Brighton Homes Arena (Springfield) discussions

[Albi_Mangler]

Interesting timing:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...mes-stadium-gathers-dust-20141004-10q0xm.html

Very interesting article. From our point of view the only thing i am a bit concerned about with QSAC is the 160 events total. That number is very high and indicates usage most weekends.

Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre

• Capacity: 49,000
• Events: 160
• Total patronage: 231,784
• Average: 1449
• Percentage of capacity: 2.96 per cent

 

[Cousin Jed]

Interesting timing:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...mes-stadium-gathers-dust-20141004-10q0xm.html

Someone's been reading the 500 annual reports tabled in Parliament in the last week

 

[Skoob]

Very interesting article. From our point of view the only thing i am a bit concerned about with QSAC is the 160 events total. That number is very high and indicates usage most weekends.

Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre

• Capacity: 49,000
• Events: 160
• Total patronage: 231,784
• Average: 1449
• Percentage of capacity: 2.96 per cent

That's a good thing isn't it? We're talking training and admin, so we won't want it on weekends except to host the occasional NEAFL game maybe. Most of those 160 events would be more likely school based athletic carnivals I think, which is no big deal if they are scheduled on the boys' day off.

 

[weevil]

Interesting timing:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...mes-stadium-gathers-dust-20141004-10q0xm.html

Golly gosh doesn't that seem like a jolly big coincidence.

 

[Skoob]

Golly gosh doesn't that seem like a jolly big coincidence.

To push its value down, or to apply pressure to do something with it? Both?

 

[chopperduck]

Very much suspect timing. TBH if they want to keep the facilities going then it makes sense to have a permanent tenant who would help keep the facilities up. Likewise as it is a training base, it is perfectly fine for the facilities to be used and shared for many other events. It could become a bigger and more used venue for grass roots sports.

 

[Albi_Mangler]

That's a good thing isn't it? We're talking training and admin, so we won't want it on weekends except to host the occasional NEAFL game maybe. Most of those 160 events would be more likely school based athletic carnivals I think, which is no big deal if they are scheduled on the boys' day off.

Yeah fair enough. Thinking more about it I actually think this venue is perfect, would just hate to force anyone out. Could be a negative for the Lions image in Brisbane if we come in shoving around the little guys.

Sharing with both professional and/or semi-professional sports bodies is definitely the way to go. Would create a great atmosphere and culture around the club if we are seen to be helping out and working with a number of other sports. Possibly even open pathways for cross-code sponsorship $.

 

[Panthera]

Can anyone guess the really obvious question I'm about to ask?

 

[Skoob]

What would it cost and what will we save?

 

[John]

Very interesting article. From our point of view the only thing i am a bit concerned about with QSAC is the 160 events total. That number is very high and indicates usage most weekends.

Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre

• Capacity: 49,000
• Events: 160
• Total patronage: 231,784
• Average: 1449
• Percentage of capacity: 2.96 per cent

My memory from dealing with QSAC many years back was that when I was there mid week many many kids used it for school sports. May have changed but it's mid week use seemed big.

 

[Panthera]

What would it cost and what will we save?

Any reason why it wasn't our first option?

 

[Skoob]

Any reason why it wasn't our first option?

Because Springfield cost less and saved much, much, much, much, much, much, much, more.

Much more.


Like lots.






Quite a bit in fact.

 

[Happy_Neale]

Can anyone guess the really obvious question I'm about to ask?

They're real, and they're spectacular.

 

[weevil]

To push its value down, or to apply pressure to do something with it? Both?

Who knows, all feels very political.

 

[Skoob]

Who knows, all feels very political.

Probably a bit obtuse, but not sure whether to take it as a positive, as in "Hey we should do something with this, like put the Lions in there", or negative, as in "The site is wasted as a venue that no-one uses, should bulldoze it for housing". The message is unclear to me.

Historically you could call the seat of Moreton marginal, but given Labor held on to it in the climate of the last election (federal), I would think it safe and immune to gov't spending. Can't see PUP holding onto the State seat either and the federal result could well have been influenced by the state LNP member jumping ship.
So I reckon the Federal gov' won't throw money at it, but the State might?

 

[Hollow Knight]

A platform to influence public opinion... what else are publicly released government reports for?

As an aside, I reckon a joint project for two sporting teams is much more politically palatable funding wise.

 

[patfullfankezz]

I'm sitting at Giffin Park right now and I can see why the Lions won't try to fix this place up. It's an absolute mess right now. Would need to be completely returfed to even be worth considering IMO.

 

[brizrider]

I'm sitting at Giffin Park right now and I can see why the Lions won't try to fix this place up. It's an absolute mess right now. Would need to be completely returfed to even be worth considering IMO.

