….visited as a kid.
Tungamah and it’s area is where they grew up…..
So yep ……Have many relatives around there….
What can l say ….l move a bit….around the state

You're like the kangas, Canberra, GC, Hobart...just follow the $$$$

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