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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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).

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.