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Thread: Optus Stadium already eyed for expansion says WA Sports Minister

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    Optus Stadium already eyed for expansion says WA Sports Minister

    Meanwhile somewhere between 10-14k turned up to watch the Wallabies take on the Argies on the gold coast..

    Even the NRL has killed it at Optus with a pretty good crowd to their double header.

    Rugby Australia showed no spirit by neglecting WA this year by staging no games here and now their attendances have become a laughing stock around the whole country. Rugby must have been the only sport to miss the opportunity to stage something in Optus stadiums opening year when almost every major sport got in and showcased their product to Perth and the world. A massive missed opportunity that rugby will regret for many years. Especially since their East Coast support has finally given up on them. AFL have made the most of this opportunity and managed to capture the hunger and excitement of a Perth population thirsty for live sport and are already talking about needing 70k seats in 5-10 years to keep members.. this is the difference between a dead sport and a booming sport, one takes proactive steps and uses the opportunities to broaden and expand their sport, the other ignores all of this and just keeps feeding more and more cash to the money pit Rabble franchise..

    Optus Stadium already eyed for expansion says WA Sports Minister

    Daniel MercerThe West Australian
    Saturday, 22 September 2018 2:00AM
    Daniel Mercer
    Optus Stadium boss Mike McKenna.
    Optus Stadium boss Mike McKenna.Picture: Nic Ellis

    WA’s Sports Minister has predicted Optus Stadium may need to be expanded at a cost of up to $400 million in the next five to 10 years after a wildly successful first AFL season for the venue.

    Ahead of the Eagles’ blockbuster preliminary final against Melbourne at the 60,000-seat stadium today, Mick Murray said the facility had met or exceeded expectations in every sense since hosting its first sporting event in February.

    Mr Murray said that while the State Government had no immediate plans to expand the stadium, there would come a time when growing demand might force a rethink.


    He noted that the stadium was designed to be upgraded to a capacity of 70,000 seats, though he said the costs of expanding the venue were unknown and certain to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

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    The size of the stadium has come under the spotlight after the preliminary final sold out rapidly, and amid reports the Eagles could struggle to hold on to aspiring members unable to get tickets to games.

    “‘Is the stadium big enough’ is probably the most frequently asked question I’ve got this week,” Mr Murray told The Weekend West.

    “It is, because to put millions extra in for a bigger stadium when you have mid-range games... it would look silly being half-empty.

    “The other side is it still has room to put another 10,000 seats there.

    “In the future it will probably happen... probably in five or 10 years’ time.”

    The comments from Mr Murray come as the stadium prepares to host its final football game for the year.

    Mike McKenna, the boss of stadium operator VenuesLive, reflected on its first full season by saying “I don’t think it could have gone much better, to be honest”.

    With the West Coast-Demons game set to fill the stadium to capacity, average crowds at the venue across the AFL season would be about 47,500 — just shy of VenuesLive’s target of 48,000.

    Mr McKenna said the result was especially pleasing given the “aggressive” nature of the attendance target and the fact that customer satisfaction levels were as high as 94 per cent.

    “Eagles fans no doubt have had a really good season because they’ve been winning as well as the stadium,” Mr McKenna said.

    “But if you look at Fremantle, who’ve had a mixed year... we’ve seen about 7000 more fans per game from Fremantle than the last 10 years’ average.

    “So I would say that indicates to us they’ve enjoyed coming here as well and our job is to keep them coming back.”

    Both Mr Murray and Mr McKenna pointed out the extent to which fans had embraced public transport to get to and from games, with average patronage running higher than the target of 83 per cent.

    By comparison, said public transport patronage to games to Subiaco had been just 40 per cent.

    In line with VenuesLive’s forecasts, Mr McKenna said the stadium would deliver a dividend to the Government this year on the back of its strong financial performance.

    He said part of the result had been built on the popularity of the food and beverage offering, which he noted sourced 75 per cent of its products from local suppliers.

    “We’ve got an objective to return a decent amount of money to the state... and I think they’ll be very happy,” Mr McKenna said.

