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

[Gumble Frankieton]

I guess all of this will depend on when the cash for Hobart games dries up. For the sake of this scenario let’s imagine that 2025 is the last year for Hobart games.


2025:
move 1 Hobart game to Perth
(7 home games at Marvel, 3 in Hobart & 1 in Perth)

2026:
sell 2 home games to Perth.
Move the Good Friday game against Carlton to the MCG.
This would give us 9 home games in Melbourne (8 Marvel & 1 MCG).

 

[Roosurgence]

If they sell games to WA next year and maintain the full Tassie allocation then the club can shove its membership up its arse. We already get a reduced amount of games for our Melbourne membership, so this would be the last straw for me.

They may as well sell all our home games, because I would think there would be a lot of disgruntled members that are paying for full memberships and only getting a fraction of the home games.

 

[HBFlanker]

If they sell games to WA next year and maintain the full Tassie allocation then the club can shove its membership up its arse. We already get a reduced amount of games for our Melbourne membership, so this would be the last straw for me.

They may as sell all our home games, because I would think there would be a lot of disgruntled members that are paying for full memberships and only getting a fraction of the home games.

Its not.

The 7 games in Melbourne are guaranteed.

 

[HBFlanker]

My ideal scenario:

9 x home games Marvel (or at a third stadium once built)

1 x home game Bendigo

1 x home game Albury/Wodonga

At the moment, we are selling the games to the highest bidders. We need to be more strategic around growing the fan base in these areas and collecting revenue this way.

Theres a very simple business case for this to occur.

 

[Mr north man]

It would be hard to convince the government to build a station there

Cost of building a stadium,train station and car park with a Roof -AFL standard for any new stadium you be looking at $500 million after all this Victoria the blow out costing state.
Then if by some miracle if a ground like this gets built you had to look at it being ready by 2028/30 period then how many time would it be used for AFL games.
I think at least 2 and they be against the 2 SA sides then what would you use for Cricket and other events
Has great potential a ground like this but we are in Victoria and the current Government is incompetent and opposition in this state is not much better.
So a potential ground like this would have to privately funded Good Luck.

 

[Lomas]

Cost of building a stadium,train station and car park with a Roof -AFL standard for any new stadium you be looking at $500 million after all this Victoria the blow out costing state.
Then if by some miracle if a ground like this gets built you had to look at it being ready by 2028/30 period then how many time would it be used for AFL games.
I think at least 2 and they be against the 2 SA sides then what would you use for Cricket and other events
Has great potential a ground like this but we are in Victoria and the current Government is incompetent and opposition in this state is not much better.
So a potential ground like this would have to privately funded Good Luck.

TBF, the current government are the only ones building train stations…..

 

[Mr north man]

TBF, the current government are the only ones building train stations…..

At an over priced rate with delays left right and centre

 

[The Warlord]

A proper boutique stadium in Melbourne (Princes Park ect) or a Vic regional centre (Albury/Ballarat/Bendigo ect) would make so much sense for the likes of North/Dogs/Saints who always draw poorly against the interstate teams.

I honestly don't know why it hasn't happened yet. Financially it would make sense and from a growth perspective it would make sense/

When I was growing up I used to really enjoy going to all the different footy grounds, the atmosphere at some of the smaller grounds was always awesome, particularly Princes Park and Whitten Oval.

Because the AFL own Docklands.

 

[The Warlord]

The whole Ballarat thing was a debacle. It had so much potential to work for WB, North and Saints, but the AFL blew up that potential by handing it to WB only.

Yet the Dogs sook and demand Good Friday after we made all the running

 

[roos_fanatic08]

Because the AFL own Docklands.

Even still, if the smaller clubs aren't making money there wouldn't it make far more sense to build a smaller boutique stadium that ends up being far more cost effective both for the clubs and for the AFL?

Plus you have the net benefit of regional growth ect ect.

 

[Sphynx]

Well if they decide to start selling home games against Freo or WCE in their own state in a period where are about to rise up the ladder, they are more stupid than I thought.

I'd actually rather start generating debt again at the expense of a commercial arrangement potentially impacting on our ability to finish higher up the ladder or finally win a flag.

 

[joegreen]

Even still, if the smaller clubs aren't making money there wouldn't it make far more sense to build a smaller boutique stadium that ends up being far more cost effective both for the clubs and for the AFL?

Plus you have the net benefit of regional growth ect ect.

Might be time revisit this...

Proposed E-Gate Stadium | Austadiums

Information about the proposed E-Gate Stadium on the Austadiums website.

www.austadiums.com

E-Gate Stadium​

Rejected Proposal

E-Gate Stadium was a proposed new Australian football ground located on rail yards next to North Melbourne station. The stadium was first mooted around 2009 as a solution for third 'boutique' AFL stadium in Melbourne capable of hosting lower-drawing matches. Its seating capacity was planned to be around 27,000. There was also talk it could be modified into a 44,000-capacity rectangular stadium for Australia's FIFA World Cup bid - freeing Docklands for the AFL. The concept designs showed the majority of seating on one side of the field with a three-tier grandstand and a single tier of seating on the other side of the ground. Talk of the new stadium went quiet and it never proceeded.

Location Melbourne, Victoria
Status Rejected
Capacity 27,000
Seats 27,000 (100% of capacity)
Proposed Sports Australian Football
Proposed Tennants

 

[Heaps of fun]

If the AFL wasn't so short sighted a boutique stadium would be deep in construction or opened. Nine clubs in Melbourne playing out of two stadiums is moronic, particularly with Docklands holding little romantic appeal to any group of supporters. A boutique stadium that catered to North and or Bulldogs that acted as a home away from home for GWS, GC and Tasmania would be fantastic and would help to grow the game, in the aesthetic sense at least anyway. Something leafy like Adelaide Oval that seats 25-30k with modern amenities would be brilliant.

 

[The Warlord]

Everyone forgets the AFL owning Docklands was immense during COVID - the ability to borrow against it.

 

[shintemaster]

Cost of building a stadium,train station and car park with a Roof -AFL standard for any new stadium you be looking at $500 million after all this Victoria the blow out costing state.
Then if by some miracle if a ground like this gets built you had to look at it being ready by 2028/30 period then how many time would it be used for AFL games.
I think at least 2 and they be against the 2 SA sides then what would you use for Cricket and other events
Has great potential a ground like this but we are in Victoria and the current Government is incompetent and opposition in this state is not much better.
So a potential ground like this would have to privately funded Good Luck.

Anyone that follows up "the current Government is incompetent" with "opposition not much better" is not worth taking seriously. The Victorian LNP is an absolute joke of a party that has been completely overrun by right wing extremists and fundamentalists. In no world are they "not much better". They are so far from being a reasonable alternative that it is laughable to suggest otherwise. I say that as someone that would happily see the Victorian Labor party lose plenty of seats.

Even still, if the smaller clubs aren't making money there wouldn't it make far more sense to build a smaller boutique stadium that ends up being far more cost effective both for the clubs and for the AFL?

Plus you have the net benefit of regional growth ect ect.

Financially though it makes no sense. These stadiums won't be fundamentally cheaper to run / hold games. The reality is that if the AFL had $500M to build a new boutique stadium every smaller Melbourne club would be financially better off if the AFL simply put that $500M into a fund that paid a dividend each year to support them directly - or simply increased base payments. Docklands stadium is capable of making our clubs money, it just needs a bigger share of income distributed to them instead of the AFL.