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Adelaide crowing over stadium saga

Mr Dandalooa

Adelaide Football Club plans to retain its club facilities at Football Park at West Lakes, despite shifting games to the city.

Former Crows chairman Bill Sanders recently sparked debate over the football stadium claiming a proposed move to Adelaide Oval would be risky to the Adelaide outfit.

Sanders thinks the issue of where the Crows and Port Adelaide play football needs to be re-thought as the South Australian Government moves to fund a $450 million redevelopment of Adelaide Oval to allow home matches there for Port and the Crows.

All parties involved are negotiating finer details of the proposed deal.

Sanders reckons the Crows must reconsider backing any move to Adelaide Oval, saying his concerns have come from people who have made approaches on the basis of “Why are we doing this, why are we considering it?”

In a debate that rages in Western Australia between Dockers and Eagles fans alike, Sanders said the city like all major cities in Australia, needs two stadiums.

“I think our city is ready for two and I struggle to find how cricket and football can both operate out of the one venue and hence the Stadium Management Authority have got a big job on their hands to work through that one,” he was quoted as saying in an ABC report.

“If there was going to be another venue, major sporting venue in South Australia, can we go for one that is independent from cricket and one that’s going to have a roof over it, that seems to be the vogue now?”

The iconic Adelaide Oval is set to undergo a $450 million redevelopment which will see the field transformed into a 50,000-seat world-class stadium.

In an agreement encompassing the South Australian Government and the state’s football league (SANFL) and cricket association (SACA), which will join to make a new organisation, the proposed stadium will host both cricket and AFL matches.

The new design would retain many of the oval’s famous features, such as the pavilion-style nature of the ground, the hill at the northern end and the century-old scoreboard.

The deal, which is not legally binding, means Football Park, the traditional home of AFL in SA and home for both the Port Power and the Crows, will remain as a training and administration facility only.

The South Australian state government is seeking to have the final deal in place by July 2011 with Premier Mike Rann saying the negotiations had been tough but had finally brought the two codes together.

Crows chief executive Steven Trigg has reportedly said the club will only move games if it brings “obvious advantages on and off the field”.

He said while he understood a number of people involved would be edgy about the move, most don’t have the facts yet, as he didn’t have all the facts yet.

Treasurer Kevin Foley said Sanders was not a spokesperson for the Crows and planning for the Adelaide Oval redevelopment “remains on track”.

AFL kingpin Andrew Demetriou says the upgrade would be a wonderful result for the game as the new stadium would also assist in Australia’s bid to host the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups.

“While there are still a number of key steps to be achieved a refurbished Adelaide Oval, with a capacity of 50,000, would be a fantastic result for fans of our game in South Australia,” he said.