You're already talking to the converted, comrade ;)

Seriously though, a bigger stadium in parramatta would be great for business. There'd be a big Eels or Wanderers game there every fortnight all year round. Local businesses would make money.

Fantastic news if they are upgrading the SFS, hopefully a decent pitch is first up.

Bump for second division

A-league staiums are below par, we are Australia. We can easily have the top stadiums in the world for the A-league and in Austrlia we do have one of the top stadiums in the world. The stadiums that the afl has such as the mcg, etihad stadium, scg, Adeliade Oval show the potential that the A-league can have if it grows enough to be our nations top sport or even more likey second sport in the world. (The tennis has amazing stadiums) Just imagine the A-league having the stadiums the afl have except made for football, only the top football leagues in the world have thoose stadiums

VICTORIAN NPL STADIUM UPDATES

Football's stadium options in Australia are generally either world class giants much larger than even the A-League requires or dilapidated council run venues barely suitable for top state leagues. Second tier clubs need better facilities to bridge the gap between the grass roots and the professional game while A-League clubs need to look at more sustainable options.Here is a list of Victorian NPL Stadiums.

What do you make of their conditions? Can they be expanded?

Avondale

Avondale Heights

Knights Stadium (temporary)

15,000

Avondale's ground is a park with no fencing. Lucky to have played a single season of NPL out of the venue and their move to Knights Stadium has been a good one for the professional image of the league. No chance of expansion at Doyle Street Reserve.

Bentleigh Greens

Cheltenham

Kingston Heath Soccer Complex

5,000[7][8]

Bentleigh's ground has already taken the national spotlight in the FFA Cup hosting over 3,000 people on two occasions against Perth and Victory. Great state league venue but for a Second Division it would require the club rooms down one wing to be converted into corporate facilities and possibly the existing grand stand to be extended along the whole wing. I would also like to see the aluminium seats replaced with green folding chairs we see at major venues.

Bulleen Lions

Bulleen

David Barro Stadium

6,000

Amazing state league venue with excellent corporate facilities. The grandstand however would need to be completely replaced as it's compact wooden structure is uncomfortable during big matches.

Green Gully

Keilor Downs

Green Gully Reserve

10,000

Huge development opportunity for Melbourne's North West. Big grass banks beautifully surroudn the ground however the main viewing area is nothing more than a concreted slope. It has the space for and requires a proper seated stand with better positions corporate facilities for the second division.

Heidelberg United

Heidelberg

Olympic Park

12,000

The council is planning a redevelopment of the stadium which could see the running track removed! The grandstand requires new seats and access to the corporate rooms must be improved for a second division, otherwise even in its current state, the Olympic Village is a great venue on big occasions. The 11,000 at the famous FFA Cup match against City (including myself), will forever the passionate crowd and atmosphere. It is however waaay to big currently for 1,000-5,000 crowds a Second Division is likely to attract. A rectangular redevelopment (possible) with a new corporate stand would be perfect for a Second Division.

Hume City

Broadmeadows

ABD Stadium

5,000

The recently redeveloped ABD is a great venue that needs more seating for a second division. It looks good on TV and has been managed well by Hume who have obstructed access behind the goals to create a better atmosphere on the main wing.

Kingston City

Clayton South

The Grange Reserve

2,000

Not up to scratch.

Melbourne Knights

Sunshine

Knights Stadium

15,000

With a new lick of paint and cleaned up terraces, Knights stadium would be ready for the A-League tomorrow!

North Geelong

Lara

Elcho Park

5,000

Bettered only by Knights Stadium for community contribution, Elcho Park has literally been constructed by North Geelong's members. A St.Albans like strip of seats down the entire wing would make this a surprisingly appropriate venue. Filmed facing the stand or the picturesque tree lined opposite wing would make for good viewing. Corporate facilities would need to be improved but the club maintains this ground well and I think it could make a great addition to a Second Division if the stand along the main wing is properly set up.  

Oakleigh Cannons

Oakleigh

Jack Edwards Reserve

5,000

Oakleigh need to be acknowledged for their efforts. They have a vision and have executed capital improvements to their ground which make it one of the most enjoyable to visit in the league. First it was constructing a covered terrace along the wing. Then it was grass hills behind the goals. Finally with the installation of seats in the covered terrace and a new terrace down the opposite wing Jack Edwards is an example of what every State League venue should be like! It needs better corporate facilities and I recommend bringing the fencing closer to the main stand so that people don't walk across to obstruct seated spectators' view.

Pascoe Vale

Fawkner

CB Smith Reserve

2,000

Recently redeveloped into a beautiful state league venue... except for placing a light post IN FRONT OF THE NEW GRAND STAND! This design blunder will haunt the FFV and local councils for decades to come. Frankly embarrassing and needs to be moved. Otherwise the media box provides a good vantage point. Essentially duplicating the existing stand next to it in the empty space down the wing would provide adequate seated capacity. Corporate boxes must be installed along the top of the stand.

