So with no football on I thought it would be good to talk about stadiums in Australia.
With many in here and as a general consensus that smaller boutique stadia is the best way forward for the ALeague!
smaller grounds that can be packed out give better atmosphere and looks better on the tv. 

Knights Stadium would be good with some temporary seating opposite the Viduka stand - for Western United.  Seating capacity would be about 6-7k, increasing to 10k if you were to put seats behind the goals as well. 

My argument of having fewer seats means more people turn up due to fear of missing out on tickets gets debunked pretty quickly when looking at a number of teams with small stadiums. You need to have a good product.

Nevertheless I'm referring more to times that Victory play at Docklands and certainly Brisbane. If the product is decent and tickets are fewer there should be that added incentive to snap some up.

I often see an attitude among people in Australia and even Germany with a relaxed mindset to getting tickets when there are just so many available. Berlin has the problem and are looking at downsizing. 

Brisbane really is there one where a suburban boutique should work well. 

It won't happen but I wouldn't mind seeing Gosford among others have the central block of seating at the supporters end be turned into rail seating which is arguably used to lower ticket prices. Unfortunately teams need to sell seats elsewhere in the ground to make this work. 

I walked up to Coopers when visiting Adelaide. Looks brilliant and I didn't realise how steep the stands look. Full house at twilight must be something. 

Don't want to go into too much but Tasmania is a hidden gem in my opinion where Hobart could get a small boutique ground with a team of their own and surely a couple of local talents in the squad. Despite the AFL interest and Hawthorn, they don't have a true team of their own.

At Seven Hills there is a great stadium formerly known as Gabbie Stadium,

Known as Fairfax Community Stadium today...

Current capacity 7.5 K..... spend a little 12 to 15 K..

IMO the best located stadium in Sydney

I've only missed a handful of Victory away games at Hindmarsh, always the first flights I book when the fixture is released, but I'm not personally sure that there's a long term future for a rectangular Hindmarsh in such a constrained triangular site. I've measured and remeasured all the ways they could redevelop on google maps, but even if they were allowed to demolish/move some of those heritage churches and other buildings nothing fits.
A new, quality stadium within stumbling distance of the CBD pubs built on the back of a WC bid that can be scaled down to a roofed 25k-ish permanent capacity sounds like a win for Adelaide to me.
Hindmarsh's current under criteria capacity is the weak link in our Women's World Cup bid as it stands, and out of the question for any future World Cup bid, which is something I still hold out hope of seeing come into fruition in my lifetime. No ovals.

Lakeside stadium would obviously be ideal if they brought some temporary stands in closer to the pitch. 

Scotstoun stadium in Glasgow does a similar thing for the rugby and it worked well when i saw it. 


That said, I'm not that fussed about the track. They are still better than AFL ovals and I preferred Olympic Park to AAMI Park anyway.

Athletic tracks and AFL ovals are different beasts for football. On the wings at a venue with an athletics track it only matters a little bit, eight running lanes isn't that much wider than the technical area allowed in rectangular stadiums in many cases, but on the ends behind the goals the distance fucking sucks, and no romanticism about old European grounds will overcome that in my opinion.

It does bring back memories of some classic European games though. 

You can fit a standard 8 lane running track in just under 95m fence to fence  which is only 13m wider than a standard football pitch.  Of course if it has jumps pits it is significantly wider.

The big problem with Knights stadium is accessibility. There is absolutely zero public transport. There are only small suburban streets in and out of the stadium and parking is minimal. If capacity was pushed up to that 10k figure it would be an absolute nightmare getting people in and out of the stadium. It's a shame because it is a good ground and would be a good starting point for renovation. I reckon Knights stadium is destined to always be a small suburban ground. It's fine for attendances under 5-6k but pushing past that would introduce a lot of challenges.

The record crowd at Knights is 12.5K for a friendly against Hajduk and biggest NSL crowd was 8.4K in 2004 so it has handled large crowds in the past.

https://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=58

Also, as much as everyone talks up public transport it really isnt as big an issue as made out. I normally drive to MV games as does pretty much every MV fan I know of. Also ever tried getting out of docklands or AAMI after a big match, traffic jams everywhere.

