WACA Wallys

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qstick said:
In the early days wasn't the waca used for footy purely due to having lights? Subi didn't get lights until late 90's?
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In the early days of the Eagles, yes. There was concern at the time for the future of the WAFL as it was feared (rightly) that Eagles matches would steal crowds away. There was an agreement that the Eagles homes games wouldn't clash with WAFL fixtures. WAFL played saturday afternoon, so all Eagles home games were scheduled for Friday night or Sunday afternoon instead. The WACA was the only place that could host night games.
 
Admiral Byng said:
In the early days of the Eagles, yes. There was concern at the time for the future of the WAFL as it was feared (rightly) that Eagles matches would steal crowds away. There was an agreement that the Eagles homes games wouldn't clash with WAFL fixtures. WAFL played saturday afternoon, so all Eagles home games were scheduled for Friday night or Sunday afternoon instead. The WACA was the only place that could host night games.
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Oops.
 
JimDocker said:
I noticed recently that 8 WAFL Grand Finals were played at the WACA between 1906 and 1926. The Showgrounds had a final and Fremantle Oval did. But in between, Subiaco Oval was used.

Does anybody have any idea why they were moved around so much?
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Did Freo oval host any grand finals that didn't involve either Easts or Souths?
 

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The Reaper said:
Did Freo oval host any grand finals that didn't involve either Easts or Souths?
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Good call. No, it seems like all of those games involved East Fremantle. 4 GF's from 1904 to 1910 played at Fremantle Oval. In 1916 and 1917, there was a derby GF with SF winning both, but they were played at the WACA. Then 1918, EF beat EP at Subi. 1919 and 1920 were then both played back at the WACA with the mighty Royals triumphing over EF.

Really strange situation of the venue being changed every couple of years.
 
Silent Alarm said:
Did anyone here go to the footy at the WACA?

My old man went to some Eagles games there. This was before Freo were in the competition (though he was only ever a South Freo fan before the Dockers existed) and said he preferred it to Subiaco.

I'm not a huge cricket fan, so I've not even been inside the WACA before. How does it compare to Subi?
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I do remember going to the game v WB (1991?) in torential rain when Sumich kicked 13. I do remember seeing Freo get thrashed early on v Carlton, I think. There were others that I can't recall right now.
 
I used to love the Friday nights at the WACA, used to go to quite a few Eagles game before Freo came in and then the games we had there as well it was a terrific place to watch footy. While it was never a great arena I've been greatly disappointed by the "redevelopment" over the last decade, it doesn't know what it wants to be these days..a real shame.
 
Beetlebum said:
I used to love the Friday nights at the WACA, used to go to quite a few Eagles game before Freo came in and then the games we had there as well it was a terrific place to watch footy. While it was never a great arena I've been greatly disappointed by the "redevelopment" over the last decade, it doesn't know what it wants to be these days..a real shame.
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The Eagles defeat of the Pies in a close final in the 90s with Woosha giving it to Micky McGuane after the siren - great night afterwards with the late & great Peter Eakins, ex Pies.
 
I am a WACA member and am quite excited for the upcoming redevelopment. Contrary to what those news articles that are a few years old purport, the end goal of the redevelopment is to increase capacity to around 28000, which would be ideal for cricket in WA. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-01/interview-dennis-lillee/4402844 Skip to 6.15 left to hear WACA President Dennis Lillee talk about the WACA development). There's no point moving cricket to the new stadium in the medium term as the only real sellouts at the WACA are Scorcher games and Days 1 and 2 of the Ashes, but part of the allure of the WACA is the atmosphere at a sell out match, something that would be lost at the new stadium as I doubt they'll get 50k+ for a Scorchers game. If they can though, then they should make the move for T20s, but tests should never be moved from the WACA.
 
flamingEMBERS said:
Cricket should stay at the WACA its historic but they should just knock the Prindiville and the Inverarity stands and make a new stand from one hill to the other!
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Will never happen.

There's nothing which will pay for it.

The WACA were still paying off the Prindiville Stand long after the footy stopped being played there, and that was with the extra $$$ that the footy chipped in. There's just cricket there now, they don't even have concerts anymore... will be no way for the WACA to afford it.
 
UpForGrabs said:
Will never happen.

There's nothing which will pay for it.

The WACA were still paying off the Prindiville Stand long after the footy stopped being played there, and that was with the extra $$$ that the footy chipped in. There's just cricket there now, they don't even have concerts anymore... will be no way for the WACA to afford it.
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Heard one D.K. Lillee talking about developing the ground I'd accept his views because he knows what he is talking about - do you?
 
UpForGrabs said:
Will never happen.

There's nothing which will pay for it.

The WACA were still paying off the Prindiville Stand long after the footy stopped being played there, and that was with the extra $$$ that the footy chipped in. There's just cricket there now, they don't even have concerts anymore... will be no way for the WACA to afford it.
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I tend to agree with this. The redevelopment proposals, which have been around for years, show that they do intend to bulldoze both stands and replace them with a much bigger one. They also show that a lot of the space at the WACA will be taken up by apartments yet capacity will increase (????). Given construction costs continue to climb and property prices have been pretty much stagnant i'll be amazed if the proceeds from the apartment developments will cover the cost of the new stand. Based on the NIB stadium development, (and the WACAs is much bigger) I reckon they need around $200 million to pay for it. Apartments won't cover even half that, and they couldn't afford to service that much debt.

You listen to Lillee and even the first lot of building isn't guaranteed, they need to sell 80% of the apartments before a shovel is taken out of the shed. A lot of long term aspirations there, but I doubt most of them are going to do much other than remain as aspirations. Likely scenario is that the apartments will probably go ahead but the scale of the development will be a lot smaller, and it wouldn't surprise me if capacity ended up being reduced to 15,000 or so.
 
Kwality said:
Heard one D.K. Lillee talking about developing the ground I'd accept his views because he knows what he is talking about - do you?
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Lillee's an all-time great bowler, and I like his enthusiasm and nostalgia for the WACA, but the cricket alone can't fund these grand plans. He's living in a dreamland if he thinks it's economically viable.
 

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Kwality said:
'

No idea Rob, I'm basing my comments on Dennis Lillees remarks - if its a Dorothy Dixer, google itself yourself.
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But Lillee guaranteed nothing. He even stated that they needed to sell at least 80% of the first lot of apartments off the plan befote anything was actually done. And that's just the first stage, without mentioning anything about how much money they'll raise. Other than that it was just a lot of aspirational stuff which is no doubt based on a lot of things happening - none of which is guaranteed.

He was just playing the role of spruiker. Which he has to given they're trying to sell a shitload of high end apartments.
 
Kwality said:
Yep, nothing is guaranteed, but they are out there trying to make it happen.
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Of course, but I guess i'm saying that based on what I know about stadium construction costs, the WACAs plans are highly unlikely to come to fruition without substantial government funding. Which is probably not going to come given the money put into the stadium on the other side of the river.
 
Rob said:
Of course, but I guess i'm saying that based on what I know about stadium construction costs, the WACAs plans are highly unlikely to come to fruition without substantial government funding. Which is probably not going to come given the money put into the stadium on the other side of the river.
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Which is why Lillee was talking about approaching the Feds. He knows he'll get nothing from the State.
 

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