Where is everyone sitting?

[Mambo No. 5]

If the force perform this year to anywhere near being competitive, I think it might be hard to upgrade at all for 2007 as Gold and Silver are sold out for 2006

[luke_the_pom]

i reckon i should be able too (hopefully)

[Egan]

I doubt that would be enough for them even then Egan? That's only an extra 2,000 on present developments (plus the corporate). They would be underselling themselves to sign off on anything less than 35,000 I would think.
One successful season in the next three or four years and memberships will soar again. Just on this site there are plenty of examples of people who wanted to get memberships but circumstances mean they have had to wait until next season. I would also think that most rugby supporters would sign on for the long haul so add to that figure the ones who missed out this year, new Perth residents (from overseas) each year and the natural increase through kids coming through the ranks and I think we are destined to remain a very big membership team.

Let us remember there is some question mark if we will maintain a 30,000 average...if we do it has provisos to go to 35,000 which I would not be surprised about.

The problem is the Government is presently thinking this is first year hype and that it will die down and doesn't want to build a stadium in the current period...especially with the Perth Glory and Western Reds experiences...

This was an article late last year that I wrote and shows the government won't fund or build a stadium on first year hype.

http://www.austadiums.com/news/news.php?id=198

I think Force will have to compromise some way eventually, especially demanding a big stadium just going by first year hype...

Thus negotiations are being done on a 25,000 seat stadium that the Force want...noting that we currently have a 43,500 seat stadium for the Eagles with 40,000 members, thus it won't be 35,000 seats noting only 20,000 members at the moment.

[The EnForcer]

Maybe a fare point but when you compare a crowd of 18k at a game to a membership of 20k you are not in the same ball park. I can understand that there is a lot of schepitism (?) with reagrds to the the success of the EnForcer.........oops sorry........The Force but this should not delay studies into development plans. If, and I believe it will, the Force requires the capacities suggested then the government should be ready to go for it....support the people and the state for John's sake.

Yours, after a couple of wines ....hic....gooooooo the FORCE

[Egan]

Maybe a fare point but when you compare a crowd of 18k at a game to a membership of 20k you are not in the same ball park. I can understand that there is a lot of schepitism (?) with reagrds to the the success of the EnForcer.........oops sorry........The Force but this should not delay studies into development plans. If, and I believe it will, the Force requires the capacities suggested then the government should be ready to go for it....support the people and the state for John's sake.

Yours, after a couple of wines ....hic....gooooooo the FORCE

Just remember this is the WA State Government, the West Coast Eagles have been asking for a bigger stadium for the last 6 years...the Governments responce - "Its adequate for our needs"

No, but 20,000 members, means a 25,000 seat stadium is perfect for the force...it won't go above 25,000 in the next 6 years and if it does it can easily increase to 35,000...IMO if the Force sold out every game of the 22,000 stadium, there was provisos for the stadium to be increased to 35,000.

Discussions are continuing and will take its time, I am confused with the time frame, Ron Alexander is under the impression that the Force will be at Subiaco Oval for the next 3 years...while in the West Australian recently it stated that the Force have only a 1 year contract at Subiaco.

When it comes down to it, the ARU and the Super 14 body expect the Force to go into a rectangular stadium and thus it doesn't have much negotiation skills, especially if you get disgruntled fans annoyed at paying the amount it cost for such shoddy views, many will prefer to not pay anything and just watch it live on Foxtel every week - which is a factor I don't think people are seeing yet.

The Force has to go to a rectangular stadium, if we let go of our bias...they will probably have to accept 22,000...its better then nothing and 12months ago we were delighted about this announcement, we were delighted about WA Government giving us this to get us over the line against Melbourne.

Yet now we are asking for more, I think we should just take from the pile, its more generous then what AFL, Soccer, Cricket, Tennis and Basketball have asked over the years, and it will not doubt prompt a 35,000 redevelopment to be done almost immediately.

We also have the nations scroogiest Stadium infrastructure funding government, the QLD Government announced a 100 million dollar Rectangular stadium for the Gold Coast, yet we only spent 35 million dollars on the last Subiaco Oval redevelopment and they are spending money on not even one of their major stadiums in the state...just for an NRL side.

Sorry, just like us to get back to reality

[Darren]

I think regardless of Force membership, Perth still needs a high capacity rectangular stadium - 'build it and the will come'. A punter would be more likely to return if the experience is a good one, and watching a game of at a purpose built stadum is a much better experience than watching a game of rugby at an Aussie Rules pitch ......

[Mambo No. 5]

Egan, when you are talking about 35000 redevelopment, are you still referring to ME? To up that stadium to 35000 would be almost a rebuild wouldn't it?

In Terms of the Force @ subi - I thought that they have committed to 2 years @ subi....????

[Egan]

No doubt about that, but like I stated we are on a waiting list, the Football ground in Subiaco Oval is of more desperate need to redevelop then MES and has been waiting longer, the Government will more then likely develop that before commiting funds to MES.

The 35,000 stadium involves encroaching the two tier stand on the eastern grandstand and that wrapping around both the northern and southern goal ends.

This would be done when 'demand' warrants it.

At current Force patronage we would not have to wait to long if we had just gotten the redevelopment started, not to worry, lets just hope we get something built.