Mega Thread New Stadium

[Geoffe_Miles]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Mark Barnaba said that not having a new stadium is his biggest dissapointment from his time as Chairman. The club want it.

Like Onyacoxy says, thats what they say publicly. Might not be what they actually want and lobby for privately. I reckon they would only be kean on a new stadium if it was a boutique stadium with a very limited extra capacity for general public and most of the extra space going to corporate areas like more boxes etc. Why would they want a new stadium if it means higher ground usage charges and lower membership levels and club revenue and probably a truckload of debt from the building of the new stadium that are expected to play a large part in paying off?

 

[larrikin]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

I have been a member for 20 years and i will always renew my membership because i think that if you have the option of buying a membership and financially supporting your club and you don't then you are not a real supporter. Like people in melbourne that claim to be the worlds biggest supporter of club xyz but don't buy a membership and only but tickets to one game a year if that but then carry on pork chops and blame the AFL when their club is on the verge of going bankrupt.

But i must say that i will be very relieved when Nisbett and Worsfold are gone and replaced by less arrogant club leaders who do actually value, appreciate and communicate honestly with their membership base like say Jeff Kennett at Hawthorn and David Smorgon at the Bulldogs.

I will also be glad when the when we get a CEO with some intelligence and some ideas about how to spend the money they get from people like me buying memberships in a way that furthers the club and derives some advantages over the rest of the comp for us. For example, state of the art facilities, a development program with more staff and better qualified staff so it is on a par with clubs like Collingwood, a more bigger and better qualified recruitment dept, pre season altitude training like Collingwood etc. With that useless muppet Nisbett in charge we have fallen way behind in innovation and best practices and the most intelligent thing he can think to spend the money he is swimming in on is to waste it paying, or i should say overpaying, inexperienced staff in peripheral positions like Scott Burns as assistant coach more money than most senior coaches at other clubs get. I can't wait untill dumb and dumber, or i could say arrogant and arroganter, have left the building.

A few points on your post

• Kennett and Smorgon are Presidents/Chairmen, not CEO's. They don't do the same role as Nisbett
• Kennett is easily the most arrogant president in the AFL
• Much of the revenue that these clubs (especially Collingwood) generates come from clubs (pokies)
• The Eagles have one of the larger recruiting staff in the country
• Our facilities would still be well in the top half of the AFL community. If we reinvested while the WA Government were looking at new stadiums you would criticise the waste of money.

 

[larrikin]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Like Onyacoxy says, thats what they say publicly. Might not be what they actually want and lobby for privately. I reckon they would only be kean on a new stadium if it was a boutique stadium with a very limited extra capacity for general public and most of the extra space going to corporate areas like more boxes etc. Why would they want a new stadium if it means higher ground usage charges and lower membership levels and club revenue and probably a truckload of debt from the building of the new stadium that are expected to play a large part in paying off?

Because the club is a not-for-profit, and not a corporate entity?

 

[Selurs]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Mark Barnaba said that not having a new stadium is his biggest dissapointment from his time as Chairman. The club want it.

I suspect the Eagles look at it this way - by the time a new stadium is built, they will be better than they are now, and demand for memberships will be up again, enabling them to sell 55-60,000...then create a waiting list again. End result is exactly what they have now, where current members refuse to release their memberships because they know it will be nigh-on impossible to get them again, except that now they have 55-60K members every year rather than 42-odd thousand.

That said - my membership is non-negotiable. I will be a member until I am old-and-grey, no matter how easily I can or cannot get hold of tickets.

 

[CursoryMercenary]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Not Subi, build it near Perth or at Burswood.

 

[Lynch's Glove]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Our government would be dead-set mad not to build the stadium at Burswood / East Perth. In sporting terms, what does Perth have to offer in the way of premier sporting facilities like they have in Sydney and Melbourne?

We need a state of the art sporting precinct, with a minimum 80,000 seat stadium at East Perth or Burswood. This will ensure the following:

- With 80,000+ seats, future generations won't find themselves needing to wait years for their leaders to decide to upgrade the 65,000 seat stadium that is now under consideration.
- We will have seats available for people from other states to come and enjoy games, boosting WAs tourism industry and total economy. Perth sporting travel packages may become the norm for easterners.
-We will be on par with, or better than other states in terms of a great facility and this will open WA up to qualifying for world events such as the World Cup etc etc.
- A larger stadium in a new open area will add another dimension to Perth - brand new businesses, restaurants, cafes, bars, nightlife etc will surely follow once a Burswood / East Perth location is announced.

