There has been too much encroachment on Royal Park.
There were protests about a soccer club being established on public park land around Footscray. Once a sports body sets up, public access is eroded.
Part of the Tulla financing deal was to have Paras co located and with access to the Hangar.
Inner Melbourne metro is already crowded, public parks contribute to the environmental conditions of those living there and relate to climate change.
Need to go further out with decent PT links. Current Metro PT rail links E-W could provide more options.
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I guess it comes to a question of where. A stadium really needs to be close to the CBD although if PT is good there can be wriggle room to move slightly further out. Doesn’t need to be a huge venue but ideally somewhere for the AFLW and smaller drawing AFL fixtures. It’s probably not going to happen for a long time though so will be interesting to see what happens with the AFLW in particular
What about the Showgrounds? If I remember correctly it was one of the sites EFC looked at for ‘The Hangar’ before they decided on Tullamarine.
I don’t think close to CBD is the way to go.
I used to be because that’s all we know how to do it here in Australia.
Visiting Italian, Spain and French cities, they push their sports stadiums well outside what we’d consider their CBD. Even the USA cities do it.
Land value is too valuable in the CBD and has better ‘yield’ as another use other than a sports facility.
Showgrounds was a good plan, but would have cost much more than the Hangar which was a bargain.
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and rightly so
nothing makes a cricket or winter sport club cry harder, longer and louder than the words “shared facility”
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Melbourne metro is a mega city, several centres, no longer defined as straggling along the Yarra and its tributaries , City of Melbourne is but one of several metro cities.
Your point being?
CBD is still CBD though.
There aren’t many mega cities with a 50k+ sporting stadium on the outskirts of the CBD.
They push them further out.
And have far better PT to and from them.
I meant as a potential site for a future stadium 
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There is no room in the CBD, PT going through there is crowded at weekends irrespective of events.
There is no justification to put any more sports facilities in the CBD, which, incidentally, does not have a decent population.
As it is, there is scrambling to get some open spaces for the high density populations in inner Melbourne.
Hub and spokes urban design is outmoded in the sprawl of Greater Melbourne.
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Not sure it does.
9 Melb teams = ~5 games in Melb a weekend.
Fri night, Sat, Sat night, Sunday x 2 venues = 8 possible slots for a game.
Works just nicely.
I don’t think it’s worth spending $1-2 billion to save however much money Norf etc lose by clanking around in an 80% empty stadium. They’re never going to make much inroads in Melbourne. Smart move would be shift them to Bendigo/Ballarat.
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Where to for the AFLW unless they change their season?
Dictator Dan’s Commonwealth Games regional plans.
Edinburgh Gardens post Fitzroy FC is a fabulous asset for different community sports without any one sport dominating,
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2-3k crowds - VFL grounds can seat that.
Docklands for finals (if in Melb).
Yes if the Dogs or Roos are smart they’ll be doing everything they can to strengthen ties and get some $$$ kicked in for their respective Ballarat/Bendigo sites.
Does anyone know if the cricket club have found another location?
I don’t believe so. At the time when we initially wanted to redevelop Windy Hill as our training base, albeit unsuccessfully, the proposal was to shift the cricket club to Cross Keys. Essendon’s 3rd/4th XIs play their home games at Cross Keys on the main oval there, and the 2nd oval further away from the pavilion is used by Strathmore CC’s lower grades. I don’t know whether that would be on the agenda now. Essendon Royals SC are wanting to take over that facility, so that could become even more problematic down the track.
ECC have said that if they were to leave Windy Hill they want a facility where they have 2 grounds in the one precinct. There’s precious few sites in the Essendon area that could facilitate this. Aberfeldie Park is one, but my former club Moonee Ponds CC (previously knows as Aberfeldie Park CC) are a long time tenant there. Whether Moonee Valley Council kicked them off Aberfeldie Park and shifted ECC there who knows. There is already a recently built pavilion there on the western ground that Essendon-Maribyrnong Park Cricket Club use. They are a female club, and there is talk that they could align with Essendon CC and form one club and have their female program under the ECC banner, so it could happen. Otherwise perhaps you could develop a facility out at Fairbairn Park. There’s certainly enough grounds there, not sure they are all permanently tenanted but you might be able to get 2 of those grounds close together and build an elite facility there…
There is a new building at Fairbairn Park…
Show me the money!
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