Analysis Should we be pursuing a secondary market post-Hobart? If yes, then where?

[joegreen]

Hands Oval | Austadiums

Information about Hands Oval in Bunbury including venue layout, history, records, events, map, tickets, directions and accommodation.

www.austadiums.com

Hands Oval is an oval sports ground located in Bunbury, located 170km south of Perth. Also known as the JE Hands Memorial Park, the a redevelopment of the venue was completed in 2024, including the construction of a new grandstand with seating for 750 spectators, change rooms, function space and media facilities. The areas around the playing arena have also been improved, including additional car parking and a new scoreboard. Also located at the ground next to the grandstand is the old pavilion which also includes additional spectator seating.

While Hands Oval has hosted cricket, soccer and rugby union, it's primarily used as an Australian football ground, serving as the home of the South Bunbury Football Club and Southwest Football League, hosting Grand Finals for the league. It has hosted five WAFL matches with the first in 1984, and in more recent times the Fremantle Dockers have played two pre-season matches at the venue. Its also hosted state cricket with the Western Warriors playing three matches there and one pre-season A-League match featuring the Perth Glory. It was announced in October 2024 that it'll likely host an AFL home game for the North Melbourne Football Club in 2025, with the capacity of the ground expected to be boosted from around 8,000 to 15,000.



Hands Oval Details
Location Bunbury, Western Australia Address Cnr Spencer St & Clarke St, South Bunbury WA 6230
Capacity 8,000 Seats 1,000 (13% of capacity)
Record Crowd 6573 - WAFL: East Perth v Swan Districts - 1/4/1984
Highest Crowd since 2003 10,000 - 14/03/09: NAB Challenge: Fremantle v Carlton
Lights Yes
Arena Roof No
Video Screen No
Redeveloped 2024
Former/Other Names South Bunbury Showgrounds
JE Hands Memorial Park
Sports Played Australian Football
Last EventSat 5 Mar 2011: NAB Challenge: Fremantle v Western Bulldogs

 

[DuckYeah]

Could you base yourself at Busselton if staying for the 2 weeks?

PS. The Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

Jesus almost 2km long.. learned something today

 

[Limerick]

Thank you for your question and here is my honest response:

NO!!!!! I was passionate since 1973. I had loved the club but in the end it came down to money and a betrayal of my trust. Perhaps the trust of many, because many have had my recent experience but choose to just suck it up.

The club membership department betrayed my trust and integrity when they on-sold my personal financial details to a second party without my consent. THEY!!!! Have done that continuously for at least the last three years without apology or verification. The Club denied all obligation, choosing to blame it on Ticketmaster. WELL IT'S LIKE THIS .... I gave my personal information and financial details to the club's Membership department (Not Ticketmaster) over the phone, and I certainly NEVER gave the club authorisation to auto-renew my annual membership. This was all done over the phone, not online. So, THEY (The club's "MEMBERSHIP DEPARTMENT") chose to forward my personal financial details to Ticketmaster. Now as it turns out, Ticketmaster have an agreement which was NEVER - EVER - DISCLOSED to me (By the club's membership department) or to you that they get provided our personal security details to credit card companies to extend our updated card CVN and updated expiry dates from our credit cards.

ARE YOU NOW GETTING THE PICTURE????????

Do you now damn well see what the Hell I am on about? You ought to be as angry at this point as I am.

The Club and Ticketmaster are blatantly abusing your personal privacy. They hide behind the fact that they are a multi-billion dollar business. That still doesn't allow them to abuse your privacy or banking details under any circumstances. Do you, or anybody else reading this post understand now? YOUR PRIVACY and MINE is ATM for sale to credit card companies. The club membership department are being a willing accomplice to this. Any questions?

I am not making this up.

That is the point of my complaint. And any person among you who thinks that I am a crackpot or an idiot for lodging a complaint about this breach of personal security to either the ACCC, the Banking Ombudsman or the AFL better damn well think again. How could the AFL and any club think that taking a member's updated or changed banking information (The security details (CVN and expiry date)) from their credit card, without at least a courtesy phone call for personal verification of the card holder (without consent) think for a moment is acceptable?

If any among you think that such behaviour is acceptable, then be my guest. Feel free if you are that way inclined to offer over up your personal PIN numbers for all of your bank accounts to the next Nigerian Prince, or maybe to Big W who are offering you free Tupperware, or even to Bunnings who are offering your free vouchers in your next round of spam emails.

