That’s the Windy Hill redevelopment. No mention of not a 50m redevelopment of the hanger.
It’s just such an ordinary spot.
Not sure how it will ever be any better than it currently is without massive investment.
Not missed the thread title, but what is a fifty dollar metre?
“Essendon fan? Give to the Massive Flight Plan”.
How is the club progressing with the seating around the oval at the Hangar?
Your shots go almost good and you dont know why
Month out from Premier Cricket season starting, and still no resolution on the dispute.
Ironically, our current good form might give the AFL an accidental good way out.
When us and North meet in Round 7 (Grand Final Eve), we both could be 6-0. The AFL might move the game to Marvel Stadium “due to popular demand” (while in the background conceeding to cricket) and save face.
Well, the Round 1 second XI match got moved from Windy Hill to Beaumarius.
Anybody walked passed Windy in the last day or so and seen them preparing a cricket pitch or not, as they still have the second XI schedule to play there from October 11th.
EDIT: Saw a comment from ECC on one of their posts which says they can’t prepare a pitch until the last AFLW game on Windy Hill has been played on it. So, EFC have won this battle for now.
I was at WH yesterday and it was still in full football mode.
Where in Beaumaris? If it’s at Donald McDonald reserve I live close to that might have a look
Still no lights ![]()
The first 4 points would be partially AFL funded.
The fifth would be solely funded by us.
The last point would be partially government funded. Maybe the RMIT partnership classrooms are going over there.
Pretty clear the previous administration were prioritising a development that wasn’t sustainable. Current administration is trying to balance it out without laying out too much of our own capital.
Feels like that with each update the redevelopment is scaled back further. It feels like pretty cosmetic changes rather than anything earth shattering. Probably sensible given crowds at AFLW matches continue to be flat with some doubt around the scope of the competitions growth in the shirt / medium term meaning any investment needs to be measured in relative terms.
Yep. I suspect they’re unconvinced about the commercial growth capability of the site broadly. The AFLW’s lack of growth as a league would be of concern too in terms of where it ultimately gets to and its sustainability.
It is a terrible place.
If it weren’t for the history, we’d want to bulldoze it and do something else with it.
Otherwise it’s just there to make people feel good and remember the good old days. Whilst being money drain.
And no, our training facilities at The Hanger cannot fit into Windy Hill unless you make significant changes to the grandstand (or dig underground). There just isn’t enough office space for all the functions. We used to warm up on a space that was around the size of a basketball court but not even that height. It’s just not fit for purpose.
AFLW isn’t a massive revenue winner. It’s being held up by the mens comp. And to be fair, that should be expected. Most other women’s comps around the world are having similar problems and they started well before ours did. They just aren’t self sustainable and pay disparity between mens and women’s (not just players, but support staff) is really difficult for a club to work its way through.
I do think there is a lot of growth in AFLW. But the big problem is that it clashes too much with the AFL season and the scheduling needs to be smarter. You should have a game at Windy Hill in the morning, hop on the train and get to the mens games in time for the bounce. You could even do the exact same fixture so that both teams fans can attend (obviously, you have to ignore that an AFLW team will have a terrible draw). It’ll cost the club the same as it does right now as they have two different support groups for both functions (moving massage tables, equipment, footy’s, etc).
VFL and VFLW are tougher to try and schedule in. But it could easily be one day on the weekend is AFLW and AFL. The next day is VFLW and VFL.
I doubt it works well (from a money perspective) if you go VFL into AFL and VFLW into AFLW.
But it’s easier said than done. There are still broadcasting issues in the way.
I’m not familiar with the VFL and VFLW programs but do they play double headers or anything like that?
I know over here we play a lot of triple headers at the one ground and they rotate the time slots around so for example one week say Norwood v Eagles
SANFLW 1150
Reserves 1400
League 1640
then the next it might be
Norwood v West
Reserves 1030
League 1310
SANFLW 1600
The idea was not only do fans get 3 games and can make it a cheap day out but it also allows clubs to set up their medical teams and other staff plus broadcasters for the whole day and it has saved clubs money and volunteers
They generally do.
For a club, that means the same group (trainers & support staff outside of coaching) can be shared.
The thing is, VFLW is free entry and VFL is a token cost entry (I think it was $5, maybe $10).
The rest of what you say can work. But getting attendance to pay for each game is where it’s screwed. The one ticket will cover the cost of all three games. And in a game like Collingwood v Carlton, you have a sold out AFL game with probably 5% (that’s generous) going to the game before that and virtually 1% going to the earlier one. If you move them to other ground, you’ll still get a sold out AFL game and probably pick up a better attendance to the other games. But of course, there are greater costs involved.
There’s also the issue as to whether of whether the ground can withstand being played on. I think the idea is that once Punt Road is developed, it will field an AFLW game right before a big game at the MCG and you can still split revenues from both games.
Money wise, as far as ensuring that each comp sustains itself, it’s better off to have separately paid attendance, broadcasting rights, etc. Until that’s done, then the mens programs are always holding up the rest of the competitions.
I understand in almost every comp around the world, broadcast is a whole package (both mens and women’s) which I expect us to follow. But the actual revenue should be able to be split. That way the comp can grow as per demand.
You may be able to do a VFLW into VFL into AFLW game. But AFLW just isn’t big enough to carry the other two comps. Maybe eventually it can carry it, but we’re talking about an 8 year old competition.
I think it works better if AFLW comes off the back of AFL. I don’t think there’s much interest in attending VFL games then going to AFL games afterwards. VFL is largely ignored and has never really gotten back to the level it was at in the 1990s.
I think it’ll be sorted eventually. They are still trying to slowly bring the AFLW comp more into line with the AFL comp. It’s pretty ■■■■■■ to be playing an AFLW comp and having no other football comps running for when injuries occur. The seconds comp for AFLW is a joke as all AFLW players who aren’t selected just get together and play a game at a ground somewhere near Melbourne (think that’s Footscray).
A minority of our VFL and VFLW matches are double-headers. Most venues don’t have four change rooms so the time gap between them can be awkward.
EFC hasn’t charged for VFL entrance for many years – generally speaking, the stand-alone clubs are the ones that do so. If the VFLW game is before the VFL game (both orders occur), it’s free entry until halftime.

