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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 😁

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. 

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

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.

BTW that's true about the suicide rate 

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.