Is anybody among you reading this message laughing now???? You have all received those emails. So think about it before you try to respond to this post or EVER try to question my motives again. Where do you think that these spammers get their information from? Think about it folks.

I gave 51 years of support and loyalty to the North Melbourne Club, and yes now I'm over it, and angry as F***. Yes, I am over the Club and the bullshit tens of $1000s that I have given to it without question over my working life. They have done their dash now because they abused my personal trust. Trust takes many years to build, and only takes a few seconds to destroy. Can I be clearer? The NMFC and AFL have destroyed my trust and can not morally ever support them ever again. They attempted to take money from me without my consent. That is the bottom line. They are still doing it even to many who are reading this post. It is wrong. Make no mistake, in the old days we used to call that "Robbery". How can I ever trust this club, the AFL or Ticketmaster ever again?

I cannot give you a more honest response to your question than that my friend.

Now! That all said and done, many of you are asking ... "So if you are not a NM supporter then why are your responding to this thread?" The answer to that is dead simple. This came up flagged on my "Watched Threads" icon. Look at the top of your screens and there is a little eyeball icon that flags messages. The next step for me is to cancel my "Bigfooty" membership/association because there is no facility within the app or group to change club affiliations. So yes as long as I remain on Bigfooty they identify me as a NMFC supporter. I've had enough, and yes that is my next step. Just cancel my membership to even this organisation and write it off as one of life's big mistakes ... Like 51 year marriage Yes, like a divorce it sometimes takes some people 51 years to realise that they hitched their wagons to the wrong horse.

I fully support your decision. I never signed up for auto renewal as I wanted to decide what type of membership I take.
Given your experience, I’m glad I did. 2025 will be my 38th continuous membership and my 70th year as an active supporter. When I get a call to ask me to renew, I will, but will tell them why I don’t use the auto renew option.

 

[Gasometer]

I fully support your decision. I never signed up for auto renewal as I wanted to decide what type of membership I take.
Given your experience, I’m glad I did. 2025 will be my 38th continuous membership and my 70th year as an active supporter. When I get a call to ask me to renew, I will, but will tell them why I don’t use the auto renew option.

How’d you get out of the Auto Renew though? They did it regardless of instructions to cease last year.

 

[Limerick]

How’d you get out of the Auto Renew though? They did it regardless of instructions to cease last year.

Never signed up.

 

[giantroo]

 

[DrZaius]

Will not be Sharks . Apparently todays strawberry generation find images of sharks scary

Uh?

 

[Ruckle]

Could you base yourself at Busselton if staying for the 2 weeks?

PS. The Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.

Busso very pleasant and easy drive to Bunbury for the game ,has an airport and closer to SW Capes, wineries etc.

Best of all, selfish bit here, my best mate of 45 years lives there so I have a couch!

 

[Val Keating]

Might go stay in Margret River and drive up to Bunbury for the game. Love Margret

 

[Spud11]

I WOULD PREFER ALL HOME GAMES IN MELBOURNE

BUT

If we ever faced folding/relocating again, and there were no other options, I’d like to see us retain the ‘North’ name and be something like the ‘Northern Roos’, whose territory spans the top of Australia with home games in Darwin, potentially Alice/Cairns/Nth WA but with a home, history and heart still well and truly in Arden Street. And home games in Melbourne.

Hope it never has to happen, but if push came to shove, ochre it up and get an identity up there. Be that team that has the ‘greater Northern’ identity, but with a soul in Melbourne that is far more prevalent than the ones, obviously, Fitzroy or South Melbourne are afforded (like, it’s mentioned if Swans/Lions are close to/winning a flag and that’s about it).

Ours would be “NMFC” on the front of the guernsey, immovable (like Collingwood’s stripes). But imagine, if you will, the blue and white, occasionally maroon/ochre/gold Northern Roos who commit to Darwin for the next three decades.

It wouldn’t solve the 20th team issue but it might solve ours.

This is plan R (after plans A through to S have been exhausted), and I live interstate so I don’t get to many games anyway. So everyone in Melbourne, I know, would disagree with what I just said.

