AFL wants $100m Great Southern Stand facelift

The AFL is pushing the MCG to embark upon a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the Great Southern Stand in the belief that its members are enduring facilities inferior to those in the recently completed Northern Stand.

Two years after the stadium's $450 million facelift was completed, the Melbourne Cricket Club has commissioned its architectural consultants to look at changes to the southern side of the ground, costing an estimated $100 million should the AFL's demands be met.

The 2008 AFL season will kick off at the MCG on Thursday when Carlton meets Richmond and the stadium has matches scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

A decision on a rebuilding program for the Great Southern Stand, which was completed in 1992, is expected this year and, according to both parties, looks certain to go ahead, with AFL boss Andrew Demetriou hinting that the prevailing view is that the massive facelift would prove more practical in the long run.

"The Southern Stand simply looks tired," Demetriou told The Age last night. "Here we have a world-class stadium with more than half of the facilities clearly the best in the world and what we want is comparable facilities not only for our members but for all football fans."

MCC chief executive Stephen Gough confirmed yesterday that he had begun talks with Demetriou.

Should the AFL get its way, its members' area, which like the MCC members' area has about 23,000 seats, would have entrances, concourses and seating redesigned and rebuilt. The former AFL offices, which now form the administrative base of the Melbourne Football Club, would be removed. Melbourne has flagged its intention to move its offices to the yet-to-be-completed rectangular stadium at Olympic Park.

Twelve months ago, the AFL, which has about 45,000 members, commissioned architectural drawings for work that would have cost $25 million.

The MCC has spent $20,000 on another early draft version, which was recently completed by two of the firms that took part in the design of the Northern Stand. No conclusion has been reached on the funding of the proposed works, which in this latest draft would prove a far more radical and costly refurbishment than the AFL's proposals, although the Victorian Government has been consulted about the stadium's plans.

"The process is underway," Gough said. "The AFL is the prime mover among the stakeholders but there are things we all want to look at.

"We can't do costings until we know what we are doing and obviously we haven't started looking at funding at this stage. The State Government are a stakeholder and they are aware we are having these discussions."

The MCC has consulted cricket's national and state bodies -- its agreement with Cricket Victoria concludes next year -- along with AFL Victoria and AFL Sportsready, both of which rent offices in the Great Southern Stand.

"We have looked at the whole question of whether it is practical to have offices in the stadium," Gough said.

The AFL's agreement with the MCG runs until 2032, with the league contributing an annual indexed $5 million to the stadium's annual revenue of $85 million.