baseless speculation: future stadium expansion

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

i'm not at all sure it would stand up, but hey...

i added a second tier on the northern end (long and low, like a home end ought to be) and a third tier on both sides over the boxes, with rooves coming right to the line of the fence. on the southern end i've used the available 10m to put in a short half-tier for away supporters.





some sort of arrangement of vertical struts and guy cables would be needed to hold the screen together.

dropping a big sheet to project onto at night games would work, plus for the piece de resistance you could arrange for a stage over the southern terrace to hold concerts etc - multi-use venue ahoy!

building a full fourth stand wouldn't work though - arranging for sufficient clearance over the road would be very difficult as there's only about 10m back from the southern fence to the perimeter.

whaddayas reckon?

and engineers - i already know it probably can't stand up by itself, particularly the southern screen and the northern stand would take some serious support...

could put club offices in there though. anyhoo, just throwing it out there cos i did it last week when i was bored.

if anyone else wants to play with Google Sketchup, they can muck around with it after downloading it here.

i'd upload that model for peeps to play with, but i can't from down here (am in circle city this week).

[marinermick]

what would you envisage capacity be?

would only happen or be needed if we host a world cup

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

what would you envisage capacity be?

would only happen or be needed if we host a world cup

hmmm...

essentially add two clones of the existing upper tiers, that'd be in the order of 7500 more seats. so ~27500.

then add about 30 more rows to the northern end, and you're looking at another 4000 i think, so 31500.

plus another 10 rows at the southern end, so that's say... 1350. about 32850 would be my guess. too small for a world cup.

if you were being really ambitious, you'd make the southern end and the lower tier of the northern end into convertible terraces, so the northern end would hold about 4000 and the southern end about 2000 - capacity boost of 2000 or so, so about 34850.

you'd increase capacity for corporates though (better for club $$$), and the drip line of the rooves comes to the fence line, so weather poses less of a problem and attendances should remain high whatever's doing in the sky.

it'd fit in the available parcel of land as well. and because of the rooves and the southern screen, you'd have more noise staying in the ground and less radiating out (good for atmosphere, good for minimising noise pollution).

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

what would you envisage capacity be?

would only happen or be needed if we host a world cup

i reckon getting an NRL franchise would go close to sealing it - *if* both clubs did well crowd wise. the thing is that both clubs would have to promote the other, and get the parochial sort of 'good coasties support the coast team' kinda feel going.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

dibo said:

marinermick said:

what would you envisage capacity be?

would only happen or be needed if we host a world cup

hmmm...

essentially add two clones of the existing upper tiers, that'd be in the order of 7500 more seats. so ~27500.

then add about 30 more rows to the northern end, and you're looking at another 4000 i think, so 31500.

plus another 10 rows at the southern end, so that's say... 1350. about 32850 would be my guess. too small for a world cup.

if you were being really ambitious, you'd make the southern end and the lower tier of the northern end into convertible terraces, so the northern end would hold about 4000 and the southern end about 2000 - capacity boost of 2000 or so, so about 34850.

you'd increase capacity for corporates though (better for club $$$), and the drip line of the rooves comes to the fence line, so weather poses less of a problem and attendances should remain high whatever's doing in the sky.

it'd fit in the available parcel of land as well. and because of the rooves and the southern screen, you'd have more noise staying in the ground and less radiating out (good for atmosphere, good for minimising noise pollution).

forgot as well - you'd add 10m to the side stands in building down to the fence - rough guess would be that that would be worth another 2000 seats. so non-terraced ends would be about 35000, terraced about 37000.

[dru]

Just pick up the razzle dazzle stands from pluim for the away end, bring in something more substantial for Sydney games. ;D

[Andy]

That would be awesome if that happened. I doubt it though.

[Andy]

dibo said:

marinermick said:

what would you envisage capacity be?

would only happen or be needed if we host a world cup

i reckon getting an NRL franchise would go close to sealing it - *if* both clubs did well crowd wise. the thing is that both clubs would have to promote the other, and get the parochial sort of 'good coasties support the coast team' kinda feel going.

I have little doubt that an NRL team would have low crowds. you only have to look back to the recent games that have been at Bluetongue.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

andyj said:

dibo said:

i reckon getting an NRL franchise would go close to sealing it - *if* both clubs did well crowd wise. the thing is that both clubs would have to promote the other, and get the parochial sort of 'good coasties support the coast team' kinda feel going.

