Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Discuss stadium news, redevelopment, construction & future stadiums.
Post Reply
User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

quidgybo wrote:
jowel wrote:ANZ is indeed crap. Fits everyone, suits no one.

In order to improve the rake and bring all the seats in to make a decent rectangular stadium, could consideration be made towards digging down, lowering the playing field somewhat? Then reconstruct the entire concourse.

Similar to the city of Manchester stadium post commonwealth games.

Thoughts?
This is the only way to salvage the stadium from a rectangular sport perspective. There is nothing wrong with the upper decks in terms of position other than the fact it is a super stadium and so the top deck spectators end up a long way away from the action. But the real problem is the lower bowl and the level of the playing field. The rake of the lower bowl is too shallow and the fences are too far away from the sidelines. The fact you can actually see the lower deck from the top deck when in rectangular configuration is a major symptom of the issue.

To turn the venue into a true rectangular stadium does not require nuking it from orbit but does require major surgery. Step one, demolish the entire lower bowl, including the moveable seating, oval ends and the additional tier at the northern end. Step, two, lower the playing surface until the sideline of a Rugby League or Soccer field can just be seen comfortably from a normal seated position in the upper decks but with no more than three metres of grass visible beyond that on the near side.

In the giant hole created by the above work, build a replica of a good rectangular stadium layout minus the roof - something between AAMI Park and Suncorp Stadium in size. The lower bowl should be about 12,000 in capacity with the distance between the fence and the sideline of rectangular sports set at the legal minimum. Above this should be a second tier bowl, also rectangular, seating another 12,000-18,000 depending on the space available. All new tiers would be raked appropriate for optimizing sight lines for rectangular sports. If necessary a third rectangular tier would be built above this, sized to reach the bottom of the existing Upper tiers.

So you'd end up with a stadium with two or three lower tiers, closely hugging all four sides of a rectangular field with sight lines designed to be best in class for soccer and Rugby League. Opening between one and three of these bottom tiers would enable the stadium capacity to scale to the needs of the event while keeping crowds close to the action and tightly packed, preserving atmosphere. Above the two wings you would have the existing middle and upper deck tiers of the stadium allowing for a full capacity probably well in excess of the current 83,000.

Leigh.
The latest ANZ render is pretty close to your suggestion.
Not only demolishing the lower tier but the middles tiers as well,leaving the upper

User avatar
yob
Platinum
Posts: 8406
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2002 1:26 am
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by yob »

And still rubbish for football. But we need to keep rugby happy...

How many times does this multi compromise stadium need to be rebuilt?

bazza
Silver
Posts: 893
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:00 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by bazza »

yob wrote:And still rubbish for football. But we need to keep rugby happy...

How many times does this multi compromise stadium need to be rebuilt?
What does soccer need that isn't in the plan?

User avatar
yob
Platinum
Posts: 8406
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2002 1:26 am
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by yob »

bazza wrote:
yob wrote:And still rubbish for football. But we need to keep rugby happy...

How many times does this multi compromise stadium need to be rebuilt?
What does soccer need that isn't in the plan?
Seats behind the goals that aren't 25m away

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

yob wrote:
bazza wrote:
yob wrote:And still rubbish for football. But we need to keep rugby happy...

How many times does this multi compromise stadium need to be rebuilt?
What does soccer need that isn't in the plan?
Seats behind the goals that aren't 25m away
Yeh terrible,just like AAMI,Suncorp and Wembley.

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »


Boba Fett
Silver
Posts: 1094
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2004 4:20 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Boba Fett »

Weird - they're talking about a new capacity of 75k, but those artists' impressions look like an increase on the current 83,500. All part of the PR spin I guess...

bazza
Silver
Posts: 893
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:00 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by bazza »

The probably lose some seats in the corners with the ends getting closer and also lose some with the steeper gradient - but the pics look like they add some tiers at the end
The may cut some from the top of the east and west stands

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

All tiers,levels will be demolished and rebuilt closer.
Including the large east and west stands,with a lower capacity
Basically,it will be levelled,leaving just the outside shell/roof.
(Im guessing ground will be lowered,Im not 100%)

Here is a quickly drawn up cross section ,with the proposed design(purple line,on the left)
Image

If you look closer at this image,you can actually see ALL seating under the transparent roofline.
The old (white) solid roof line doesn't cover any seating.
Image

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

Just noticed the small lower tier at both the North and South Ends?(wasnt in the original render)
Retractable for Football/Soccer??

User avatar
yob
Platinum
Posts: 8406
Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2002 1:26 am
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by yob »

If those seats are retractable at the ends, and if the entire thing is being rebuilt.... then this thing could be halfway decent for football.

Staggers me how much money has been wasted on this place though.

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

From the ANZ Stadium website

"....Almost 25,000 fans seated in the northern and southern general public areas would be in the thick of the behind-goals action as a result of revolutionary new end stands....."

It seems they may plan to retract this tier to suit Football.

User avatar
DH
Silver
Posts: 571
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 2:12 pm
Location: Brisbane (physically) - NSW (mentally)

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by DH »

This revolutionary approach for end stands should be quite simple. For rectangular stadiums in Australia, set the end stands as follows:
1. Rugby Union - first row is 2m above the playing field level
2. Rugby League - first row is 1.5m above the playing field level, wheel into place a removable 2 row stand in front of the RU first row (brining the front row ~2m closer to the in-goal line)
3. Football - first row is at playing field level, wheel into place a removable 5 row stand in front of the RL first row (bringing the front row ~7m closer to the goal compared to where it would be for RU)

If you really wanted to optimise space for spectators, the camera areas should be built under the 1.5-2m height area beneath the stand, bringing the stand even closer to the end goal line.

Basically the end stands RL and RU stadiums in Australia would be like NFL stadiums where the front row is 1.5-2m above the playing surface, enabling a greater view of the field. Typically the first 1-5 rows of RL / RU stands are the worst viewing seats anyway so at least it would improve that aspect of rectangular stadiums.

I seriously hope this is being built into the new Pirtek Stadium design and would love to lobby for this to become a required design / Australian Standard for any new rectangular stadium in Australia.

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

Official ANZ Stadium cross section
Image
Image

User avatar
Dan
Silver
Posts: 836
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2002 10:15 pm
Location: Yarra Valley,Melbourne

Re: Is there a future for ANZ Stadium?

Post by Dan »

Image
Image

Post Reply