Just because they have had 12.5k to the ground doesn't mean it wasn't a nightmare getting in and out of the stadium. It was probably way worse than the average AAMI/Marvel game. Both AAMI and Marvel can struggle and they have plenty of infrastructure supporting them. Knights stadium has nothing, it would be way worse.
I used to drive to games at both Etihad and AAMI, but have since switched to the trains because it's so much quicker and easier (for me and my mates, obviously not necessarily easier/quicker for everyone). I only know one person who still takes the road, but he's on a motorbike which makes things much easier. It would be an interesting stat in Melbourne. How many people drive to games compared to take public transport.

Really? I could only name one person I know who drives to Vuck games and that bloke is in the Chairman's lounge every game. That said, all my vuck mates are meeting at the pub before and after so it would be pretty daft to drive.

100%, also many are on western rail lines so going home at night is quite scary

Oh come on. It's a tin pot shit hole.

There's an opinion surprising absoloutely no one............

The upgrade at Heidelbergs Olympic Village is well underway. Running track and the hills behind the goal are gone. 

McDonald Jones Stadium is great when a good crowd is in (still needs the ends seated though), but for the Jets on a stinking hot Sunday arvo against Wellington it's vastly oversized.

The W-League and Youth team have made No.2 Sportsground home in the last few years and with some work this could make a good home for the Mens team. It's council owned but the local Rugby scene has contributed some funds to renovate it previously and hence think they own it - but Rugby will be dead soon so don't think this is much of an issue. 

It's much closer to the CBD of Newcastle (some would argue it is in the CBD), close to transport and walking distance to the Honeysuckle area for pre/post match activities (not forgetting King St Maccas, KFC and Dan Murphy's of course). Capacity 12,000ish would be ideal.

Set up for a W-League game:



Parking situation would need to be improved, but Moore Park is no different there (older pic).



It's recently had some more seating added on the grandstand side but I'd like to see it done up to be something like Hindmarsh or Toyota Field in San Antonio (all the way around though, 3 sided stadiums are shite).



Of course I'm completely aware this is pie-in-the-sky dreamland stuff.

It’s a pipe dream of course but would love Melb City to jump into bed with the Warriors and upgrade Olympic Village.
There is plenty room for stands at as the FFA cup showed, it can comfortably host 13k which coped with traffic fine on a night fixture

The Olympic village for Heidelberg United looks great.. will it have added seating?
what other grounds around Australia could be converted into ALeague boutique grounds?
must be heaps of rugby grounds in NSW and QLD that could be used?
Canberra are looking at building a new stadium I think and I have seen Townsville have built and amazing boutique stadium... if only the FFA could make a team work up there again.

Any plans for Hobart to build or renovate a rectangular ground.. if they could build something down there they would be a shoe in for license!!

Tassie deserves a licence plus we need to get in before AFL does and have their own team Tasmania team. Now is the time to do it! No more excuses FFA just hurry up and do it!!!

I wouldn't give Tasmania a team if they plan to play out of one of their existing AFL suited stadiums. 

If on the other hand they could play out of a rectangular stadium, even with 10k capacity to start off with, I'd give them a team straight away. 

Unless you used a cricket ground the biggest rectangle is only 4000 capacity. Even then, there is little seating at any Tasmanian rectangles. Most is standing only.

Me personally, I would rather we have no club from Tasmania if it meant they're playing out of a stadium not suitable. 

Either build a new 10k seater or even 10k capacity, or develope an existing rectangular stadium. 

I doubt Olympic Village will have added seating as the lack of demand for it doesn’t warrant it.
It certainly has the space to do so though.

Even before the renos I thought the viewing was fine with the undercover section even though it had a running track on it.

I wouldn't call a $250M stadium boutique :)
https://www.cowboys.com.au/news/2020/03/20/showreel-stadium-opening/
In fact I can't think of another <200K city on this planet with a nicer stadium.

There are football grounds that are a nice size but in Queensland's case many of them are in regional cities where it's unlikely an A-League team would be viable. ie: Sunshine Coast, Mackay. Perry Park or Langlands Park would be ideal locations for a 10-15K seat stadium in Brisbane but there is no appetite from the State Gov or BCC to upgrade them.

A Tasmanian team would be CCM but worse.  There's no money in the state, anyway, and what there is goes to the AFL.  Never going to happen in Tassie.

Agree. Cannot see an a-league team working in Tassie, however if the AFL don't give them a team, maybe the locals will jump on the wagon for a local A-league team?