Think no one wants new stadia? Try asking football fans

only a brilliant mind like you Nick would think that

problem with that article is that its complete BS and a disgrace to the smh

even for you, that is a poor comment

Mike, your persecution complex about football attackers has scored you 30 comments congrats

Actually, you’re right. Fuss would watch in his Darth Vader helmet.

Clearly. Nice conspiracy theory. No - really - nice one!! ha ha hee hee ho ho.

#Nemesis You said - “New Markets” investment would include the welfare handouts to Suns & GWS that are given by Head Office since Suns & GWS are financial basket cases & are unable to pay their own operating expenses. Me - or that would fall under the "Payments to Clubs". "New Markets" is handling 'extraordinary' expenses. The establishment costs of the new clubs and grounds that are along the lines of one off items and wouldn't be rolled over in creating the budget/forecast for the next/coming years. Considering the AFL report has the following categories of "Game Development Grants", "Facilities Development" and "Ground Improvements" there's a bunch of 'ordinary' buckets to drop things like funding to Geelong for Kardinia Park into. Considering that 'New Markets' peaked across 2010 (23.7mill) and 2011 (31.6 mill) - and the highest otherwise is 16.5 mill in 2016 - then that fits with the assertion that Metricon and RAS payments were included around that time in this 'bucket'. $22.2 mill of the $31.6 mill in 2011 was re GWS Giants, which included $10 mill re Skoda - for that year - (although the final full $65mill of the project ended up with another $2mill from AFL, the $7mill from the RAS and $45 mill of NSW State Govt). Anyway - we'll probably have to agree to disagree as you are trying your darndest to contest any and everything due to your stubborn determination to not acknowledge that the AFL is far better for the economy than soccer is!!! (yep - poking the bear).

@Perry Bridge Given the AFL specifically has a dot point in its summary "Financial Result" summary (page 13) for "development and improvement of facilities & grounds" it stands to reason this is the amount that the AFL spends on all "development & improvement of facilities & grounds". It's not under some ubiquitous pot of "New Markets" or "Catering" or Corporate Initiatives". Money spent on "Development & improvement of grounds" will be listed as the line item "Development & improvement of grounds" For the Year 2016, the total the AFL allocated to "Development & improvement of grounds" was $10.6 million. The average annual investment AFL has itemised as "Ground improvements" is around $5 million per annum since 2007. You are delusional if you think $5m per annum equates to the capital investment you are claiming AFL has made to construct: MCG, Perth Stadium, Adelaide Oval, Kardinia Park, Spotless Stadium, Metricon Stadium, SCG, etc etc And, this figure in the AFL Financial Statements for "Ground Developments" would include the total investment from grassroots clubs, to AFL clubs. "New Markets" investment would include the welfare handouts to Suns & GWS that are given by Head Office since Suns & GWS are financial basket cases & are unable to pay their own operating expenses.

"stadium australia could do with a capacity increase to between 100000 and 110000 capacity to make it a world leader and so it is competative with the mcg." If the NSW government go for a 75-80,000 seat rectangular stadium do you think the Victorian government would build a 90-100,000 seat rectangular stadium just to one up them?

#Nemesis The monies relating to the stadiums on the Gold Coast and RAS fall under 'New Markets' reporting item in the published Annual Reports. To see greater detail - down to the account lines - well, you might have to visit the AFL or KPMG or.......a faith healer.

And a 'crowd' is not always what it seems - who would have thought the AFL gets someone to count the crowd at their games? That's what they said on this Roar podcast: http://www.theroar.com.au/2017/12/07/roar-podcast-whats-successful-sporting-code-australia/ I thought it was a joke but I assume not. Grobbelaar - we may be the only 2 people who actually listened to this podcast. Although I admit I fast-forwarded a great deal and just chanced on the bit about the woman (mathematician) who counts the crowd. I had to listen to all of that part - even if only to hear the lads repeatedly refer to the woman as a 'lady'. Little Britain rules!

Nemesis said | December 8th 2017 @ 2:29pm Come on Nem ! (and your fanboys ). Sure AFLX(whatever it is) can be played on Oval shaped grounds, but it's been widely mentioned that one of the main ideas behind it's concept is that it can be played where no oval grounds are available. I bet you know this ! - maybe not your fanboys...

lol .... for a hawthorn supporting melbournian, your authoritative knowledge of oxford street dress codes is somewhat puzzling .... anything you care to share pudden'?

That logic is unassailable. Get a crowd there first, and you'll have a crowd. That's where we have been going wrong as a sport. We've been focussing too hard on having a crowd at the end, rather than getting the crowd there first.

