Yup. Looks alright.

Not bad,

Home kit:

I'm not contesting the guy's credentials or even the contents of his letter, I'm just saying it how it is in the FFA's eyes.

Why does the writer choose the Wyndham population as the population of the catchment of the proposed stadium rather than the population within 45 minutes travel from home where its common to expect high yield and up to 75 minutes travel for reasonable yield for a regional stadium?  Of course at those distances there would be significant overlap with the catchment of other stadiums but that's common.  As an example SM's stadium would have virtually its entire catchment shared by both Victory and City and have some overlap with WU's catchment.

To this day none of assessments stated in the letter have been proven wrong. When I first read the letter I was quite confident the timeline would be 3-5 years (at the very minimum) and to this day nothing has changed to alter that timeline (we’re already 6 months in). Only a fool would mistake professional advice (with full transparency) with false information.

For the record, the report creator also worked on the failed FFA World Cup bid providing a transport assessment on most of the proposed stadiums the “infamous” bid included. 

Cheers!

Good read & good find.  Really damning report on WU’s bid and the FFA’s subsequent approval...even defying some of their own ‘non-negotiables’......thanks for posting.

"It is important that I state up front that I am devoted supporter of the South Melbourne Football Club..." and that's when the letter went in the bin lol

You’re surprised? Nothing new here as this analysis from an engineer who worked on Optus Stadium just over a year ago, revealed! See link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fV4NToKm6CYv8Nk5EoMpiiHEZdJuuVZ0/view

That's what gets me. They saying they're for the western suburbs but are playing  games in geelong, ballarat  and marvel. I haven't seen any advertising for them besides their office in truganina 

Yeah some simple stuff would be advertising on the Western train lines, there is none of that. All their social media is seemingly exclusively focusing on Geelong as well, I get they are playing there initially but it hardly inspires confidence that this will ever be a team for Western Melbourne.

Great news. The more fans for the game the better.

Fully agree though. I am in their catchment zone yet the only things I see are some of their social media posts. Hardly inspiring.

Given that they need to try and engage with Geelong and the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, it is a vast area to try and market to but they need to do better. 

My fiancee who has never been overly interested in football has decided to support Western United and become a member. She was disappointed that she couldn't buy a membership straight away though, bit poor that Western United don't have their memberships up and running yet.

Also living the West of Melbourne you could not tell that they even existed if you weren't a hardcore A-League fan. I get that the season is still a bit away but surely they want to start building buzz now?

They need to provide some news on the stadium situation urgently.
At this stage, they have not even shown anyone that they have started preparing the documents. They have a pretty artistic render from populous and that’s it.

There are literally a minimum of 2-3 months work just to get the documents prepared before you even think about asking to start the approval process. I’m sure they’ve done this work, but they need to tell someone and they need to get it lodged.

Even if it lands on Dick’s desk tomorrow, and he is on side with it, and doesn’t run it through the public consultation process, I reckon it will be at least 3 months before he approves it. Of course that is unlikely.

Also remember the NIMBYs will have an appeal right to VCAT and that will take another 3-4 months before a merits hearing is held.

Every day counts at the moment and they are falling really, really far behind schedule if they want to start building this thing by mid-late 2020.

I'm imagining poor growth in the fan base followed by a half finished stadium with construction halted due to unpaid bills and debts.

I'm not really sure how that is relevant when the budget incorporates the next financial year and the station won't be needed for at least 28 months. The business case for the electrification of the Tarneit and Melton lines and the Airport Rail Link is released next year. We'll know more then. 

Think most people have had a bad feeling about them since the start. 

Unknown owners, big talk about a stadium that no-one knows whether or not its going to be built, no confirmed transport infrastructure, no massive effort to attract fans. 

Would be very surprised if it turns out to be anything other than a land grab. 

i look at that photo of the cow paddock "site" ----   and then of the "artists impression" of how the say it will look.

:ermm:

chewie, i've got a bad feeling about this.

Not that big of a deal yet, given the current time frame. However, if they cannot secure funding in next years budget then it may be a big problem. It should be easier to secure funding for the station once some actual planning progress is made for the stadium.

There was also 0 money for it in the Victorian budget.

I'm still OK with the timeline at this stage (although losing faith as every day passes and there is no news), but this is what alarms me the most...

A new station at Sayers Road is being slated to be only two kilometres away and would be easier to get to the stadium either by bus or walking.

All along we have been led to believe the stadium will be on the site of Sayers Rd/Tarneit West station. I hope the article is inaccurate. 2km is about a 20 minute walk for most people. Too far for kids and the elderly. 

So I wonder when we tally up the cost of all the infrastructure that this WMG bid requires to be successful (train station, roads, extending sewers and power etc etc), how close will that cost be to building the stadium for Team 11? From what I understand the Team 11 stadium was situated right on the major train line with all the required infrastructure already in place or only requiring minor upgrades - in addition to that, the temporary home for Team 11 was at Casey Fields, which is at least still in the catchment area for their team, allowing a supporter base to grow organically without travelling an hour down the highway. I'm sure if Team 11 was offered the licence, even on a conditional basis, that they would've found both State government and private support to help with the costs of the stadium. They had prime city location that is going to be squandered because FFA saw the licence fee that WMG were willing to pay to skip the queue.

And to top it all off, they're coming into the competition AHEAD of Macarthur, who are ready to go. Fmd, the decision making at times.

Well that's what they said, they said they already had permits from council, along with a Councillor sitting with them saying they did, and that they would be working as soon as approved by FFA.

So we should all pack up and go home?

And most of those who arent attached to  a hal team are euro snobs. Those kids are more into Barca and juve than the hal. 

I’m struggling to see how they will get the planning approvals done when there really hasn’t been any steps taken in formalising it.

Steps like consultation are key to a planning process (think of all those NIMBY types that will come out of the woodwork).

Part of the reasoning given though appears to have been some soil issues on site. If it’s a significant challenge that can’t easily be overcome, I do wonder what their Plan B would be.

The transport challenges they will encounter also really have to be sorted soon though. Getting the station built is key to the success of the stadium, and the surrounding development. With no government funding locked in for that infrastructure, and a state govt heavily affected by the fall in the property market, I do wonder what their appetitive would be.

Absolutely no way they had “done all the paperwork” nor do I believe they would say that - nor could they be turning soil the moment they were approved. The planning process is well documented and can’t be short circuited. 

I went to their first forum before their bid was successful, they said they would be turning soil the second they were approved and they had already done all the paperwork.

Um okay I just want to point out that "cos I hear it" isn't empirical  evidence, consider the participation numbers in the western suburbs. There are vast numbers who aren't attached to an A-League club, an A-League club representing them at national level might help them to engage with the A-League. There are more suburbs in the West, I don't have the time to go through and find them all, I was simply providing a small sample of the suburbs in the West.

Have always been optimistic about this license but they really should’ve had more movement in regards to the stadium situation. Macarthur really should’ve been in first as they already had the stadium ready to go.