Ballymore Redevelopment
- Thread starter Karl
- Start date
The Ghost of Raelene
Simon Poidevin (60)
Surely there's space for the Olympic Breakdancing Training Centre also?
LeCheese
Greg Davis (50)
Sword of Justice
Nev Cottrell (35)
Such a good point. Not many people realise that aside from having better coffee and art galleries than Melbourne we also have better street culture. It makes perfect sense.
waiting for Slim to take the bait.
Slayer!
Herbert Moran (7)
"AN" Eastern Stand, not "THE" Eastern Stand is approved under the planning permissions from the State Government. (ie, its in place and the retired town planner two streets over can't appeal it".
New stand would be smaller - 5k vs the current 7.5k, because the previous QRU board f***ed it up royally with a stand that was too big. That means a total 12k capacity (15k if you stick a temporary stand on the north for the Olympics). New stand essentially replicates the new McLean with more seats (ie, new McLean on top of the existing concourse) with Olympic Sevens in the stand, like the Wallaroos are in the McLean.
Anything over about 11k the QRU earns more from Suncorp (forget about the "atmosphere" argument, more money from games means more development officers/defence against AFL)
Slayer!
Herbert Moran (7)
You can build a new stand under the MID, the question is, would the new stand (including a high-performance centre) be bigger than the old one? There's nothing stopping it from being much, much bigger, apart fro the fact that you waste money. Anything over an 11k total capacity and you lose money from a corresponding game at Suncorp.
Plan is a 10-12k total capacity.
(Also - you'd absolutely knock down and rebuild. The stand was a dog when it was built in 1992 (for the historians amongst us, Dick McGruther, who quite disgracefully filed a heritage claim against the old stand to stop the new redevelopment - then cowardly "withdrew" while not withdrawing- , was Chairman at the time) and it's a dog now. Would cost as much to renovate as it would to rebuild and would be putting lipstick on a pig at the end of its life... (see: the Gabba, 2024....)
Slayer!
Herbert Moran (7)
Latest pics (the Roar also released these and cheekily rendered everything orange...
)Attachments
Jimmy_Crouch
Ken Catchpole (46)
Can I ask why RA would move the 7s away from the recently built facility at Moore Park? Is it a cost of living thing for the players? Better weather? As a tax payer I'd be annoyed. If that
kiap
Steve Williams (59)
Why?
Jimmy_Crouch
Ken Catchpole (46)
That a heap of cash was forked out for a facility that is only used in a blue moon.
kiap
Steve Williams (59)
Nah ... most of that building, and the funding of it, is for the UTS Sports Campus with 700-odd people there every day.
From the blurb at the time it was also ... "designed for use by local community groups, including Indigenous organisations, local schools and clubs along with other Australian and international sporting teams ... "
Jimmy_Crouch
Ken Catchpole (46)
But also to my first point why move the 7s?
Ignoto
Peter Sullivan (51)
I would hazard a guess Moore Park can't host all of the teams without seriously juggling. Since it was made we've had a huge rise in the Womens game, both 15s and 7s and with the 21/18s programs there's a lot of people to squeeze under one roof.
kiap
Steve Williams (59)
Are they moving the 7s ?
Unless things changed since I last checked many months ago, I thought they were moving the women's 7s at this stage.
As for reasons, you guessed much of it yesterday: cost of living, weather, parking, .. yada yada yada ...
... and likely Qld govt investment looking to attract Olympic sports.
Sword of Justice
Nev Cottrell (35)
I thought that the women’s game being relocated to Ballymore was a condition of the QLD tax funded contribution whereas I don’t recall any rugby being part of the funding for Moore Park. Therefore the tax payer would rightly be angrier should RA not use the Ballymore facility.
Strewthcobber
Simon Poidevin (60)
RA are using Ballymore for the women's 7s in the new facility in the western stand
This discussion is around what's happening with the eastern stand. And RA/QRUs desire for more government funding to finish the ground off
Last edited:
kiap
Steve Williams (59)
I see the posts on that, including some nice graphics. No confirmed project.
Whether the men's 7s moves remains unanswered.
Adam84
Rod McCall (65)
Because the 7s teams don’t even have a field to train on at Moore Park, they have to use random fields within Centennial Park. I used to see the girls training on Sydney Shamrocks fields all the time, whatever the leasing arrangements for Kippax Field are they evidently don’t have priority on it,
Moore Park is a glorified office building with a big gym, not a high performance training facility. That whole project was questionable to begin with and if ‘taxpayers’ should be angry at any project it’s Moore Park.
In either case the exclusive arrangement to base the 7s teams there has expired, so RA are allowed to move the 7s teams wherever they want. A training facility like the NRTC is much better return for rugby and community benefits then RAs building at Moore Park.
Jimmy_Crouch
Ken Catchpole (46)
Makes sense. I was not aware of the training field situation. There is three at ballymore. Between the reds and the roar the 7s they should be able to work it out.