Launceston City Council has put out a media release about a major upgrade to the stadium bringing it up to 23k+ seated capacity.  The proposal includes retractable seating so the stadium can morph for rectangular pitch sports.  A 5000 seat indoor stadium is included in the proposal.

https://www.themercury.com.au/news/multimilliondollar-redevelopment-plans-for-precinct-as-afl-silence-grows-deafening/news-story/78c3b7ff8667de15e5a31a11696eb186

UTAS stadium is an oval for AFL and cricket with capacity 19500.

This is a scam to plunder more tax payer money for these sports. We’ve heard and seen what soccer got with promises of retractable seating arrangements for recatungular sports. 

Football needs to steer clear of Tasmania. More BS investment in codes that don’t need the money but looking for football to anchor the tenancy. 

Retractable seating is always shit and too expensive to use and there's not a single rectangular stadium in the entire state. Build one or get fucked Tassie.

Launceston is about as big as Ballarat or Wagga.

The Only way the government can show commitment to Tassie's bid is to build or totally convert a stadium to rectangle along with any other funds they may want to contribute or no deal.  Netball is sufficient for now.

Tassie is an AFL strong hold heart land ....

I would need heaps of government guarantees to put a team there...

There is more kids playing football in Tassie these days than AFL mate. As someone that's based down here at the moment, it's one of the talking points whenever you're in a group and the conversation turns to talking about sport. I'm pretty sure that the TAS govt. has released the figures regarding participation numbers, and football was well ahead.

We have proven time and time again that there is no correlation between participating and caring for the professional side of the sport. See hockey as another example. 

The difference on this occasion is that Tasmanians are massively pissed off with the AFL due to the neglect. The hostility is real.

But Football only has a very small widow to get in. No more than about 2-3 years. Once the AFL finally commits to a team there, it’s all over. And the pressure is mounting on them.    

But as others have said, you can’t give them a licence without a rectangular stadium.

As for the Hobart v Launceston debate. Cascade is the best beer in the world.

There are more kids playing football than AFL all over Australia, with perhaps the exception of the Tiwi Islands, and even then, I reckon it's a close run thing.

The number of football players in Australia exceeds the number of AFL players but within states that is not the case.  FNSW, NNSWF, Capital Football and Football Tasmania (just) exceed the national average of 2.2% of the population being football players while Qld, Vic, SA, WA and NT have between 1.1% and 1.7%.  The 4.0% figure in each of FNSW, NNSWF and the ACT sees all of those locations beat AFL as does the 2.3% figure in Tasmania but in the other states and NT AFL wins out quite comfortably.  The split of juniors-youth-seniors is roughly the same in each region except for FNSW where the percentage of senior players is significantly higher than anywhere else.

Care needs to be taken when participation numbers are used because the numbers are not generated the same way in the different codes.

exactly unfortunately it'll be the afl that garners the public funds not sokka

Using the WWC as a pretext to throw more money at the AFL, who the Tas government just can't accept that they're just not that into them.

Why not take out the retractable seating part of the budget and use it for a boutique rectangular stadium?

No chance to use the rectangular seating for the half of the year when there's a cricket pitch in the middle of the ground either.

It's futile.

I agree that there needs to be a boutique stadium in place if a Tasmanian bid is to be accepted for them to join the league. But the state is starved for top level sport, and if there was a football club down here: it would get fans through the turnstiles. Probably more than what Western United is getting in Tarneit too. There's definitely a desire down here to get more professional sport, and although I think this is a play from the govt. to finally get an AFL team, I think the FA is making a mistake by not considering a Tasmanian bid.

The previous bid on the table when expansion was being discussed involved them building a stadium didn't it?

UTAS is larger in dimensions than say a Geelong so it really seems unsuitable for retractable seating considering.

It would be a half assed botch job that clearly shouldn’t be acceptable.

Tbh the ‘better’ of the retractable seating has been at Docklands but economically it’s expensive to do and tear up the turf due to the tracks.