#Post Hoc Nemesis hasn't pointed out anything. He's simply questioned everything - he's the Donald Trump 'fake news' of theRoar. He's a flat Earther. And your siding with him because you prefer his narrative. Not evidence based. The 2010 AFL Report includes: "The New South Wales Government agreed to contribute $45 million and the Royal Agricultural Society $5 million for the redevelopment of the RAS Showgrounds at Sydney Olympic Park, which will be the primary home game venue for the GWS Giants. The AFL will contribute $10 million to the project. " The 2011 AFL Report includes (in the review of 3 'extraordinary distributions - #2 of which is): Establishment funding for the Greater Western Sydney Football Club totaling $22.2 million. This included funding of $10 million for Skoda Stadium at the Royal Sydney Showgrounds. There followed: As a result of the above extraordinary distributions, the AFL recorded a net loss of $23.6 million. This was the AFL’s first loss in 10 years. It is the AFL’s aim to recoup this loss over the next five years by generating profits of at least this amount. Now pages 119 and 120 of the 2011 Annual Report (http://s.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL%20Tenant/AFL/Files/afl_annual_report_2011.pdf) you can note that "Distributions" were up 14% that year, increased by 32 million - which includes the +17 mill payment to clubs (up from 141.9 mill to 158.8 mill), the +7.5 mill to the AFLPA (14.5 mill to 21.9 mill) and +8 mill (23.7 mill to 31.7 mill) which is accounted under the reporting line of 'New Markets'. Note - 'new markets' expense: 2006: nil 2007: 1.6 mill 2008: 2.97 mill 2009: 13.35 mill 2010: 23.738 mill 2011: 31.683 mill (inclusive of the contribution to Skoda/RAS) The AFL doesn't present the lowest level accounts detail in this Annual Report - this is a high level reporting lines view. That's consistent for such reporting. The AFL has been miles ahead of other codes - it's only since 2014 that the NRL Annual reports have been available (the new ownership structure - used to be privately owned). Off the AFL website the Annual Reports page shows links back to 2005 to download pdfs. Interesting to note - NRL payments to clubs for 2016 amounted to 147.6 mill and whatever development encompasses came in at 30.9 million.

#Ken Spacey What distorted things was season 2007 - the Swans drew over 60,000 for home matches against West Coast, Collingwood and St Kilda. Perhaps people started believing the battle had been won. What you've quoted re soccer is very little - well - actually nothing that is owned/IP of Australia. You need to rely on bringing an overseas 'circus' to town to fill the colosseum. That's not a very good selling point - would you as an invest put money into that? At present - ANZ Stadium could never be redone with private money - the Buy/Own/Operate/Transfer project that it was turned out a massive bust. ANZ Stadium cost about $670mil to build; $555mil was from private monies and $115mil from the state government. After the Olympics another $80mil was spent to reconfigure the stadium by the private owners. The stadium did so poorly it was sold to ANZ for $10mil in late 2006 and the $140mil they lent the stadium owners was converted to equity. So effectively $555mil (1999$) + $80mil (2002$) was only worth $150mil in late 2006. No one in private enterprise would touch that again - - so, now, it's all Govt money - - but clearly they are trying to sell the dream again!!!

@Perry Bridge Do you know how to read Financial Statements? If the AFL has invested significant funds in MCG, Perth Stadium, stadiums where GWS & Suns play, Adelaide Oval, Kardinia Park, etc. etc. we will have this investment clearly appear in the AFL's Annual Financial Statements. If you find it, let me know & I'll accept the statement as a evidence that the AFL has invested that amount of money in those stadiums. If you cannot find the entries, then how about you read: "Financial Reporting for Dummies".

#Post Hoc and Spruce Moose Blacktown stadium is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented venues around - largely because of the misrepresentation by the pro-NRL (News Owned) anti AFL excuse for a newspaper - the Daily Telegraph. The time line illustrates this. 2005 - NSW Govt announces $20 mill for sports facilities - break down $15 million for AFL/Cricket and $5 million for soccer. 2008 - Establishment of GWS Giants announced. That's a 3 year gap - the GWS Giants never were a part let alone a key part of the original announcement. They got intertwined as time progressed. The announcement from “NSW Planning” quoted then AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou “AFL/Blacktown Council community partnership, will host the AFL’s multicultural program, school and community activities”. The venue STILL carries out this function. What muddied the issue was the Daily Telegraph coverage whereby they claimed the claiming the Council had “siphoned almost all of a $20 million taxpayer fund for sports facilities”. Where clearly that $20 million fund got used for exactly the purpose it was made available. The DT was actually bemoaning that the council hadn't actually siphoned the fund for RL venues instead of sticking to the agreement!!! The $27 mill spent on the venue was the $15mill from state govt, plus BlacktownCC $6.75 mill and $2.875 mill from each of Cricket NSW and the AFL. The involvement of Cricket NSW is conveniently ignored by all the anti-AFL claptrap. Oddly enough it was only an issue of concern in 2008 when the GWS Giants hit the drawing board - the DT hadn't kicked up a stink in the almost 3 years since the initial announcement. Strange that. The other irony was it allowed Roy Masters to refer to the DT lies by writing - "According to reports in July 2008, Blacktown council siphoned off its taxpayer-provided sports budget for the facility". So - please keep your criticism of the Blacktown venue within it's correct context rather than the distorted ones. Yes - subsequent to that the GWS early admin and the BCC dared to dream of an expansion of the facilities and hosting full blown AFL venues and being a long term training venue (despite that it never could be - as a shared Cricket/footy venue).

How can I be "homophobic" when I expressly stated "We all celebrated with them (people from your demographic)"? As they say on Oxford Street: Wear the hot-pants & singlets with flamboyance & pride.

#the Wookie It is astounding the pre-conceived ideas some soccer folk seem to have. One recalls the mistruths that soccer journalists pushed back in the 2009 WC bid 'campaign' that the round ball folk ran. There was absolute garbage pushed about stadiums. It doesn't help. What we see here is that even when handed the facts from primary sources - if it doesn't fit the desired narrative then the #Nemesis/#Post Hocs of the world simply choose to ignore.