Port Melbourne

Port Melbourne

SS Anderson Reserve

1,000

Great location but severely in need of an update with only a small seating configuration in front of the club rooms. Don't even know how to start with this one... not even worth touching with a far more appropriate Second division venue so close...

South Melbourne

Albert Park

Lakeside Stadium

12,000

Ready to go. Has an athletics track. Didn't stop Victory loving Olympic park and won't stop South Fans (and hasn't stopped South fans in the NPL would regularly attract four figure crowds including me haha).

St Albans

St Albans

Churchill Reserve

3,500

Neat State League venue which would need to redevelop its main wing substantially clean up the terracing being the benches and most importantly properly fence off the ground!

We suffer from a number of factors. We have so little government investment its criminal. Commonwealth and State governments invest in other sports but virtually ignore football. We have competition from other sporting codes for the funding dollar for infrastructure upgrades, and they always get it. eg. AFL and Cricket will always get government money for the MCG, SCG, Kardinia Park, New Perth Stadium etc. that is the biggest issue. We need FFA and State Federations and the clubs (from A league and NPL) and the media to pressure more and point out the positives of investment and finally squeeze some money out of government specifically for football. This is where the 2 teams out of one city model can help expansion and help to build some quality stadia. eg, in Brisbane and Adelaide, a second team would be great and would allow for a purpose built 20-25k stadium which could be used nearly every week of the season (derbies and finals could still be played at their existing 50k plus stadia). There are some great examples out there. I'm a bit of a stadium nerd and I can tell you that MLS, Poland and Turkey have some great stadia that would be a perfect fit. You could literally just copy some of them. eg. Stub Hub center, or the new Orlando stadium would be perfect for Brisbane, and there's a great spot for it at Murarrie recreation grounds. In Adelaide, something like Houstons stadium, or Bialystok city stadium would be perfect, and theres a great spot for it at Park 12 next to the Adelaide Oval.

Need to focus on smaller 30-40k stadiums with top facilitates and world class pitches, instead of donkey tracks. 

For who? The A-League averages 12,000 people. The average A-League stadium has an average capacity of 33,000. That means clubs fill just a third of their venue on average. The stadiums we play out of ARE world class DO have the capacity you suggest and yet ARE NOT fit for purpose. We need to fill the gap between grassroots and professional facilities.

soccer logic you don't build infrastructure for now  but for the future
once the A-league gets FTA coverage and with the marketing it deserves

Whilst I agree that we don't need 30-40k stadia for most, we should be looking at growth and building for the next 10-15 years before we have to upgrade. That really menas building football specific stadia for around 20-25k as the 'main' venues for most main city teams, and you can still have your bigger games at the existing larger multi-purpose stadia. This would be great for cities like Adelaide and Brisbane. Sydney already has Moore park for FC and the new paramatta and homebush for derbies, so they don't really need any new facilities. The exception is Melbourne. Here we should really be pressuring government for construction of a 50-60k football only stadia that can have the upper tier sectioned off to create a 25-30k reduced capacity. Victory will likley have home crowd averages of 30k plus in the next 5-10 years, with bigger games getting 40k and derbies potentially filling the stadium. In Perth, nib is o.k and would still be o.k for the next 10 years, and even if you get another team in there. In Gosford I think the current stadium is o.k, but you'd want to investigate maybe a 15-20k boutique for Newcastle.

I read somewhere that governments around Australia have spent $3 billion in AFL infrastructure in the last 12 years. that's billion with a B.

Football has received some in Victoria. 12 million for ABD stadium in Broadmeadows. Lakeside stadium was rebuilt at a cost of $60 million (although that money was primarily to build the athletics track). Morsehead park in Ballarat cost $14 million. not in the same stratosphere as the AFL of course.  

Smaller stadiums are fine for a lot of clubs for now. As long as any new stadiums that are being built have the foundations and 'bones' to extend to 30-40k. 

This, we need smaller stadiums with the ability to expand if the attendances in the smaller stadiums is continually capacity.

Definitely need to do this especially since AFL bought etihad.

S
Great point! ABD and Morsehead are essentially second division ready stadiums. Although I think ABD should add ground level seating to expand seated capacity to 1000, as should Moreshead (which could also do with a roof), these figure also included surrounding synthetic pitch installation and were essentially built from scratch. Also check out Sunshine Coast Stadium which boasts 3 hills and a 3,000 seats for $12 million!

Second Division quality stadiums can be built for $12 million each! For $3 billion we would have Second Division stadiums for every NPL club in the country. Football needs to start lobbying government and raising money for their own infrastructure investment!

Marden Stadium(Adelaide Blue Eagles) is a perfect example of what NPL clubs should strive for. Admittedly they still need to terrace one wing but it is 3/4 done.