Tasmania is a place where people go to retire. As a rule anyone with drive or talent leaves, Richard Flanagan excepted. There is no industry, and the major employer is the state government. 

It's an AFL state and yet the AFL doesn't consider it worth having a team there.

You don't need to be a genius to read those tea leaves. 

Beautiful place to visit, but as far as football goes, stay away.  Also don’t help upgrade more cricket/afl infrastructure. Remember the Gabba upgrade for football during the olympics? That’s proven to be a real winner for football in Brisbane.

The FA and APL need to strongly insist that bids for women's world cup matches and for new teams joining the a league have access to strictly rectangular stadiums. The AFL is just taking the piss claiming there's benefit for football with a government funded oval upgrade. It's annoying that Launceston stadium is being considered to host world cup matches, justifying government contribution for what will ultimately be a cricket/AFL venue. Surely you want world cup venues that will be condusive to good atmosphere - more Dolphin Stadium less Geelong Stadium please.

Launceston won't make the final cut.

Yep, not a chance.

From wiki: "Australia and New Zealand proposed 13 possible venues across 12 host cities for the tournament in the bid book submitted to FIFA, suggesting a minimum of 10 stadiums be used—five in each country."

With six venues in the same time zone there's no way York Park won't be one of the up to three venues to be cut, and when they have a whinge about it they'll have nobody other than themselves to blame for not offering up a suitable venue.

It would set Australian football back years if Launceston is included in the comp, setting a precedent for what type of facilities we accept for the very highest level of our game, let alone the local game. It would rule out proper football facilities being built in Tasmania for decades.

Launceston is also  God-forsaken dump of a town.  For some time it held the southern hemisphere record for suicides.

Launceston is a fantastic place to live.  No traffic, little pollution, plenty of good quality water, all the shopping you need, it has a university, its 15 minutes to the airport and an hour flight to Melbourne.  The dump of a place in Tasmania is Hobart.  ;)

I travel to both regularly for work (or at least I did before this bloody virus) and I have to say that theyp prettiest part of Tasmania is the drive between both places 😁

BTW that's true about the suicide rate 

Obviously I beg to differ... But then again I should declare my Hobart origins, even if long gone now. :) 

The entire state is great place. I lived just outside Launceston for 12 months and it was great. Tasmania is the second best place in Australia to live in IMO, Qld being the best. However having an A-League team there is a lost cause.

Agree completely on the A League issue. I've been gone a long time but I still miss the East Coast where my family had a holiday place. The water is cold, but the surfing and diving is fantastic. Amazing colours. 

So many questions just answered.

Gods own country!

So AFL trying to get Tasmania to build a shit rectangular stadium they will pull down after the women's World cup so the non rectangular parts are upgraded.

There is a bit more information in the link below.  $109m is proposed for the stadium upgrade including redeveloping the north and east stands with retractable seating in the lower tier and a new stand at the southern end that will marry with the proposed $99m indoor stadium/concert venue.

https://www.examiner.com.au/story/7122770/council-approves-draft-208m-utas-stadium-plans/?cs=12

On the news today that the Tas govt has warned the AFL it won’t allow the Hawks and Kangaroos play in that state unless the AFL commit to a team in Tasmania.

The pro AFL government will do anything to agitate the AFL to defend their turf and set up a new team before soccer does. 

Tasmania, needs to be told to build a purposebuilt rectangular stadium in Hobart, by the relevant WC committee. Otherwise, should not be considered for World Cup hosting. The football community in Tasmania need to get activated and let their parliamentarians know they want professional football and world cups in their state (if that is the case). Nothing else will cut it. Redeveloping York Park AFL/cricket ground just seems like a huge waste of money to me, and is designed for AFL interests, not football.

Exactly

Launceston is a shit hole with half of it built on a swamp. The stadium is one downpour away from being underwater. It's also literally built on rubbish on top of a wetland, the perfect metaphor for Launceston. 

