Team in Tasmania

[enf]

Hey Al, Tiny, others here....what's your take on this? How the f*ck can they afford it given their population?

I hear there will be heaps of taxpayer money involved including a lavish new stadium funded by the public.

Just curious....

[Rick]

I'm absolutely against, both a AFL team and the stadium, this will be a severe burden on taxpayers and will send Tasmania broke, the criminal gang our government, need to listen to the people and fix our housing crisis and failing health system! we should sack the lot of them

[lsemmens]

Whilst I know nothing of the ins and outs of financing such extravagances. I wonder if there will be corporate sponsors involved and what the return on investment will be. Given that there will be games played in this new stadium, I'm guessing that there will be a lot of people visiting from the mainland and, hopefully using it as an excuse to explore the rest of Taswegia whilst down there. The flow on benefits might be good for the Tasmanian economy over all. Time will tell.

[shred]

The level of insanity is just incredible.

Tasmania already has two perfectly good stadiums, each capable of seating almost as many spectators as the new one being proposed. Both Bellerive and York Park have already hosted finals matches and there is nothing wrong with them. If you were going to build a bigger stadium, you'd do it in Launceston, since York Park consistently attracts significantly larger crowds for the football than Bellerive. It was noted that more people attended a protest rally against the stadium on Saturday the 13th than attended the AFL match that was held on the same weekend.

The proposed site has poor transport access - anyone attending will have to park in the city centre and cross the very busy and dangerous Davey St to get to and from the stadium. Tasmania has no light rail - only a second-rate bus service (currently around 70 bus services a day are cancelled without notice), so forget public transport. There is currently a sewage works on the site, which will cost $140 million to relocate. Nobody wants to talk about who will pay to move it. The site is next door to the Cenotaph, the location of which was chosen for its panoramic view out over the water - much of that will be obliterated. The RSL have made their objections clear, with 80% of their members voting to oppose the stadium location.

As others have said - we just can't afford it. There aren't enough tradies here, so workers will come in from the Mainland and a significant portion of their wages will go back home. After it has been built, I can only see economic negatives - it'll cost millions each year. Almost all the football matches will be ones that would have otherwise been played at Bellerive or York Park, so you're just moving the economic benefit from one site within the state to another. The cricket people have already stated that the proposed design is not suitable for cricket. WTF!? Speaking of the economics: there are penalty clauses if it's not ready on time. How many private enterprises get the taxpayer to pay for nearly all the cost of the construction of their new building, factory, mill / whatever, then can claim compensation if it is not ready on time AND get to pocket most of the profit flowing from it???

Spending money on public housing or health isn't sexy and isn't a big ticket "look at what I did!" thing for politicians at election time, but those should be the priority. We had to call an ambulance at my workplace about two months ago. We called 000 and were told "they're ramping". One hour and quarter (75 minutes!) later, a single paramedic arrived by car. She immediately called the dispatcher, saying that she needed and ambulance now, because... well... it actually was an emergency and that's why we called 000. Duh. Someone could easily have died that day. Ambulance ramping here is just normal - this time last year, I was going to the hospital regularly and there were usually seven ambulances (in other words: nearly every one in Launceston) parked at the LGH. That's just crazy. We have a huge homeless problem, but that's a whole subject of its own. I really don't get it: does Gillon McLachlan have a filing cabinet full of Liberal politicians in compromising positions or something?

[Al Bundy]

I'm absolutely against, both a AFL team and the stadium, this will be a severe burden on taxpayers and will send Tasmania broke, the criminal gang our government, need to listen to the people and fix our housing crisis and failing health system! we should sack the lot of them

Exactly what Rick said, an AFL team in Tasmania should be the lowest of priorities for both State and Federal Governments, in fact governments should have absolutely nothing to do with sporting teams.

