South Melbourne slam Western United for Lakeside Stadium plans

The AFL doesn't own Western Oval. The council owns it, so they would get the rent money. That's like saying we hate to have soccer at AAMI park because NRL collects the rent. Ridiculous.

I live in the same neighbourhood of Albert Park and to be honest Hellas could quite easily play their matches in the adjoining parkland. They don't have that many supporters to require a stadium.

Latest word from South Melbourne is that there is virtually zero chance of WU playing any games at Lakeside. WU has stated that they were not aware of South Melbourne's right to veto who plays there. But: - they must have known South Melbourne has a 40 year lease over the stadium? No one pondered at any point that that's a long term lease that most likely came with some control over the stadium (as long term leases often do) - and it would it not have helped to broach the idea with them first before announcing it publicly and actually getting it into the fixture? There is a lot about this that appears, well, like pretty ordinary behaviour. Par for course? In the same public statement, WU has not been able to provide a timeline in relation to the stadium build. Not even a vague: should be ready in 2 or 3 years, or she'll be right mate. No info. Didn't even take the opportunity to at least confirm a haulage road is getting built!

Considering WU mocked them and lakeside stadium when they were awarded the license, i'd say they went light on them.

whether it's Australian to have foreign owners? Pretty much most things Australian have been foreign owned long before Australia was federated, and that's still the case. What are they on about?

Southern Expansion just because they had Craig Foster on the payroll its credible, its the most bizzare A-league bid of all time. There is hardly any spare land in that region of Sydney. What about their agreement with Sutherland Council an all time classic to build a stadium on Loftus Tafe and the NSW government not being told about it and no chance of them agreeing to it in a million years. I would assume they probably wanted to put it on the ovals on the other side of the road but the council refused . They had an agreement which was non binding, the council commited to not paying a cent for anything, and even said subject to resident approval, . Compare this to the melbourne bids where councils are giving away land or putting money in. The biggest mystery of all if they cant even find a spare plot of land to build the stadium in that region, where is the land for the big housing development they were talking about. All the spare land is national park or military base unless its next to Lucas Heights reactor. To me it seems a case of someone taking advantage of some CHinese developers and stringing them along with the promise of council land for development if they put a football team and stadium in the area,

I don’t have strong views on SM’s A League credentials. Personally I think Team 11 would’ve been the best choice for Melbourne. But SM are right to be upset. During the selection process for the new team. - WU mocked Lakeside as an unsuitable A League venue, and said it was too close to the other Melbourne teams. - WU get the nod over teams like SM because they claim to represent Western Melbourne and claimed they will have a stadium of their own. Now fast forward a few years and WU has made zero progress on the promised stadium. And now they have a plan to use the inadequate stadium of a rival bid despite it being nowhere near their geographic home. SM should rightly kick up a stink. I do have sympathy for the argument however that it is a publicly owned venue and SM shouldn’t dictate which revenue streams are available to the public purse. Other than that, I am all with SM on this one.

Councils want the stadiums/pitches operating in summer and winter. But yes it is done in a salty way to go play in the stadium of the team you beat to get the license.

I guess if what you, and others, are saying is correct, that WU need only talk to the stadium authority, and that South Melbourne has zero say in it, this would not be the story it has become. We do know that South Melbourne has a 40 year lease on the stadium. I would have thought that counts for a lot. You'd think the lease would not just be limited to the game days of the NPL season, inevitably, it would go longer than that, at a minimum, to incorporate pre-season training. Given how quickly the original public statement from WU was deleted, there must be a bit more to this story. The Stadium Authority has not been in a hurry to come out and back WU's claims on the stadium.

Roberto, I have no sympathy for WU, and they certainly deserve all the criticism in the world. You're correct though: none of this has anything to do with South Melbourne, as at the end of the day, they are just tenants of a public stadium. So not sure why WU has to negotiate with them when it's literally during SM's off season anyhow???

SFC didn't want Southern Expansion, so same dynamics at play, very similar to MV and MC not wanting Team 11 or South Melbourne. That was really at the heart of how both franchises were chosen. Everything else is noise.

Why? WU was chosen for the 3rd Melbourne franchise ahead of South Melbourne, at least in part, because they were building a stadium in the far, far West. All of a sudden, at a time when they gave assurances the stadium would be completed, they want to play at the home ground of the club (a real club) they beat for that 3rd franchise, which is located nowhere near the West. So none of this has anything to do with South Melbourne, nor should anyone be expecting South Melbourne to somehow offer aid to WU. If that wasn't enough, WU made a public announcement without even talking to South Melbourne, the ones who actually hold the 40 year lease over Lakeside. This is WU's mess, they appear to have won the 3rd franchise on a false premise, and they need to resolve it themselves.

In the case of the 3 Melbourne Bids Western offered the most money and Team 11 could not get funding it needed for a Stadium Canberra was never going to get picked because Fox wanted derbys Southern Expansion was far to broad in what it wanted to be leaving Marcathur as the only Sydney Bid left so it won

If they intentionally try to sabotage a deal to have a tenant in over the summer (when they’re not using said facility) just because of their personal agenda, then yes…they SHOULD be blamed!

That be as it may, nothing in your post explains why South Melbourne should be blamed for any part of this sorry state of affairs.

You mean the npl club that rents the stadium during the winter season? If you have dealt with any councils for football, most of the time you don't have access to the club rooms or pitches for pre season if it's shared with other codes or clubs. Don't see this as any different.

One thing is for sure, blame cannot be placed on South Melbourne for any aspect of this.

In the case of Macarthur, they were at the lower end of fees offered. So it may not be correct to say that it was entirely decided on the basis of the franchise fee offered. Certainly, the public statements were not about how great the franchise fee was. We later learned of MV and MC's lobbying in relation to Team 11 and South Melboune, upon which it became apparent as to why WU was selected. Looking back, it's incredible that anyone would think that a club located mid way between Geelong and the outer Western fringes of Melbourne was a good idea. But from MV and MC's perspective - it was a fantastic idea!

This entire situation is bizarre. A western orientated team wanting to play in a southern orientated stadium with an npl team that thinks they are an a league team already playing there. Who is right or wrong, probably everyone.

Except at the time the Clubs had no say and it was upto the FA, Western United offered the most for a License fee and thus they were picked end of