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    Immortal Contributor The InnFORCEr's Avatar
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    Like ANY infrastructure built in this state, they only build for the now and not the future with the possible exception being the train line down the middle of the freeways, that was genius! As they say, build it and they will come.

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    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The InnFORCEr View Post
    Like ANY infrastructure built in this state, they only build for the now and not the future with the possible exception being the train line down the middle of the freeways, that was Alana McTiernan's "Just get it Done" genius! As they say, build it and they will come.
    Fixed.

    After all the inner city naysayers bleating about that, it's the most heavily patronised section of our transport operations.

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    Someone's overexcited. In reality it would be far to expensive to put in more seats that may only get used one a year and for which you would need high powered binoculars to see any of the game

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    Quote Originally Posted by The InnFORCEr View Post
    Like ANY infrastructure built in this state, they only build for the now and not the future with the possible exception being the train line down the middle of the freeways, that was genius! As they say, build it and they will come.
    Yeah it would be a massive waste of money if they had to remobilize construction in 5-10 years when they could have just built it to that capacity in the first place. It would be nice if the freeway was 3 lanes from Safety bay road, or even Thomas road to the city atleast. I wonder if that would ever happen..

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    Legend Contributor Alison's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shasta View Post
    Fixed.

    After all the inner city naysayers bleating about that, it's the most heavily patronised section of our transport operations.
    Alannah most definitely did make it happen!

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    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    I remember asking someone why wasn't there a proper roof on Optus, the answer was that in it's current state, it's incomplete; it is actually designed for the top tiers to be extended upwards, so this roof is actually temporary.

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    Immortal jargan83's Avatar
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    West Coast and Freo played a big part in the stadium being built for 60,000 only. (Source is a mate that works at DSR who was involved with negotiations of the contracts for Optus Stadium right from the start).

    It should have been built for 80,000.

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    but, is it any good to go to?

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    Veteran Sheikh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Exile View Post
    but, is it any good to go to?
    It's OK. It suffers with what any large stadium suffers from, which is that if you want to be close to the game, you have to be low down; to get a view with decent elevation you end up sitting quite far back. I went to the 1-dayer against England in January and we were right on the back row, although reasonably behind the bowler's arm (say ~10° off). You could see the whole pitch easily, but you'd need binoculars to identify individual players. It was, however, very good for getting to the amenities (bar, food, loos, etc) and with enough around the place that queues weren't an issue.

    AFL (or rugby) happens with in a more condensed timeframe, so it might become more of an issue for those, but a friend who went to the Chelsea match said that they didn't have a problem there, and that only has 1 major break in play.

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    Senior Player Leo86's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Exile View Post
    but, is it any good to go to?
    Most definitely yes. On my way home from the game now. After going to a bledisloe in 2008 I could never think of Subi being an oval again. Ive been to more footy mayches this year then I have in the last 10 years. Today I was second row from the furthest you could sit. WCE Vs RIC I was three rows from the furthest spot. Extremely happy with both spots. Sittin in those positions I miss maybe half way down the shin its on that much of an incline that got me thinkin... this will shit all over subi for a rugby match

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    Legend Contributor blueandblack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Exile View Post
    but, is it any good to go to?
    yes, but don't sit in the 100 series seating (or at least not in the back rows) - you can hear all the noise behind you and nothing on field.

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    Veteran chibi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jargan83 View Post
    West Coast and Freo played a big part in the stadium being built for 60,000 only. (Source is a mate that works at DSR who was involved with negotiations of the contracts for Optus Stadium right from the start).

    It should have been built for 80,000.
    Your source is right. The bastards were worried about their precious waiting list members.

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    I don't think it is good for cricket unless you are on the lower levels. We went to the Big Bash Semi last season and it was hard to identify players from the second tier, also I like a proper scoreboard that gives you all the information. Still tossing up on whether to renew our Scorchers memberships. Spent yesterday afternoon/evening at the WACA watching the JTL cup. Love the WACA and it's scoreboard!

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