I have little doubt that an NRL team would have low crowds. you only have to look back to the recent games that have been at Bluetongue.

you reckon? official regular season crowds this year have been:
18,231 for rabbits vs knights and
19,111 for tigers vs storm

austadiums puts the NRL average crowds since 2003 at 15487 - even if this is 'bumped' a little, it's still a fir bit bigger than our averages.

i'm a football man first and foremost, my loyalty is with the mariners most of all, but i'm not going to pretend that the nrl would fail to get biggish crowds in gosford with a central coast team.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

andyj said:

That would be awesome if that happened. I doubt it though.

that's why i titled the thread 'baseless speculation...' ;D ;D ;D

[omni]

I think you're pretty optimistic with the ammount of room on the southern end. Sure it's bigger but where's the heart? Where's the palm trees? Where's the water views? I say we just expand up, but it'll probably never happen.

[~Floss~]

so the southern end is an away terrace?
If so, it doesn' tneed a roof - preserves the view

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

omni said:

I think you're pretty optimistic with the ammount of room on the southern end. Sure it's bigger but where's the heart? Where's the palm trees? Where's the water views? I say we just expand up, but it'll probably never happen.

there's 10m there. don't need any more than that. and quite frankly the palm trees are nothing special at all. distinctive, sure, but better than having an away end? better than having something to stop all the noise just wafting out over brisbane water and keep it in the ground?

besides, the screen is perspex/glass/some other transparent material

[gialloblu]

Given that this thread has gone beyond anything that could possibly be financially feasible/justifiable , you could do something like build a new stand over the railway, similar to how Atletico Madrid's ground has a stand built over a freeway:

[Nah.]

omni said:

I think you're pretty optimistic with the ammount of room on the southern end. Sure it's bigger but where's the heart? Where's the palm trees? Where's the water views? I say we just expand up, but it'll probably never happen.

Indeed, hasnt the stadium been described as having some of the best views from a stadium or something of the like?
i should have worded that better.
Sorry if it's already been asked, but how much do you reckon this would cost? ha ha

[omni]

gialloblu said:

Given that this thread has gone beyond anything that could possibly be financially feasible/justifiable , you could do something like build a new stand over the railway, similar to how Atletico Madrid's ground has a stand built over a freeway:

Start with a stand floating in water!

[shelleybeach]

i'd extend and raise north end, maybe build some flats or a hotel to the western side between the stadium and the railway to generate some funds.

i don't think the southern end should be touched though. those views are unique and most of the new stadiums built today seem to be very similar, the Madrid example above excepted. away fans could be given bays down one end of either side. the new stadium in Braga, Portugal is an example of another unique ground - it is cut into cliffs and is not fully enclosed on all sides.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

gialloblu said:

Given that this thread has gone beyond anything that could possibly be financially feasible/justifiable , you could do something like build a new stand over the railway, similar to how Atletico Madrid's ground has a stand built over a freeway:

I find your views fascinating, and want to subscribe to your newsletter.

You could build over the railway line, if Railcorp were bought off…

shelleybeach said:

i don't think the southern end should be touched though. those views are unique and most of the new stadiums built today seem to be very similar, the Madrid example above excepted. away fans could be given bays down one end of either side. the new stadium in Braga, Portugal is an example of another unique ground - it is cut into cliffs and is not fully enclosed on all sides.

thegreenpea said:

Indeed, hasnt the stadium been described as having some of the best views from a stadium or something of the like?
i should have worded that better.
Sorry if it's already been asked, but how much do you reckon this would cost? ha ha

Not a clue on cost, but as for the water views – I’m never looking at the water from the ground, maybe the reverse is more the case – from the water (and the south generally) you can see into the stadium… I don’t think it’s that special quite frankly, and would rather have something to keep the noise in and build the atmosphere.

shelleybeach said:

i'd extend and raise north end, maybe build some flats or a hotel to the western side between the stadium and the railway to generate some funds.

The northern end where the bowling club is would be more the target for that – there’s more space. But you could maybe do a pretty full on wraparound development taking in the northern and western flanks of the site, and the apartments/offices/whatever could certainly subsidise the construction of the stadium.

Maybe have the sporting dept on the western side nearest the railway (and also press boxes, primary camera positions and corporate boxes and so on) while having the more commercially focussed development on the northern end. Linking up with the leagues club to optimise the use of their site in tandem could create some useful synergies between the two.

[marinermick]

you would have to relocate the bowling club

all sorts of politics involved in that one

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

you would have to relocate the bowling club

all sorts of politics involved in that one

sure would. and sure are. but money talks and shit walks.








...by which i mean to say we could create all sorts of attractive opportunities for the bowling club that might make the deal far more attractive, while still maintaining the financial viability of the project. [/spin mode]

what it could be worth to the club and to the stadium down the track could outweigh the cost of buying off the bowlers.