I seem to remember it being the right decision at the time.... Oh well if I'm wrong I'm wrong.

Should your signature now read We all buy Christian Louboutin shoes?

Burswood wants new stadium
BEN HARVEY, STATE POLITICAL EDITOR, The West Australian
February 1, 2011,

Burswood Casino has urged the State Government to build WA's new sports stadium next to the entertainment complex, as Premier Colin Barnett said he would meet the owners of Belmont Park racecourse within a fortnight to discuss its suitability as a location.

Mr Barnett yesterday played down the significance of a conversation he had six months ago with Burswood owner James Packer about building the stadium near the casino but the chief executive of Burswood Entertainment Complex, Barry Felstead, said new facilities on the site and the expansion of nearby residential developments meant the area was perfectly suited as a home for a new stadium.

Comment: East Perth power station site delivers | Racing experts back Belmont sale | POLL

"Burswood is, and always has been, of the view that the State Government-owned land that the golf course is situated on is an ideal location for a stadium as it provides vast tracts of land and the ability for easy future expansion of sporting facilities," Mr Felstead said.

"From a Burswood perspective we have undertaken significant development works on the property since 2005, which involves upgrading of existing and the construction of new facilities. This work has seen a significant improvement of the offers available here and a subsequent increase in visitation to the property."

The Burswood site was shortlisted by the stadium taskforce, which was commissioned by the previous Labor government and headed by former under treasurer John Langoulant.

The taskforce noted that, at $1.147 billion, the site was the most expensive option investigated in detail, with the price boosted by the requirement to spend several hundred million dollars upgrading transport links, building a plaza and creating carparks.

In comparison, a stadium in East Perth would cost $821m and a new facility at Kitchener Park, in Subiaco, would cost $849m.

Mr Barnett said yesterday that Belmont Park had merit as a location but stressed that all options were on the table. He said that he and Sports Minister Terry Waldron would meet the owners, Perth Racing, "in the next couple of weeks".

"I readily concede that I do find the Belmont racecourse site as a realistic option," he said. "I know there are a lot of engineering issues related to that and there are pros and cons. There are advantages and disadvantages with every site and we will look at them all objectively.

"Over the past couple of years every time I drive over the Windan Bridge and I see that racecourse, it's a large area of land and it is under-utilised, and I think it should come into consideration. But it comes into consideration on an equal basis with the other sites."

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Just more of the same old......

An extra $300m for transport links, a plaza and carparks?

Therre's a train station already at Belmont Park. Just build a bigger footbridge. Oh, and it's a racecourse, next to a casino. There's a shitload of places to park.

I wonder if a breakdown of the costs really does stack up or if a builder just inflates the price because the state government is under pressure to pay for it, regardless of value.

It's probably a bit of both.

Belmont Park is currently a special event station. It only operates when there's a race meeting on, and even then the number of people that use it would be in the hundreds. It would be totally incapable of serving the 15,000 or so people that would use it for a big event. You would probably need to build at least 4 new platforms and sidings. My guess would be about $50 million.
There would also need to be better entry and exit from Polly Farmer Freeway as well as Great Eastern highway. Vic Park Road would also need to be upgraded.
Add development of carparks and surrounds of the stadium and I can see it getting expensive. Then add the inevitable cost overruns and the premium that is added on for dealing with the government and $300m isn't anywhere near out of the realms of possibility.

Perhaps give the job of doing all of that to Burswood. Packer wouldn't take any sh*t and would probably only cost $150m, and the government can boast about how they're paying $300m for it.

There was the Belmont option that was apparently in favour with Barnett...

But now the racing club are going to use money from Hong Kong, that will involve big apartments going up around the race course.

Yea the Belmont Racecourse Idea is gone.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa ... t-stadium/

that looks awfull.....not only is the money coming from honkers it looks like they have brought the buildings along as well. ....peeeewwwwww

http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/new ... 6014147830

The 'no' money excuse has gone. I wonder what new delaying tactics Barnett will deliver as an excuse not to build the venue.

they will find one

We just need to work out how to classify Subiaco as a rural area.

No sunday trading.

Shops close for lunch so everyone can go home for lunch?

Country towns have deregulated shopping hours.

Its the metropolitan area that restricts trading to small business on a Sunday which are outside of tourist precincts.

Isn't Subiaco a tourist precinct?

It's certainly a tourist mecca. Where else can you go to pay $12 for a pint of local beer?