If a state can’t support a national sporting team in place without governmental financing then they shouldn’t have one at all, this is a theme that has been played out over and over in Tassie already, Launceston Casino City and Hobart Devils in the NBL are prime examples, and whilst on basketball maybe should run a sweep on how long before the JackJumpers fold for the same reasons, the Tasmanian sporting public only has a small attention span before attendances start dropping off.
We just don’t have the population to keep it sustainable, and meanwhile our health system is crumbling, our education system is coming under more and more stress and therefore the poor teachers within it, and most of all housing has completely gone to shit.
The state liberals and federal Labor both need hanging for even thinking of spending the money they are talking about on a f#@king useless sporting stadium rather than the fore mentioned issues in Tassie. They are an absolute joke.

[enf]

Exactly what Rick said, an AFL team in Tasmania should be the lowest of priorities for both State and Federal Governments, in fact governments should have absolutely nothing to do with sporting teams.

If a state can’t support a national sporting team in place without governmental financing then they shouldn’t have one at all, this is a theme that has been played out over and over in Tassie already, Launceston Casino City and Hobart Devils in the NBL are prime examples, and whilst on basketball maybe should run a sweep on how long before the JackJumpers fold for the same reasons, the Tasmanian sporting public only has a small attention span before attendances start dropping off.
We just don’t have the population to keep it sustainable, and meanwhile our health system is crumbling, our education system is coming under more and more stress and therefore the poor teachers within it, and most of all housing has completely gone to shit.
The state liberals and federal Labor both need hanging for even thinking of spending the money they are talking about on a f#@king useless sporting stadium rather than the fore mentioned issues in Tassie. They are an absolute joke.

This sort of thing is happening everywhere. A few years back they even tried to suggest an AFL team here. Eventually common sense prevailed. The ACT population is less than Tasmania, but not a lot. We've always had large crowds at AFL games, but only because they are infrequent. I ceased to go because my chest couldn't handle the cold...

This is a standard diversion unfortunately. Big unaffordable projects announced when the relevant state government is exposed as incompetent or corrupt. Most recently in Qld. Unfortunately it usually works. We're a pretty gullible lot.

[lsemmens]

Thanks for the info Shred and Al. An upgrade of Bellerive sounds like it would have been a better waste of public money. Us mainlanders get very little info on Tasmanian politics (well, anything), so we can only rely on you lot to fill in the blanks. Ramping and public housing seems to be common issue but that is a topic for another thread.

[enf]

It's not the initial money really...as big a waste as it is, it's a pittance that won't fix ANY housing crisis. Concentrating the whole thing around Hobart is another odd move. It's just going to piss off those in the North of the state.

It's the ongoing maintenance when the crowds drop off and people get sick of travelling fom Launceston way. AFL teams are frightfully expensive....and even large crowds alone can never cover the expenses. As an Australian football state, Tasmanians also have long standing AFL loyalties....they aren't just going to be thrown out the window.

My brother in Perth has been a Carlton supporter all his life, THAT didn't change when WC and Freo came along. As far as he is concerned, those two just devestated attendence at local football and turned it into a sideshow. As it is there are probably what? 2 generations? maybe who have never attended a WAFL match.

[shred]

Utopia foresaw this about ten years ago:

[enf]

Utopia foresaw this about ten years ago:

I've lived and worked in Canberra for a long time. In and out of the public service. Met quite a few pollies, both state and local.

That skit is exactly what happens....some of the time the politicians haven't a hope in hell against the bureaucrats. Some of the time the bureaucrats haven't a hope in hell against the politicians....minds made up are minds made up.

[enf]

OK....has anyone seen the new guernsey? The best description I have heard is "like an Aldi version of a VB can...."

[wotnot]

..juice media recently touched on this..... cool & normal, in the land of shit####ery... =)

[Rick]

Personally I think ive nailed it

[shred]

"like an Aldi version of a VB can...."

It’s a pathetic design - it looks like something out of the 1970s. Someone was probably paid a six figure sum to come up with that logo… surely they could have done better.

[lsemmens]

Good thing I don't like VB! Maybe it's a joke on the Tasmanians by the VFL.