All home games at Kardinia — Cats
GEELONG Cats have declared they want to play all their home games at Kardinia Park, as they pursue support for the final stage of the ground’s $280 million upgrade.
The Cats have revealed they will lobby the AFL to schedule their 11 home games in Geelong, in a move that would shift clashes with Collingwood and Hawthorn away from the MCG.
While they have been consistently calling for more matches at the Cattery, the club has now resolved to campaign to host all of its home games in Geelong.
The Cats have not played more than eight games per year at Kardinia Park since Docklands Stadium was opened in 2000.
“We want to get to a position where we can play 11 games in Geelong,” acting CEO Justin Reeves told the Geelong Advertiser.
“We want to play as many games here as possible.”
The decision plants the Cats’ flag firmly in Geelong, and sees them prepared to waive off hosting heavyweight Victorian clubs at the MCG in front of potentially 70,000plus fans.
“People need to understand that we aren’t a Melbourne club. We’re a regional club, in a regional city, with a regional stadium,” Mr Reeves said.
The Cats can secure far greater profits per head at Simonds Stadium than at the MCG or Docklands.
The potential for all Cats home games to be played in Geelong was thrust on the agenda last month by Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chairman Steve Bracks.
The former Victorian premier flagged the prospect of hosting the 11 allocated home games after the fifth and final stage of redevelopment was completed.
While funding is yet to be secured, Mr Bracks said construction on the $90 million upgrade of the Ablett Terrace could begin at the end of the 2018 season.
“We’ve started (design) work now and would be hopeful that money for the actual project will be forthcoming by mid next year,” he said.
Mr Reeves said the AFL had strongly backed the multistaged redevelopment of Kardinia Park over the past 14 years, pitching in $11.75m of its own funds to the long-term project.
But he believes the most significant contribution the AFL could make to complete the stadium’s fifth and final $90m stage would come not from more money, but more matches.
“The best thing they could do to support the fifth stage is to allow us to play more games at home.”
With the State Government having contributed about three-quarters of all government funding to the building works so far, all eyes are on Canberra to bankroll the bulk of the final stage.
A sought-after City Deal — which would combine federal, state and local government investment — is a potential solution.
However, