This addresses all of our concerns, all of our ideas for the next decade. Great Article, gives the eastern staters an idea of the scrooge mentality of successive governments...he has hit the nail right on the head...will congratulate him next time I see him.
Wanted: all-purpose sports arena in WA
By WALLY FOREMAN
17apr05
THE planning of sports facilities for Perth has never been one of our strong points.
The city's failure to convert Perry Lakes Stadium into a venue for a more viable sport than athletics – probably football – after the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games set the standard for 40 years of planning blunders that continue to retard and haunt the sports industry today.
Political favouritism and opportunism, combined with a lack of courage and wisdom have contributed to the hodgepodge of inadequate facilities that exist in the city.
So, too, has the selfishness of individual sports that have demanded their own facilities and then operated on a "share under our terms" management policy.
As a result, we now have the worst inventory of major facilities of any major Australian city, with the lack of a major outdoor stadium, the biggest gap on the list.
Cricket had its day in the sun in the 1980s when the Labor government poured good money after bad into the WACA Ground.
It chose to believe – either naively or wilfully – that VFL/AFL football would be played at the ground on a long-term basis, despite advice to the contrary. Various redevelopments over time have left the sport destitute.
Subiaco Oval was significantly upgraded by a Coalition government in the 1990s in such a way as to reduce its capacity to 43,000. The record crowd for a WAFL game was 52,871 at the 1979 Grand Final when the state's population was 700,000 fewer than it is now.
That redevelopment was obviously sought by the WA Football Commission, which is now seeking further funding to get the ground back to its former capacity.
Nothing recedes like success.
More than $30 million of taxpayers' money has been poured into the redevelopment of Perth Oval, but the management of the ground remains in the hands of one of the prime users – and it's a privately owned franchise at that. All other users, including the Government, depend on the Perth Glory's goodwill.
And that arrangement is not dissimilar to the management of Subiaco Oval.
The Government has made a substantial contribution to its existence and development, quite appropriately, but the Football Commission decides who will use it and under what conditions.
When it's the state's only national-level facility – we don't have an international facility in terms of capacity – that won't always be a desirable situation.
Add to those venues the football grounds at Lathlain, Leederville and Claremont and what we have is a chain of inadequate or inappropriately managed stadiums, several of which are white elephants, neatly linked trunk to tail, from Victoria Park to Floreat Park, that Ashton's Circus would be proud of.
Even Challenge Stadium, the proud host of two world swimming championships, no longer meets the criteria to host a national open championship. And what's happened to the proposed indoor facility that was originally to be part of the Convention Centre contract? Do we wait until we lose the Hopman Cup before we do something about that?
Meantime, all other mainland capital cities have caught and passed us in regard to the provision of state-of-the-art facilities to the point that Perth is now bidding with Ballarat, Newcastle and Townsville for events that can hardly be called major. We have a facility crisis in this state that has not been helped by high levels of self-interest among some sports and the inability of governments to think long-term and co-ordinate the available resources. We need to be thinking about what the state needs, which incorporates the needs of all sports.
We've got to stop thinking at an individual sports level. We're a state of less than two million people.
It's a folly to be providing individual venues for each sport with that sort of population.
WA needs a major stadium that seats 60,000 people in comfort and is managed in such a way that affordable access for all appropriate groups and events is possible.
It would have AFL football as its primary tenant and it should be able to host international cricket, rugby and soccer.
It needs to be a venue that would allow us to bid for major events such as a Commonwealth Games or a World University Games.
Where would you build such a stadium?
I wouldn't rule out Subiaco Oval or the WACA Ground, but I suspect space would be a problem at both locations. We may need to start from scratch and Belmont or Burswood are probably the best options.
The collective good of sport has been sacrificed for the individual good of a select few in this state in the past 15 years. When WA sport was humming in the 1980s people of intellect such as John Bloomfield, Tom Hoad, David Neesham, David Hatt, Bruce Elliott and Mick Aitken were providing unflinching advice to government.
We didn't get the major venue, but we had everything else.
Key players have been able to think collectively in Brisbane, they've done it in Melbourne and they were going to do it in Adelaide had it won the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
Now is the time to turn it around in WA given the state's general economic well being.
There is a critical decision to be taken next week by the Town of Cambridge about the future of Perry Lakes Stadium. Cambridge has the opportunity to perform new tricks with its elephant.
The council will vote on the business plan submitted by a developer to redevelop the stadium as a residential location.
The State Government has indicated that it will rezone the stadium area residential in return for assistance from the council to relocate athletics, rugby and basketball at Challenge Stadium.
Such a plan makes good sense and is a win for everyone – especially ratepayers who stand to make a $60 million profit. Not a bad return from a plot of land that was gifted to them in the first place.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the venue that marked the start of our facility derailment was the facility that put us back on the tracks.
Someones been reading Austadiums.
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Egan
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Egan
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Wally that venue still haunts us
Newbies this is a good read, will actually quantify why every Perthite bitches about Subiaco and WACA and MES and about stadiums in general...Such a plan makes good sense and is a win for everyone – especially ratepayers who stand to make a $60 million profit. Not a bad return from a plot of land that was gifted to them in the first place.
Wouldn't it be ironic if the venue that marked the start of our facility derailment was the facility that put us back on the tracks.
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Illawarrior
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