It wouldn't take much to turn grounds like Green Gully into something like this.

Note the pictures are from the Adelaide Blue Eagles Amatuer Facebook page. 
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ABEAmateurs/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1759625907655848

I love it!

Crazy to think the Socceroos were playing competitive fixtures at Marden as late as 2004. Great boutique venue, from what I've seen.

ABD definitely needs a second stand, or at least something at all around the other three sides of the stadium, I remember barely being able to see a thing when I was behind the first row of people behind the fence in Hume's home match versus Victory last year.

Ballarat did a great job in getting funding for Morsehead, with it's top player and corporate facilities in the main stand, and good embankments around the rest, and that's just the first stage. Definitely the sort of infrastructure investments you want to see if you're looking to pick clubs for an A2-League on those merits, which I believe should be part of the mix.

Whats the capacity & seating capacity of it?
Pretty impressed!

Wiki has 6,000, but that'd obviously include standing.

Does look like a fair few seats though as they go right around three sides.

Well I counted 29 seats per bay and 5 rows deep, except some parts of grant stand side are 4 rows deep.

5 bays at each end make 1450 seats total for the ends. Maybe double that for the wing. Somewhere between 2700 and 2900 would be my guess for the whole ground.

Could probably stretch that out to 4500 if they terraced the remaining hill in the same fashion as the rest of the ground. This is what the NPL clubs should be striving for, simple but beautiful.

@logic and all

What is everyone's opinion on standing capacity?

The new Fairfield Stadium says capacity 10k, upgradable to 15k seating. It will have 2 hills.

Here is what happened in Sweden



It's gone from 80% to 20%. Which means a stadium with 2000 seats can now only have 2500 now instead 10000 fans before.

I think a minimum standard for A-League should be 3k seats and 5k capacity. I also think 50% standing is fine. So a 3k seater can have max 6k fans at games.

However many could actually stand in a section without being crushed and then give some leeway to whatever number that would be to definitely ensure no standing crushes.

I'm going to take my seating capacity estimate for Marden down a notch. I think it has 5 bays at each end and 8 bays on the wing. Assuming equal width of the bays (29 seats), 5 rows deep at the ends, and average 4.5 rows deep on the wing (some bays are 5, some 4), I'd estimate the seating capacity (not including indoor in the grandstand) at 2494. One corner has a few seats which would cancel out a loss of seats due to players tunnel on the wing).

If the opposite wing were built up 5 rows deep it would take the total seated capacity to 2494 + 1160 = 3654. This would be close to bang on as a second div ground with 3654 seating and 1k standing.

With 26 bays around the ground, each consisting of 29 seats, and no corners filled, each row would have a capacity of 754. 

Each additional row of seats at a goal end would increase the capacity by 29*5=145
Each additional row of seats on the outer wing would increase the capacity by 29*8=232

The grandstand building prevents that wing having additional rows of seating. So if they wanted to increase capacity by only adding an additional row to the goal ends and outer wing then each additional row would add 522.

I think the ground would be a perfect, dirt cheap, ACL, FFA Cup, 2nd Div, 2nd HAL ground with a seated capacity of 6k. To achieve that they could leave the grandstand side as is then build up the outer and goal ends to 9 rows deep - an additional 4 on the existing ends, and 9 built from scratch on the outer wing. That would yield 5754. Filling in the corners may just get it up to 6k.

A good chunk of the expense would be increasing the capacity of facilities like toilets etc.

Had a small chat on twitter yesterday about this very thing. And Im a little puzzled as to how ABD Stadium cost so much - with a 500 seat grandstand - given whats being achieved at Eureka Stadium, which is receiving a new 6,000 seat grandstand - and an 11,500 capacity - as well as improved lighting, video scoreboard, changing facilities - for 15 million. It couldnt be more expensive for an rectangle.

Likewise Redcliffe Dolphins on the Sunshine Coast (QRL) had the council, state and federal governments chip in for their facility  and cost 12 million, and that will also have a capacity of 10,000.

Redcliffe used to be its own city but is now Moreton Bay. Not Sunshine Coast.

Why invest in a stadium if its part of a stagnant 92 team second tier. Lol silly buggers. 

A-League has been going for over a decade now with no signs of major growth for any of its members.  The priority for A-League members right now should be to get to a point where hosting a home fixture actually makes the franchise money rather than costing them.  From what I understand the majority of the league still isn't reaching it's break even figure for home fixtures.  With your own venue you can control tickets, food/drink sale, you can have your own social club, function rooms, etc., that can be open on non-matchdays, you can rent out space to small shops, cafes, etc.  You can base your admin at the stadium so not having to rent office space elsewhere...  And once franchises start making money from home fixtures, watch how fast they want to play more games and have a longer season (the longer season providing more opportunity for young squad players to get game time).