Australian Rugby Development Centre

[Ash]

I don't know how the TG Millner development will go, but Ballymore had/has issues with NIMBY residents who were/are very, very vocal.

Have a quick look over:
http://www.redsrugby.com.au/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=VXxs7f0ggRk=&tabid=660

I think they would have opposed the QRU's vision until the bitter end.

Basically, the residents supported anything that kept Ballymore for ARU and QRU use only. In other words, the residents wanted the QRU to maintain the Ballymore grounds which the residents could then use as parks for their own personal use.

The local residents did not want:
- any commercial buildings
- any cafes
- any public gyms
- a sport medical centre
- any sort of public car park
- any accomodation (e.g. for sporting teams like the Wallabies)
- anything vaguely even hospitality related
- basically, anything, anything at all, that any member of the public (outside of the local community) might wish to want to go to Ballymore for

A nice "stay the hell out of our area" attitude, and they are vocal about it. But, they do want the private organisation that is the QRU to spend a fortune to maintain the nice green grasslands for their own use whilst blocking any attempts to do more than house a couple of training fields and related facilities along with QRU headquarters.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Do the locals exercise their dogs off the leash at Ballymore surrounds and not pick up the dog droppings after them?

Somehow waiting for Mr Nobody to clean up after them.

That is a usual NIMBY attitude and response down our way.

 

[boyo]

If the above is true (Ash's post), then you have to wonder about the mentality of those that bought property near to Ballymore.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The Ballymore property owner types typically buy a house cheaply next to an airport or train station or other piece of infrastructure and then start complaining about the noise or the smell or whatever was the reason the property was so cheap in the first place.

 

[Westie]

A handout? Eastwood owns the land, they are entitled to sell it. That's not a handout, that's a commercial transaction.

We will never know the financial details, but I think you can assume that the price paid to Eastwood would be significantly less than they could get on the open market, a discounted price to reflect the value that the Club will get from being able to remain there in perpetuity.


Penrith got some pretty good handouts a few years ago, they had a very competitive team captained by Peter Besseling, and featuring half a dozen other Soup standard players. I imagine the hope was that subsidising the club might lead to some community involvement. If the community does not want to support the game, in cash and in kind, then unfortunately the game will not be there for the community. Harsh, but that's the way it is.

Yeah Eastwood needs these facilities. That $20 million would go a long way in Penrith. Since they haven't had anything for a few years. Peter who? If the game is not interested in the community it could at least have the guts to come right out with it. The Wbs are a product of this thinking.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

It is all rhetoric about the battle for sports dominance in Western Sydney.

When it comes down to it, Soccer is about the only code that is really doing well in backing up the rhetoric with the Western Sydney Wanderers.

The GWS Giants have all but abandoned the "Proper" West after pouring a fair amount of $ into the Blacktown base, they now train and play at Homebush and their interstate players are apparently accommodated in Concord. My mate in Emu Plains reckons Concord is part of the Eastern Suburbs.

Mungo is just doing what it always has done.

Heavensgame seems to be doing stuff all. The Heavy Hitters of Rugby's Underworld seem to believe that all is well in the West with what they see in their annual fact finding pilgrimage to the leafy ovals surrounding North Parramatta High School, and the former Olympic rowing centre at Penrith Lakes.

 

[wamberal]

Yeah Eastwood needs these facilities. That $20 million would go a long way in Penrith. Since they haven't had anything for a few years. Peter who? If the game is not interested in the community it could at least have the guts to come right out with it. The Wbs are a product of this thinking.

This $20 million of Government money will benefit the whole game, wherever it is played. The benefits to Eastwood are incidental, and come about because they own the land.

If the community at Penrith is not interested in doing what other communities (like Eastwood) have done over the years to develop a rugby club, which was a long hard haul believe me, then that is unfortunate.

So, handouts are the answer, are they? What do you recommend in addition to $20 million for Penrith? Another $20 million for each of the other struggling clubs?


A couple of hundred million? Where do I post the cheque? And then there's rugby in the rest of Australia, cities, towns and the bush. Maybe we should go for half a billion.

 

[TOCC]

Brisbane Broncos have been offered $5million in federal funding for their new facility at Red Hill. The Pork Barreling continues nationwide.

As for Eastwood and those claiming negligence of the Western suburbs, it wasn't that long ago they some people on here were claiming that Eastwood is effectively the Western Suburbs anyway.

 

[wamberal]

Brisbane Broncos have been offered $5million in federal funding for their new facility at Red Hill. The Pork Barreling continues nationwide.

As for Eastwood and those claiming negligence of the Western suburbs, it wasn't that long ago they some people on here were claiming that Eastwood is effectively the Western Suburbs anyway.

Eastwood is a few kms east of Parramatta, which is the demographic centre of the city.


It is certainly not the "North Shore". It is kind of in the middle, not quite Westies, but certainly not Silvertails.

 

[Bowside]

I don't know how the TG Millner development will go, but Ballymore had/has issues with NIMBY residents who were/are very, very vocal.

Have a quick look over:
http://www.redsrugby.com.au/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=VXxs7f0ggRk=&tabid=660

I think they would have opposed the QRU's vision until the bitter end.

