Windy Hill

yob · Post by **yob** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:20 am

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews ... 81447.html

Dons to rebuild Windy Hill

ESSENDON has revealed its $20 million plan to rebuild Windy Hill in a bid to keep the Bombers at their traditional home for the long-term future.

Retiring chairman Ray Horsburgh and his new chief executive Ian Robson spent yesterday in Canberra holding talks with key Federal Government leaders, outlining the club's bid to remove cricket and bowls from the Essendon home ground, extend the oval to MCG-size and build a state-of-the-art new training facility on the Raleigh Street side of the ground.

etc etc

Cheesie-the-Pirate · Post by **Cheesie-the-Pirate** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:31 am

Insert Egan historical preseverence melodrama here.

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:22 am

Where are the pictures?

yob · Post by **yob** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:25 am

Jeffles wrote:Where are the pictures?

At Westfields mostly, most of the indies are long gone.

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:33 am

yob wrote:
Jeffles wrote:Where are the pictures?
At Westfields mostly, most of the indies are long gone.

That's very NSW of you to add the 's'.

Egan · Post by **Egan** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:46 am

Cheesie-the-Pirate wrote:Insert Egan historical preseverence melodrama here.

Sorry for implying that Sports Heritage should be protected in Victoria. With discussions with a few people, I am not the only one.

Enjoy your wankfests at Windy Hill and other VFL grounds...

I'm happy the majority of South Australian and West Australian grounds will be kept the same as they were 50-60 years ago.

nobleoz · Post by **nobleoz** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:57 am

My parents paid their dues to help with the construction of the new grandstand at Alberton, & I inherited their seats years later. The Alan Scott Power centre adds to it all at Alberton. But then I am a biased, long-time Port Adel member

Cheesie-the-Pirate · Post by **Cheesie-the-Pirate** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:15 pm

Egan wrote:Sorry for implying that Sports Heritage should be protected in Victoria. With discussions with a few people, I am not the only one.

How is sporting heritage protected by grounds falling into disuse and disrepair?

If we take a very obvious example, what would be the heritage value of the SCG if no developments had been allowed after the MA Noble stand?

It'd be a great example of late 19th and early 20th century sports achitecutre, but there would be very little cricket played there, if any. Due to lack of use the stands would almost certainly be in a serious state of decline.

International cricket would be played at some other venue, as would most if not all first class and ODD games.

Where's the heritage value in that? Patently the course of heritage for NSW cricket is preserved by its most important and famous asset continuing to be in regular use for 160 years.

Egan wrote:Enjoy your wankfests at Windy Hill and other VFL grounds...

I won't get much use out of them, but the footballing community of Essendon will which is rather the point, isn't it? Continuing the legacy of football in the Essendon community at its historical home.

Egan wrote:I'm happy the majority of South Australian and West Australian grounds will be kept the same as they were 50-60 years ago.

I'm a pretty conservative guy. I do not belief in "progress" and "change" for their own sakes. Still, this is an astounding comment. Even by your standards.

yob · Post by **yob** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:34 pm

Egan wrote:I'm happy the majority of South Australian and West Australian grounds will be kept the same as they were 50-60 years ago.

You would've been spewing when Perth Oval got the rectangle treatment.

Simmo79 · Post by **Simmo79** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:36 pm

IIRC, Egan and I were the ones advocating that Perth Oval have its old grandstand demolished if necessary.

yob · Post by **yob** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:43 pm

Round 2.

yob · Post by **yob** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:50 pm

BTW, the heritage structure on Raleigh street to make way for the training facility is..... the lawnballs grass.

And also, the most historically and architecturally significant stand has been demolished already.

But let's not let this get in the way of a decent austadiums barney. Egan has found a new cause gentlemen. And yes, it is absolutely the opposite of his last one. Which should make it even more entertaining to watch.

Jeffles · Post by **Jeffles** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 12:58 pm

Finally Essendon get their revenge on the bowling club, who obstructed them for many years.

yob wrote:And also, the most historically and architecturally significant stand has been demolished already.

QFT

I want to see what the redevelopment will look like before giving my opinion.

The article yob linked to above has a quote from CEO Ian Robson saying don't send Olympic swimmers to swim the 100 metres freestyle and train them over 80 metres,'' as an explanation for increasing the field to MCG proportions. Terrible use of imagery to incorporate swimming.

redback_original · Post by **redback_original** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:02 pm

As you are no doubt aware.. the capacity of WH back in its playing days was 17000. First year the Dons moved to the MCG they averaged over 50000 per game.

Forget about being sentimental. WH was bad for supporters, bad for the club.

Egan · Post by **Egan** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:02 am

yob wrote:
Egan has found a new cause gentlemen. And yes, it is absolutely the opposite of his last one. Which should make it even more entertaining to watch.

I was not even relating to the present upgrade and my argument has been consistent throughout. I made a more general comment after Cheesie inserted his fish.

If there is no point demolishing an historical stand, it is a grand loss of sporting heritage.

If it is being demolished for the upgrade of a venue and there are several other examples than I am all for demolition.

Yob will try and say my arguments have changed...they haven't really. Perhaps I am more historically conscious than I was in 2000, but look at Yob's posts from 2002 and I doubt he hasn't changed in who he is in 8 years...