I used to want the Subi rebuild based solely on how I felt sentimentaly about Subi as the home of WA football. Over the last couple of years I've changed this view, as Subi Oval is now obviously at the bottom of the stadium ladder in Australia. It sits tightly bordered by houses and units, traffic into the ground is becoming more of a problem each year, parking is hard to come by and expensive - the whole Subiaco idea as a location for a NEW stadium just looks more ridiculous each year.


The AFL and the government really need to consider the long term solution for football and sport in WA - as a means to generate a long-term investemnt for a growing community. Quite sadly, if they decide to build a 65,000 seater stadium at Kitchener I feel we'll all be happy in the short term, but future generations will one day question such a stupid move.

When will someone in power stand up and state the obvious and make the change Western Australia needs?

 

[Hap Hapablap]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

I reckon the belmont park race course would be a good idea. completely untouched turf and
the ongoing stop and go movement of its redevelopment should allow it to be there. think about it the area where the racecourse stands is probably more solid than the burswood area.

the subiaco/kitch options as well as east perth are indeed small. belmont park should be thrown in as an option.

 

[greennick]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

The eagles and dockers haven't seemed exactly keen on the idea but i have been surprised that they aren't just downright opposed to it and vehemently arguing against it. Lets look at the realities here.

Imagine if we could just wave a wand and create a new 65,000 seat stadium at the end of this season to use for 2011. How many of the eagles curent 40,000 members would renew their membership for 2011 if they knew that they could decide not to renew it and instead just pick the individual games they wanted to go in 2011 and buy match tickets the week before and they could also buy back their membership at any point in the future if they decided they wanted to? I reckon less than half.

If we had a stadium big enough that people in Perth that our members could get match tickets to any game they wanted, as is the case with Melbourne clubs with the exception of a handful of sold out games each year, we would have less than 20k members next year in my opinion. Imagine what a turnaround in the clubs finances and power that would be.

You are way off base there I think. I know of some people that don't want to relinquish their memberships now as they are scared of not being able to get back in, but other people rent their memberships off them, so I am sure it would be out with one member and in with another for them. There is also a waiting list of more than 8,500 that can get you up to 4 tickets, so I don't think our membership would drop at all. In fact, I would anticipate it would exceed 50,000. Particularly if it is all reserved seating as a membership would likely be the only way to get decent seats.

One of the things you have to remember is that for a lot of the losers and old people that go to our games, this is their primary activity on the weekend apart from cleaning the house and car. Even if we suck, they would still pick up a membership. Sure our attendances are lower when we suck, but still around 3 out of 4 members turn up, which is better than the attendance percentages of teams like North.

 

[greennick]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

My favourite option is to knock down the WACA and replace that with a new multi-purpose stadium.

 

[greennick]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

That's why I think we'll see an incremental redevelopment of Subi Oval.

I don't think the clubs will have much of a say in it.

 

[Geoffe_Miles]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

You are way off base there I think. I know of some people that don't want to relinquish their memberships now as they are scared of not being able to get back in, but other people rent their memberships off them, so I am sure it would be out with one member and in with another for them. There is also a waiting list of more than 8,500 that can get you up to 4 tickets, so I don't think our membership would drop at all. In fact, I would anticipate it would exceed 50,000. Particularly if it is all reserved seating as a membership would likely be the only way to get decent seats.

One of the things you have to remember is that for a lot of the losers and old people that go to our games, this is their primary activity on the weekend apart from cleaning the house and car. Even if we suck, they would still pick up a membership. Sure our attendances are lower when we suck, but still around 3 out of 4 members turn up, which is better than the attendance percentages of teams like North.

Your entitled to your opinion Greenick. But lerts look at it. There is no doubt during periods when the team is down if people have the option of just buying match day tickets for the 2/3/4 or whatever games they really want to go to each year (at no extra cost per game than a membership works out to) as opposed to buying a membership or have the option of not buying a membership at the start of the season and just waiting and seeing how the team is going and maybe buying one later in the year if they are going allright there is a certain proportion of our membership who would do that. We may disagree about how many people but obviously you would agree that there would be a not inconsiderable number of people who would do this. I reckon that number would be about 50% during really bad periods like this and obviously a lot less during the good periods. How many do you reckon it would be?

