I nope you enjoy this article Digs and other Nth Ballarat supporters.In Norths mind you dont exist even though you are involved with them and its YOUR home ground!!
Welcome to Sandys world.
Eureka! AFL digs in Ballarat Glenn McFarlane
From: Sunday Herald Sun July 25, 2010 12:00AM
COUNTRY footy fans are set to score a $50 million goal, with the State Government believed to have secretly committed to a new AFL-standard stadium in the goldfields city of Ballarat.
Premier John Brumby this week confirmed long-term plans to upgrade Eureka Stadium.
The suburban football ground would be transformed into a big multi-purpose venue in one of regional Victoria's fastest-growing areas, in the belief it can potentially host a handful of AFL games each season.
The North Melbourne Football Club is keen to play several home and away matches in Ballarat, with the Ballarat City Council.given its partnership
North Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca said the Roos could play interstate clubs there such as Western Sydney, Gold Coast, Fremantle and Port Adelaide.
"Ballarat has been on our radar for two years and we have been lobbying the Government to consider the possibility and the logistics of creating a regional-based stadium, particularly in Ballarat," Mr Arocca said.
But the State Government hopes other Victorian-based AFL clubs would be tempted to play several other games
Billy,
I think the press release is written with a view that the development will be of no real benefit to the North Ballarat Football Club which is what it should be.
The agreement will be between the Ballarat City Council, the AFL & the State government, nothing to do with the Kangaroos or the Roosters
The North Ballarat Football Club is extremely disliked by the majority of football people in the district because of it's outstanding success in the local competition years back.
The proposal long term is to build a stadium similar to Launceston in which some AFL games will be played.
Might be able to get rid of the shipping container. !!
$50 million is a lot of bloody money. Must be a election coming up !!!
digs wrote: billythekid
So who will be the ground manager? The AFL or one of its clubs or the council and what about your social club?
billythekid wrote: digs
I would imagine if the proposal were to go ahead the ground manager would be the City of Ballarat as they are negotiating the proposal & own the ground. The social club would obviously benefit as it is a freehold property owned by the North Ballarat Football Club.
It would be a very difficult situation staging an AFL game at Eureka stadium and trying to tell 10,000-15,000 people that they cant have a beer outside the small club rooms.
Ballarat people love the footy, its North Ballarat the majority hate.
When North Melbourne played the Swans in a pre-season game a few years ago 12,000 was the crowd estimate.
Dont be so negative Dale.
Lets not get too excited just yet. To quote the famous line "Show me the money".
Anyhow if it does go ahead there is no certainty that the development money would be spent on Eureka Stadium. ???
A question off topic to the Nth Ballarat boys.
Woulndt the Roosters be better off embracing the Eureka Flag symbol and colours ( I reckon it wont take Nth Melb long to embrace this idea when playing at Ballarat) and give the ballarat people a more netural team to follow that the apparently much hated Nth Ballarat club?You might even get a lot more people to the games.
Ive always though it pretty poor form that a senior team in a regional city of 100,000 gets such poor crowds.
Lets face if if NB ahd to rely only on local support and not the gambling money to to survive they would have gone broke years ago and end up like Bendigo.
Billy, I think most clubs with pokies now rely on them for survival. When the comp gets crowds less than 1,000 per game what do you expect?
NO, NO, NO, NO Billy, North Ballarat were a powerhouse in the Ballarat Football league well before the introduction of pokies & bingo with well over 120 years of history.
To compare them with Bendigo is a ridiculous comparison, as they were thrown together with no tradition, no infrastructure & no nothing. Agree that the crowds are poor & we did embrace the Eureka concept back in our early years with the Eureka flag type flag motif on the jumpers without much encouragement, enthusiasm or interest.
The Roosters are not the only club to have the revenue available from gaming machines. Do you think Port or Williamstown are any different. ??
You could also ask Frankston about their money from the pokies.
Williamstown have done extremely well with the Seagulls Bar in newport. Port is going ok with the Rex. Werribee is doing better with its funds. Frankston could do with a bigger venue for iots pokies. Maybe when the new social club it can accomodate this. Preston and Coburg wish they had a pub or club with pokies.
The clubs need funds and revnue raised from the pokies does make a huge difference. The old days when things were much simpler there was bingo nights and days. Pokies only existed in NSW. Personally I hate pokies and would not spend five cents. I would rather have a couple of bucks on a horse.
Still if it is to raise funds for local footy clubs fair enough.
I disagree with pokie venues in traditional old hotels.
Give me an old fashion country hotel anyday.
In order of funds and how would you rate each club ?
Williamstown, Port, North Ballarat, Werribee, Casey, Box Hill, Sandringham, Preston, Coburg, Bendigo, Frankston. Just guessing but would that be close enough ?