Why Kogarah is perfect for the A-League

I’d like to see the white elephant that is QSAC re-developed into a 20 to 25,000 seat stadium. You could easily keep the main grandstand and knock down the others which are basically like temporary scaffold stands anyway. Just a few smaller stands to configure it into a rectangle shape would be great and it would go nicely next to the new state netball center that’s just been built on the same site. It’s fairly close to the Roar's Logan training base yet still in Brisbane, public transport could be an issue but they managed to get 60 odd thousand into the ground back in the day when the Broncos played there.

Agreed, I’m not doubting you could make the costings work, I’m just unsure of who would want to foot the bill. Especially as the Government is spending far too much on another very controversial stadium, so they’re out, I really don’t think the Council have the money, the Dragons don’t want a bar of the place even though their club is across the road and Sydney FC would Isolate a lot of their Northern supporters. There may be some mysterious investor out there but it would be difficult to turn it into returns.

Unless we have the inputs - in particular "cost per seat" - to create basic stands as I've described, it's impossible to say "but I can’t see anyone making money". There is always a solution if you want something badly enough.

True but I can’t see anyone making money (serious money I mean) off that ground at present, it’s in a weird location, trains seldom stop at Carlton and parking can be tricky as it’s on the highway. The new SFS combined with the train will be a revelation- a far too large overpriced revelation nonetheless - and that’s where FC will see their long term future.

Who would pay? Any investor/property developer who can work the numbers to make the development financially positive. Same as any redevelopment project. Investment ideas that might be beyond your, or my, wildest dreams will be undertaken if there's money to be made.

No I have not as I said pure speculation. Who do you think would pay to further develop Jubilee though?

Have you crunched some numbers, Jimmy? I've crunched numbers & it works fine. But, I need proper data on "cost per seat" for a simple stadium. No bells & whistles. Just 1 tier, the height of a 2 story house. Capacity would be 8-15k. Something we'd see in 2nd tier or below in England.

I can’t see great return on that investment, although I am just speculating

Why? For the same reason a business invests in anything. They do it if it makes business sense. If the return on the investment exceeds the Cost of Capital.

I don’t understand the Brisbane Roar obsession with Redcliffe either? It’s barely Brisbane and it’s tiny, it’s a Q-Cup venue. Suncorp is awesome and it’s in Brisbane, the team should focus on getting more people through the gates in Brisbane and play no more than a handful of games at Redcliffe.

I don’t think the Council have the desire or the resources to redevelop the stadium, and the NSW Government already spent about 13Million in 2010 so can’t see them paying more money again to develop a stadium they don’t technically own.

I agree, and why would FC pay to redevelop a stadium that is owned by Georges River Council?

This is where it's a no brainer for clubs to properly financially invest in the women's game as it can bring a new audience and thus extra revenue streams making it more financially viable to build their own stadium. Plus running expenses are lowered as this is currently a significant cost impost on clubs. For example it costs Perth Glory $100,000 to hire HBF Park for three hours. So that is an initial outlay of minimum $1.3 million just on ground hire this season (based on 13 home games in the a-league and excludes any finals, FFA Cup or Champions league matches). Then there's the ability to control catering rights etc. plus add in the revenue they could gain by having the odd major concert etc. there. In addition it's an asset which although would lose some value over time it's still going to be worth a significant sum. Building separate stands would help in terms of maintenance and also means more scope to redevelop in the future as you can redevelop one stand at a time. Yes building is expensive but there are so many different options available to raise funds these days. All i'm saying it if clubs truly want to own their own grounds there are ways and means available it just takes a bit of imagination.

Government stadia are vanity projects for politicians and thus a media soundbite of "We're spending $50 million to build a brand new stadium" plays better than "We're going to spend $10 million to give the stadium a basic upgrade". The first option means they can have their photo taken in hard hats and high vis vests before they get bored and move on to the next announcement. Projects always overrun as it suits the company building it as they're spending someone else's money and they know in any standoff over costs government will blink first, and it suits the unions as sadly the workforce is usually made up of contractors so naturally it's in their interests to keep the project going as long as possible.

Is there no centralish Brisbane stadium that could hold only 12,000 or less. What about the rugby union ground Ballymore, or is that too run down?

bahahaha

AFL has 18 sides, regularly gets 60k+ crowds. It's 4th best attended league on the planet.

Personally, Dolphins is not suitable because it's not in Brisbane.

Commercially the new SFS will make more sense for FC to play at, the Government will be determined to make it work so I think that the rent will probably be more competitive than Jubilee and also corporate partners love new modern stadiums and the fact it’s closer to the City should mean more crowds. The chances of a redevelopment of Jubilee is very small considering the Government want to spend huge sums building mega stadiums to compete with Melbourne for events.

So...kind of like most of the A-League clubs then?