I’d just like something more concrete than wh*ring ourselves across the country to a new market (that doesn’t warm to us) every ten years. It seems pointless. We’re actively not growing our brand in Melbourne by doing that.. And all the markets we try to build are temporary before we go somewhere else. It seems absolutely pointless beyond an immediate cash grab. It’s definitely unfair on Melbourne fans and it seems unfair on any new fans we might gain by going to these areas. Leaving them after taking the cash, finding a new market every 10 years. Pointless and not fair on anyone in the longterm. Maybe okay for the few Roos fans that happen to live in these areas, but that’s not gaining us anything is it?

I haven’t been talking to Eddie Maguire by the way, I realise this sounds like one of his left-field “fix everything” ideas.

And I don’t expect it to go down well.
I just think we lose our identity doing what we do. It’s really sad to go around the country trying to get fans to like us, while Melbourne supporters are being screwed out of games anyway.

Could we be that team for the top end anyway? Even if it didn’t come down to relocating, I’m just trying to think of a way to, literally, put us on the map.

Do we jump to that market before others do?
Would we need to do it in a more profound way before Darwin get their own team just like Tasmania have?
Is it logistically impossible?
Are we happy losing home games out of Melbourne just to find new temporary markets around the country indefinitely?

Around Brayshaw’s tenure, it was said that we wouldn’t be the ‘travelling kangaroos’ anymore.. but.. well, we are, aren’t we..?

The coffers look good, but literally nothing else about doing this does. Maybe we should just play games in regional Victoria for extra $

 

[Tas]

I don't like that we are selling games, again.

 

[Spud11]

I don't like that we are selling games, again.

At face value, I was like “awesome, huge WA following, it makes sense”.

But in ten years time we’ll probably leave the WA fans like we have everyone else around the country, and we’ve spent years not investing in our Melbourne market.

Which was part of the point of rejecting the Gold Coast move.

So yeah. ‘North Melbourne again’, in name only.

And what Victorian kid is going to choose a team that plays home games elsewhere, plays in front of 20,000 in Melbourne, while others get blockbusters and excitement?

Other teams will grow exponentially while we waste our time chasing temporary markets to make our bottom line look good for the now. What are we ultimately doing?

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

I don't like that we are selling games, again.

No one does. Unfortunately, we are now a “poor” club thanks to the last 5-6 years. This is something that is required for our club to stay afloat clearly. Depressing but the right move.

 

[Spud11]

No one does. Unfortunately, we are now a “poor” club thanks to the last 5-6 years. This is something that is required for our club to stay afloat clearly. Depressing but the right move.

Not sure about this. I think part of our poor onfield performance has been because we don’t stand for anything, and part of this has been our short-sighted sale of our home games to markets we have no intention of being loyal to.
We’re unsure off the field and look unsure on it. If we don’t commit to anyone or anything properly, how do we expect it in return?

 

[andana]

Jesus almost 2km long.. learned something today

The end of the jetty possibly best place to stay.
Beyond the range of the Barmah Forest virus/ Ross River virus mosquitoes and the hydrogen sulphide smell from the seaweed.

 

[andana]

Uh?

Today’s Worst is reporting that the East Fremantle council is objecting to use of the Sharks logo at the redeveloped oval as it might scare the kids at the nearby playground.
Simple solution; change the name back to Old Easts.
You’re welcome.

 

[Smoocher]

Imagine being LDU or one of our young guns or even a player being picked in the next couple of drafts and thinking what the he'll am I doing at a club that prioritises money over winning.

I really thought we would be winding down our selling of games now that we have slowly.put together a team that can be competitive.

Absolute debacle that we are prioritising money over having a better chance of winning winnable games here in Melbourne.

The players and supporters need every win we can get.

I wouldn't blame LDU, McKercher or Wardlaw wanting to jump ship if we have a similar year in 2025. The difference in winning 3-4 games or 6'-7 could be the deciding factor for these players.

Regards and Good Night.


Sent from my SM-A156E using Tapatalk

 

[Spud11]

Imagine being LDU or one of our young guns or even a player being picked in the next couple of drafts and thinking what the he'll am I doing at a club that prioritises money over winning.

I really thought we would be winding down our selling of games now that we have slowly.put together a team that can be competitive.

Absolute debacle that we are prioritising money over having a better chance of winning winnable games here in Melbourne.

The players and supporters need every win we can get.

I wouldn't blame LDU, McKercher or Wardlaw wanting to jump ship if we have a similar year in 2025. The difference in winning 3-4 games or 6'-7 could be the deciding factor for these players.

Regards and Good Night.