Lovely natural places though, just stay away from the idiots who live there. 

No to retractable seating! York Park has no need of an upgrade since it's unsuitable for football and AFL have no interest in putting a team in Tassie.

It would cost much less than $200m to just build a little boutique rectangular stadium with a 10-15k capacity, based on some of the modular designs that have been discussed in other threads (and it should be in Hobart too, which has more than twice the population of Launceston). 

Good points

The $208M is split up $99m for a 5,000 seat indoor stadium and entertainment venue with 3 courts when not set up for 5,000 capacity, and $109m for the stadium upgrade.

I think Launceston will soon be dropped from being a host city for 2023WWC and then the retractable seating will disappear from the proposal in my view.

There will be no money spent on the stadium for AFL unless there is a team here which is unlikely.

That leaves the indoor stadium.  The Govt is spending $68.5m on updating the Derwent Entertainment Centre including 4 additional indoor courts and in total that will make the spend there in today's dollars $95m.  A $99m spend in Launceston is the Council's idea of the north getting its fair share of Govt largesse.  You have to realise that Tas is virtually split in 2 population wise.  270k in the south and 265k in the north and it is very parochial so the state Govt spreads its largesse around the state.

I agree with the first paragraph, but not the second. I'm sure that the upgrade for York Park is purely with AFL in mind, with the retractable seating for the soccer (probably just temporary stands that you can hire from anywhere set up on the grass) just being a pretext. If the $109m portion of the budget was really for rectangular facilities they'd build a rectangular facility.

LCC is fishing for funding for the ultimate upgrade of the UTAS Stadium site.  The proposal attempts to address the 4 areas of deficiency in infrastructure in Northern Tasmania where half of the population of Tasmania lives.

The State Government is pressing the AFL to have an AFL team located permanently in Tasmania and as a previous (Bacon) Government decided that York Park would be the venue for AFL in Tasmania LCC is seeking to have the venue upgraded to a standard appropriate for that team.  The part of the proposal that does this is the increase in seating to 23,000 and the inclusion of training facilities within the the indoor stadium building which is part of the proposed works at the southern end of the ground.  In my view if the AFL does not accede to the Government's request then any works to improve the stadium will not get financial support to the level required for the whole LCC proposal.

LCC, aware that the 3 rectangular pitch codes have good support within the Tasmanian sporting community and that fans will travel to attend showpiece events, has included retractable seating in the new stands on the northern and eastern sides of the stadium.  This has been strongly supported by the CEO of Football Tasmania, Bob Gordon.  As I said in my previous post I think this will be dropped from the proposal if Launceston is dropped as a 2023 WWC host city but if the venue could attract a couple of games a year from each code then it might be worthwhile.

Basketball is a pretty big sport in Tasmania and the existing venues in Northern Tasmania are inadequate and overused so including a multi-court venue in the proposal is a great idea.  Having it able to morph into a high quality entertainment venue or a 5,000 seat main court similar but slightly smaller than the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Hobart would overcome two of the region's infrastructure needs.  Currently the Collingwood Magpies Netball club plays games in Launceston and I read today that Netball Tasmania is intending to apply for a club in the National Netball League for 2023 when Collingwood's contract with the Government expires so that would provide a regular tenant.

Overall the proposal is quite sensible but it depends on all the planets aligning for it to come off.  In my view the most likely outcome is the indoor stadium getting the nod including the changes to the southern stand.

Remember how they said Perth Stadium would have a "soccer mode"?

I doubt AFL will ever bring a team to Tassie. They would either have to expand beyond 18 teams (unlikely), or relocate one of the existing clubs (even more unlikely). But I agree that there is a useful window to bring an A-League team to Tasmania. They should, however, insist on a proper rectangular ground as a prerequisite (and the precedent has already been set with the deal done to improve the Derwent Entertainment Centre to accommodate the NBL).