Basically, the residents supported anything that kept Ballymore for ARU and QRU use only. In other words, the residents wanted the QRU to maintain the Ballymore grounds which the residents could then use as parks for their own personal use.

The local residents did not want:
- any commercial buildings
- any cafes
- any public gyms
- a sport medical centre
- any sort of public car park
- any accomodation (e.g. for sporting teams like the Wallabies)
- anything vaguely even hospitality related
- basically, anything, anything at all, that any member of the public (outside of the local community) might wish to want to go to Ballymore for

A nice "stay the hell out of our area" attitude, and they are vocal about it. But, they do want the private organisation that is the QRU to spend a fortune to maintain the nice green grasslands for their own use whilst blocking any attempts to do more than house a couple of training fields and related facilities along with QRU headquarters.

A quick drive around the streets of the area will tell you all you need to know about it's residents. Nearly every street is full of speed bumps and/or those one lane winding speed traps in the middle of two lane roads.

I think the word is precious.

 

[#1 Tah]

The Ballymore property owner types typically buy a house cheaply next to an airport or train station or other piece of infrastructure and then start complaining about the noise or the smell or whatever was the reason the property was so cheap in the first place.

Sounds a bit like Eastern Sydney residents after the airport was moved from Lyne Park in Rose Bay to Botany Bay.

"Oh look, an airport, lets go build suburbs near it and enforce an 11:30 kerfew!"

 

[Pfitzy]

Handouts are NEVER the answer. Rugby needs to look at what the AFL did - starting with schools.

With Olympic status, the game of 7s has to take priority as an attractor. The downside is we'll have numerically less tight five players, but fuck its not like we're generating a plethora of world class front rowers anyway!

Get some 7s clinics set up in Western Sydney public schools, then for the sad, fat kids sitting in the corner after the teams are picked, bring them into the sacred fold, and tell them they have a higher purpose.

After all, for every talented skinny Islander kid living out here, there are at least two heftier ones who will make good props if they're taught technique from an early age, rather than just "size rules!"

 

[Westie]

This $20 million of Government money will benefit the whole game, wherever it is played. The benefits to Eastwood are incidental, and come about because they own the land.

If the community at Penrith is not interested in doing what other communities (like Eastwood) have done over the years to develop a rugby club, which was a long hard haul believe me, then that is unfortunate.

So, handouts are the answer, are they? What do you recommend in addition to $20 million for Penrith? Another $20 million for each of the other struggling clubs?


A couple of hundred million? Where do I post the cheque? And then there's rugby in the rest of Australia, cities, towns and the bush. Maybe we should go for half a billion.

No just eastwoods money. If it's incidental then it won't matter if it's spent in the west.

 

[Westie]

[qute="TOCC, post: 527930, member: 1585"]Brisbane Broncos have been offered $5million in federal funding for their new facility at Red Hill. The Pork Barreling continues nationwide.

As for Eastwood and those claiming negligence of the Western suburbs, it wasn't that long ago they some people on here were claiming that Eastwood is effectively the Western Suburbs anyway.[/quote]
As If

 

[wamberal]

No just eastwoods money. If it's incidental then it won't matter if it's spent in the west.

Maybe if you set some realistic goals you would have a chance of achieving them. There are intangible benefits to Eastwood, for sure, in having access to better facilities. There are also some tangible financial benefits, particularly to do with the maintenance of the grounds and facilities. The value of these benefits is not easy to calculate, but would be far, far, less than $20 million.

They get these benefits because they own the bloody land. Maybe if your club owned its own land, and had worked hard to keep it, maintain it, and so on, your club would have been considered as a site for this development.

 

[I like to watch]

Settle down,just remember that your club was gifted the land.
Everyone did not start from the same base.

 

[I like to watch]

http://www.smh.com.au/business/pork...s-a-grubby-political-game-20130823-2sf89.html
Interesting read, he makes several valid points.

 

[wamberal]

Settle down,just remember that your club was gifted the land.
Everyone did not start from the same base.

No need for the insult, champ.


Eastwood was given the land, by a great supporter of the club. It was an abandoned poultry farm. It took hard work, a lot of it by volunteers, and money, also a lot of it from supporters and ordinary people in the local community, to turn it into the great resource that it became. It certainly did not fall out of the sky, fully developed, a gift from above.

It has been a significant financial burden over the years, part of the reason that the club virtually went broke some time ago.


TG Millner Field has been a great rugby resource for many years, widely used by all levels of the game.


The Club, and the Millner family, deserve this project.

 

[TOCC]

The Club, and the Millner family, deserve this project.

Why on earth do they deserve this project?
There are plenty of hard working clubs out there who could consider them unfortunate not to have their work recognised with a federal grant.. I think Eastwood and the ARU should purely consider them selves extremely lucky rather then receiving what they 'deserved'.

 

[I like to watch]

No insult intended.
Will agree to disagree on the worthiness of your club over the other 11 clubs.
No one deserves it more than anyone else.
There is an argument about the greater good, that would not see the development at that site.
I support that view.