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.

Anyway, long story short it's not happening. The only way it would get funded is by Government - not AFL - and the Victorian Government has much larger priorities than building a stadium that competes with one the AFL already owns and one that they effectively own (MCG).

 

[KangaRooster]

I wonder if the goal should then be to run 2 games in Perth, consecutive Saturdays with back to back games against Freo and WC, entice the fans to get over there for a week and come back Sunday - maybe schedule it for the school holidays, whack the kids on a plane and spend a week in the warmth and hotel living.

Travel will be an issue but less so for the 2nd game, and that might be lessened by the camaraderie that gets built going on a proper footy trip as a team.

We also get to practice playing footy outdoors in decent conditions again. If I'm remembering correctly, the Bulldogs are the only premiership winner that played their home games at Docklands since it was introduced?

 

[shinboner magic]

Keep selling games and people will wonder why our club died.

We go 4 weeks + without a Melbourne home games at times.
With ppl it’s about routine and if our home games are that far apart ppl lose interest and find other things to do.
We are dying a slow death of living on our knees.
We aren’t gaining fans by whoring ourselves all over the place - we’re losing fans.

Bring the games back to our heartland and get back to being innovators to make up the shortfall

 

[MrSlippyFist]

Keep selling games and people will wonder why our club died.

We go 4 weeks + without a Melbourne home games at times.
With ppl it’s about routine and if our home games are that far apart ppl lose interest and find other things to do.
We are dying a slow death of living on our knees.
We aren’t gaining fans by whoring ourselves all over the place - we’re losing fans.

Bring the games back to our heartland and get back to being innovators to make up the shortfall

The club is dead??? I'm almost certain I passed a rather large facility on Arden St yesterday that had our emblem on it???

 

[MrSlippyFist]

I'm all for it. Tasmania is done - let the Devils have their state.

We have more fans in Perth than Tasmania and Optus is a world class stadium. I'd happily have them play 2 games there in a row in a hub.

Is it certain that we'd only be playing games against one of the two WA teams or have games against other sides been discussed?

I was once extremely keen on moving games to Bendigo but its simply not feasible financially when we could make so much more money from Perth.

 

[Chadwiko]

A smaller 3rd boutique stadium in Melbourne with a 20,000-30,000 capacity would be ideal for AFLW, smaller AFL games, and VFL games.

Unfortunately the cost/benefit numbers just don't add up, especially with construction and land costs bloody sky-rocketing in the last 5 years.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

People calling for a new stadium in Melbourne must be very young or new to the area and don't have any memory of the ugly years when Docklands Stadium was owned by the fund managers who paid to build it. A third stadium in Melbourne would have to be privately funded and it would cost clubs far more to play games there than Docklands or the MCG.

 

[Cyber_punk]

Stop losing all the time and more people will front up. It all a bit chicken and egg

The problem is that since Carey and Pagan we have never been a genuinely great flag contending side. Even in the 2014-15 years, we made prelims, but during the year we still lost to a lot of shitty sides. You never really knew for sure if we would win, and when we did, it was often very unconvincing. I think as a supporter base we subconciously and collectively knew that we were just a bunch of battlers who were able to push uphill a bit.

I do think that when we are genuinely contending a lot of the more fair weathered will jump on.

 

[ExileOnArdenStreet]

The problem is that since Carey and Pagan we have never been a genuinely great flag contending side. Even in the 2014-15 years, we made prelims, but during the year we still lost to a lot of shitty sides. You never really knew for sure if we would win, and when we did, it was often very unconvincing. I think as a supporter base we subconciously and collectively knew that we were just a bunch of battlers who were able to push uphill a bit.

I do think that when we are genuinely contending a lot of the more fair weathered will jump on.

Even the year we had the 9 in a row start we were battling in just about every one of those wins.

 

[Cyber_punk]

Even the year we had the 9 in a row start we were battling in just about every one of those wins.

The win over the * VFL side felt where we fell over the line is the perfect testament to that. Felt as bad as a loss.