Sent from my SM-A156E using Tapatalk

Absolutely. I’m at the point where we either commit 100% to Melbourne or commit somewhere else.
We’re turning a profit, but is that worth sacrificing every other aspect of the club?

 

[Cunnington Cartel]

At face value, I was like “awesome, huge WA following, it makes sense”.

But in ten years time we’ll probably leave the WA fans like we have everyone else around the country, and we’ve spent years not investing in our Melbourne market.

Which was part of the point of rejecting the Gold Coast move.

So yeah. ‘North Melbourne again’, in name only.

And what Victorian kid is going to choose a team that plays home games elsewhere, plays in front of 20,000 in Melbourne, while others get blockbusters and excitement?

Other teams will grow exponentially while we waste our time chasing temporary markets to make our bottom line look good for the now. What are we ultimately doing?

At this point in time, we clearly must need the secondary market cash to survive and compete in this competition. You’d have to think the club explored other options and they couldn’t secure anything better.

Earlier in this thread the general consensus was that 11 home games in Melbourne is what we want, but if that isn’t possible then the next best options are:

Bendigo/Albury-Wodonga/somewhere else in regional Victoria.

Some potential issues with those locations at this time could be:

- Victorian Government being riddled with debt, thus unlikely to sponsor games in regional Vic, and no chance of committing to regional stadium upgrades to make them AFL-ready (e.g. Bendigo).

- AFL not wanting us to play games in some cities due to their current affiliations with other clubs e.g. Dogs in Ballarat, Albury-Wodonga being Giants zone etc.

- Not enough cash could be obtained from these regions to replace the Tassie funding that we are about to lose. WA has always been the most cashed-up state in the country and the stakeholders over there had multiple motivations for buying several home games from an interstate club.

If we look into the crystal ball and then 10 years from now we leave WA, then it’s not necessarily all doom and gloom. By that time the Victorian Government might have its act together and could potentially assist us in setting up a secondary market somewhere like Bendigo.

It was only a few months ago that there was all this news about us being given the NT as an academy zone, so the messaging from the media and club is bloody confusing.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

At this point in time, we clearly must need the secondary market cash to survive and compete in this competition. You’d have to think the club explored other options and they couldn’t secure anything better.

Earlier in this thread the general consensus was that 11 home games in Melbourne is what we want, but if that isn’t possible then the next best options are:

Bendigo/Albury-Wodonga/somewhere else in regional Victoria.

Some potential issues with those locations at this time could be:

- Victorian Government being riddled with debt, thus unlikely to sponsor games in regional Vic, and no chance of committing to regional stadium upgrades to make them AFL-ready (e.g. Bendigo).

- AFL not wanting us to play games in some cities due to their current affiliations with other clubs e.g. Dogs in Ballarat, Albury-Wodonga being Giants zone etc.

- Not enough cash could be obtained from these regions to replace the Tassie funding that we are about to lose. WA has always been the most cashed-up state in the country and the stakeholders over there had multiple motivations for buying several home games from an interstate club.

If we look into the crystal ball and then 10 years from now we leave WA, then it’s not necessarily all doom and gloom. By that time the Victorian Government might have its act together and could potentially assist us in setting up a market somewhere like Bendigo.

All this secondary market bullshit should be null and void as the stadium we play in is owned by the league.

The fact that there are tenants of that stadium with more favourable deals is utter tripe.

Then there is Geelong and their ridiculous profit making machine.

The comp is a shitshow.

 

[Jonnoo]

AFL sits by while clubs sell home games. Just doesn’t happen in any other sport.

 

[TurnoverMerchant]

Not sure about this. I think part of our poor onfield performance has been because we don’t stand for anything, and part of this has been our short-sighted sale of our home games to markets we have no intention of being loyal to.
We’re unsure off the field and look unsure on it. If we don’t commit to anyone or anything properly, how do we expect it in return?

If we were performing on field, I think it’s pretty clear that we would not be doing this deal. Once the Tassie deal ends, we would have been back in melb.

 

[shinboner magic]

Does this mean we’ll be playing poort in Melb

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

AFL sits by while clubs sell home games. Just doesn’t happen in any other sport.

They absolutely love the control and the ability to use the bigger clubs to meet their bonus KPI figures.

 

[Luke72]

If this deal is about bringing 2 games back to Melbourne with a view to bringing them all home I like it.

It would be good to if they released a long term plan around the issue.