You bagging seats for pre-season?

Resurfacing a field is a 100-200k job so in the greater scheme of things no biggie. Building (and in the future upgrading) offices, weights rooms, medical rooms, pools, running tracks, lecture theatres and all the other myriad things they need these days costs much much more and its why they're looking ideally for a site that they have control over and have some capacity to earn revenue from (rent out facilities, build a social club etc). It won't be easy to find a better solution than Springfield I reckon.

 

[Skoob]

You bagging seats for pre-season?

Resurfacing a field is a 100-200k job so in the greater scheme of things no biggie. Building (and in the future upgrading) offices, weights rooms, medical rooms, pools, running tracks, lecture theatres and all the other myriad things they need these days costs much much more and its why they're looking ideally for a site that they have control over and have some capacity to earn revenue from (rent out facilities, build a social club etc). It won't be easy to find a better solution than Springfield I reckon.

Mind you, it doesn't have to be 'better' than Springfield in terms of facilities. Location will likely have a greater weighting than that given by the previous admin. One scenario is that we can have facilities equally as bad as the Gabba, but significantly cheaper and relatively close in. Or better facilities and not as expensive as The Gabba, within reasonable distance. Springfield would have offered much better facilities, much, much cheaper, but probably at an objectionable distance away (+ not enough up front funding).
A compromise has to be made on;

• Location
• Scope to improve or build facilities
• Start-up and ongoing costs.

Finding something that perfectly suits all 3 of those things is unlikely, so the committee & board will have to weigh all these and work out the best compromise. Springfield would have been perfect in terms of facility, but fell a bit short on location, and obviously a long way off on start-up costs.

 

[Heato]

I'm sitting at Giffin Park right now and I can see why the Lions won't try to fix this place up. It's an absolute mess right now. Would need to be completely returfed to even be worth considering IMO.

That's really only the tip of the iceburg for Giffin Park. There are a whole bunch of issues including:
- The Lions would be reluctant to share a facility with other football clubs. It would mean uprooting Coorparoo Kangaroos JAFC & Coorparoo Kings AFC, the combined player numbers of which would be around the 750-800 mark. This is a similar problem to Yeronga (Yeronga-South Brisbane Devils) and Burpengary (Caboolture Lions).
- The Lions will want two ovals, in an ideal world one Gabba sized (156m x 138m) and one MCG sized (160m x 141m). Giffin Park Oval 1 is 162m x 124m, finding the extra 15-20m on the wings would probably mean cutting into the hill on the eastern wing. The bigger problem is Oval 2, which is part owned (I believe) by Coorparoo Secondary College and is 162m x 110m (very narrow) and also a really odd shape. Look at it on Google Maps.Where the 50m line intersects the boundary is still at a 90 degree angle to goal. You'll also notice that there is no room to find that extra 25-30m on the wings to the north (due to the path & stinky, bat-ridden Norman Creek) and expanding south would mean cutting down a whole bunch of trees and raising the land level ($$$).

An area that I am surprised hasn't really been spoken about much is the ovals of the Griffith-Mooroka Football Club, also on Kessels Rd, not far from QSAC, on the grounds of Griffith University at Nathan. I have never played there personally but it is a big oval with facilities pre-existing, from what I can see. Not sure if there would be any viable room for a second oval, does anyone know if there would be? The existing oval itself is huge according to Maps, at 170m x 128m. That's verging on Subiaco length with not much land clearing required to make it Gabba width. Also, relocating Griffith-Moorooka would not be a problem - the Griffith-Moorooka Roosters have another oval in Moorooka itself, with pre-existing facilities. It is where Moorooka used to play all their games before they merged with Griffith. I am not entirely privy to the usage of the ovals however, so I could be wrong. Some of that is hearsay and the rest is assumptions.

 

[Heato]

Also, for your consideration:
QSAC Oval 1 & 2 widths in relation to The Gabba (both lengths is fine, from end to end athletics tracks are about 180m).

Also, Coorparoo width issues:

 

[Tairy Greene]

lmao at all the weird ass pockets on the last oval.

 

[The Flying Belgian]

I'm not sure the exact size is a deal-breaker though. A nice to have though. Agre at SQAC they'd have to rip up the athletics track on one oval.

 

[Heato]

lmao at all the weird ass pockets on the last oval.

Eastern pocket where the trees are is a great place to practise boonananas

 

[GumbyRules]

There is a farm in Everton Park with the right dimensions. It is next to road number five. Only one guy owns it and it is mostly flood plain. Ive lived in Everton Park for 15 years and it has never flooded. It is next to the Kedron Brook bikeway. As it is a flood plain it will not be used for housing so the cost shouldn't be huge. Just a thought.