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I take a keen approach to urban development in the Sydney metropolitan area, considering my education, work and leisure take me from north to south and east to west.
This is pushed further when one is able to see the short comings of various levels of government in approaching the development of Sydney in a sustainable fashion.
It saddens me now though to realise that even sports administrators, possibly some of the best managers of businesses in the country, are having similar issues in terms of development.
I talk, of course, about the proposed Blacktown stadium.
This stadium, built in the Blacktown Olympic precinct (originally designed for baseball and softball), next to the GWS training sites, will be nothing more than a waste of time, space and money, all of which could be dedicated to much more useful ideas.
So what’s my reasoning for this being so unsustainable – both economically and socially?
Think about this: a forty thousand seat stadium, put in Blacktown, the district between two districts (Parramatta and Penrith) next to a couple of training grounds, and in an area which is increasingly being gentrified and developed for residential living, with some parklands.
There will be no other sporting teams based in the area, other than possibly the new A-League side, the Sydney Rovers, who will have to be superseded by a localised Parramatta and Penrith side once the Sydney metropolitan area expands.
It will then be reduced to 26 000 seats – albeit at a time when it’s most probable that Parramatta and Penrith stadium capacities will be increased.
Not only is it noticeable, it’s been done before, albeit for a different sport, with similar distances from metropolitan areas.
Rugby hosted the RWC in Australia in 1987.
With this, a new stadium was built at the home of what is now West Harbour RFC, known as Waratah Stadium or Concord Oval. Seating twenty thousand people, it was close to smack bang between the major business districts of Sydney City and Parramatta City.
How much have you heard of it in the modern era of professional football? A couple of games early on with rugby league, but not much else.
This is what serves as a proof of concept for Blacktown Stadium. It will be slightly different, yes, but there are just too many comparisons to see the possibility (and very high one at that) that yet again, Sydney will have an unused stadium, choking the pockets of its creator.
It would be much better to spend on Parramatta, Penrith, or Homebush.
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