Etihad Stadium storm damage won't disrupt games, says AFL

Austadiums • Saturday 6th March 2010

AFL and Etihad Stadium management are confident the storm damage which delayed Saturday night's NAB Cup semi-final won't disrupt football fixtures in coming weeks, despite acknowledging the clean-up could take several months.

The damage bill from Saturday afternoon's storms could run into millions of dollars after function areas were flooded and roofs collapsed in some parts of the boutique stadium.

Fans were locked outside the venue until five minutes after the scheduled start time as officials scrambled to get the go-ahead from safety inspectors.

Only 5241 made it into the stadium as the match eventually went ahead at 7.30pm AEDT - 20 minutes behind schedule.

Almost 60 millimetres of rain fell as Melbourne suffered one of its most intense storms in years on Saturday afternoon.

Heavy hail and lightning strikes also hit the city, disrupting rail services and causing traffic chaos. Hailstones tore through a roof at Southern Cross train station, which adjoins Etihad Stadium, forcing many fans to find alternative routes to the venue.  

The AFL's ground operations manager, Jill Lindsay, said ensuring Saturday night's match went ahead took a "fair bit of effort".

"The rain and hail we had was the critical issue, because the external roof around the concourse just collapsed," Lindsay told afl.com.au.

"Not only that, it flooded into the stadium and ... the water was so heavy that the roof started to collapse in the function areas. Level three and level two were badly damaged.

"There could be million of dollars worth of damage."

Etihad Stadium boss Ian Collins said the clean-up would be a major operation and take several months.

 "At this stage, however, there is no suggestion that it will require any disruption to event scheduling."

Despite the work ahead, Lindsay said next week's NAB Cup grand final between St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs was not in danger.

"All their function rooms are severely damaged but that won't prevent us putting a game of football on next weekend," she said.

"I have had confirmation that we'll proceed ... the infrastructure of function rooms and how all that operates, that's an issue for Etihad Stadium."

Lindsay said the pre-game scramble to ensure the game went ahead was a close shave.

"About 6.50 they told us we couldn't proceed ... [two AFL officials] were running down the races of the teams to stop them coming up onto the field," Lindsay said.

"We were then just waiting on how long that delay would be until [the safety inspectors] got to the roof. They came back within 10 minutes and said we could start the game at 7.30."

www.afl.com.au

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AFL and Etihad Stadium management are confident the storm damage which delayed Saturday night's NAB Cup semi-final won't disrupt football fixtures in coming weeks, despite acknowledging the clean-up...
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