It is of course contingent on funding from the other two levels of government. A lot of money for a ‘local/suburban’ ground.
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The $45m option seems maybe closer to the mark, but still seems absurd given the lack of confirmed matches - Wests seem to be pitting the various councils against each other to secure their home games.
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Its good to see the Tigers try and prioritise playing at their “homes” rather than at CommBank - but to be frank, both Campbelltown and Leichhardt are shitholes that need significant investment to make them reasonable facilities let alone suitable for professional sport.
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Probably banking on a Sydney FC Women’s team or similar team making it their playing base.
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Major tenant Brisbane Lions have responded
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So given Ikon Park is a sell out for the Grand Final - surely we have to reconsider its status as the AFLW’s main Victorian venue, or look at options for expanding it to a 15-20k capacity, like it was talked about prior to the AFLW competition starting.
The most obvious thing to me would be replacing the Heroes Stand, which uses a lot of space for very little actual capacity, and which doesn’t need all the rooms and boxes as nearly all of that bar the commentary boxes is moved to Carlton’s new facility.
My more crazy idea in addition to that would be to close off and demolish the seating in the ground level part of the Legends stand and make that grass so that they can push the goals back in that direction and open up some space for an amount of standing room behind the goals at the other end - the worst part of the current layout is that the Carlton FC facility is right up against the fence line, so you get no spectators behind the goals, which sucks out a lot of atmosphere at games.
Otherwise, Whitten Oval’s redevelopment puts it at a higher capacity, so would be a natural replacement if Ikon Park can’t keep up and development just stops where it is now.
I don’t think it’s viable to try and keep Marvel available just in case, so it needs to be a third venue - but if it’s to be Ikon then it needs to be more than it is now.
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It highlights the need for Melbourne to have a boutique stadium, with the expansion of the training facilities at Ikon Park, it almost no longer serves as the small stadium needs. Probably should have kept it how it was originally and just updated the seats.
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Don’t think we’ll see grass on it any time soon, Melbourne City A-League has been forced to move an AFC Champions League match to the venue next month so I’m guessing it will have to remain near all seater.
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What does that have to do with it?
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It’ll be good for cricket…
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UPDATE 13/12
UPDATE 19/1
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The state government has just spent billions ensuring their new Cross River Rail provides a station to access the existing Gabba - I cannot imagine they will simply drop everything there to spend billions more building a pipe dream at Victoria Park, only to leave the old Gabba vacant without a tenant.
The way the sporting codes wailed about the thought of being without a Brisbane home for a couple of years while they get a new super-stadium built for them at the Gabba has been unbearable. Seriously, go play down on the Gold Coast for a couple of years. It’s not like it will send the AFL broke in that time, and you’ll then have a new, shiny stadium in Brisbane to play in for the next 30+ years.
Mind you, it seems the state government is set to cave into them and the wailing NIMBYs in South Brisbane, so we get stuck with the crappy old Gabba for a while longer. But at least East Brisbane will get to keep it’s old, landlocked school bound by three major roads, right? 
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Well it’s what the school’s students and their parents want. For many it’s their local school.
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I don’t think the primary school kids at East Brisbane are too worried where they go to school. Their parents on the other hand…
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The Gabba would need to be knocked-down (with the state school next door going with it) regardless of the Olympics IMO.
It is simply too small for the attendance events held there would get in the future. The Olympics in 2032 have only accelerated the need for it.
I do know/accept it is quite unpopular with some members of the public/politicians though, but it is a necessary step for the future of the stadium.
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Yeah - the station will bring opportunities for a lot of high density development - and with it the need for a bigger capacity inner city school. Build something new to replace it, a nice modern facility with capacity for a growing city.
The heritage for a school has to be weighed against what an Olympics could leave behind for Brisbane - do you want to be the city that half-assed it and got “value for money” on the world stage - or wow people and put Brisbane on the map as a world city.
Suncorp’s availability for non sporting events is already pretty low, so does Brisbane just keep itself locked out of ‘stadium’ level events- how long before the lost revenue from those outweighs the cash saved on a light refurb of the Gabba vs the knockdown?
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Some very good points there. I really hope we don’t go down the half-arse approach and leave no long lasting benefit. The Gabba rebuild and even refurbishment opponents seem to be just jumping on the bandwagon to some degree. Most confusing of all seem to be Lion’s members who seem so focused on a couple of years of inconvenience vs. having a state of the art stadium handed to them on a silver platter.
Having said that I’m actually leaning towards the Victoria Park proposal for a greenfield new stadium and indoor arena. That will leave a lasting legacy. What happens to the Gabba after that is unclear but it would likely be reclaimed for apartment and commercial development.
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