In support of this i would cite the fact that a third of members are not even showing up for the games at the moment. their seats are empty. Add to that how many more are just giving their seats to somebody else they know because they don't want to go. I think you would be looking at at least half of members not turning up at the moment when you add it up. Do you think these people would willingly keep paying $400+ a year to be members if they know they won't be bothered going to a lot of the games and that they can just let it lapse and renew it at any point in the future when they are motivated to go to the games again?

Also, i would point out that as much as there may be a waiting list for membership there were so many tickets left for tonights game that as of Thursday night they were doing a radio blitz to advertise the tickets. There are only about 2000 general admission tickets available to start with for any game and they would have gone on sale 3 weeks ago and obviously there must be a lot more than a few hundred of them left for it to justofy paying for radio ads to try and sell them. These people on the waiting list all have an option of buying tickets to tonights game yet very few have.

My sister works at the West Australian and yesterday the eagles gave away tickets to tonight to any members of staff who wanted them for free in order to try and fill up the spare seats. And they still had trouble getting rid of them giving them away for free. Thats how much interest in the eagles has dropped off. Reminds me of the early days at the dockers when my other sister worked at Alinta Gas and she got free tickets to freo games every week as freo were desperately trying to avoid a half empty stadium and s*** atmosphere by giving away tickets for free.

 

[Geoffe_Miles]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Because the club is a not-for-profit, and not a corporate entity?

What on earth are you talking about? Do you think our club is a charity or something? Of course they are in it to make a profit. Go and ask the Bulldogs, Fitzroy and North Melbourne what happens when you can't make a profit? Why don't you ask the WAFC what would happen to WA footy and the eagles themselves if the club stopped making a profit. And it is very much a corporate entity.

 

[larrikin]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

What on earth are you talking about? Do you think our club is a charity or something? Of course they are in it to make a profit. Go and ask the Bulldogs, Fitzroy and North Melbourne what happens when you can't make a profit? Why don't you ask the WAFC what would happen to WA footy and the eagles themselves if the club stopped making a profit. And it is very much a corporate entity.

You might want to do some research. Not for profit is very different from charity

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Bump time

OK guys - 9 hours until we find out if we get a new stadium or not.

Cross your fingers!!

I may be an eternal optimist - hence originally creating this thread - but uncle Col has the go slow on the new stadium if we don't win tonight.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/8433549/premier-dumps-talk-of-stadium-decision/


Also - not sure if anyone has seen it - but the Qatar concept for a stadium with a roof that swivels open is phenomenal!!

Edit: For those not aware - the proposed stadium for the WC bid is to be built on Kitchener park. I'm not sure how binding that is though!

 

[Pat_Footy]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

I was so disappointed with the trading hours and daylight savings issues.... Need a pro decision for once

 

[bodazoka]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Heard Barnett on the radio yesterday and he sounded very noncommittal about even making a decision.

paraphrased quote: "I never said that we would make a decision on the new stadium by early next year, I said that we would defer talking about it untill February next year"

 

[bodazoka]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Also - not sure if anyone has seen it - but the Qatar concept for a stadium with a roof that swivels open is phenomenal!!

Apparently all of there stadiums are going to be removable as well and they are going to distribute them around there country I believe after the cup...

I wish we had there government.

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Apparently all of there stadiums are going to be removable as well and they are going to distribute them around there country I believe after the cup...

I wish we had there government.

12 massive stadiums for a population less than WA?

Our governments may be slow and wasteful - but they aren't that wasteful

 

[WCE_phil]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Please FFS can we just get a dual level 60k stadium thats north/south facing. Engineer it for the possibility of adding a third tier later on for expansion.

 

[Ghossein]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

did you just use the word optimism on the west coast board?

 

[joeyavalanche]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

i am a west aussie living in melbourne for the last two years,
melbourne seems to reach into their pocket to continually spend to create new sports, arts, entertainment attractions, knowing that it will reap benefits and more importantly keeps the city exciting.

WA has the money and resources to do it but keep dwindling on the same issues, stadiums, freeways, trains...
spend the money on the people, what else is it being saved for?

 

[mad_eagle]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

Apparently all of there stadiums are going to be removable as well and they are going to distribute them around there country I believe after the cup...

I wish we had there government.

...and all their oil

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

F*ck it!!!

 

[CursoryMercenary]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

**** i'll be in my 50's before we host the world cup and probably be able to sit in a 60,000 Perth stadium.

 

[Kaboodleer]

Re: New Stadium - Time for Cautious Optimism?

What a dogging but really it shouldn't matter, we should get a new stadium anyway, we already have a sporting event in WA that needs a larger stadium... it's called the AFL season.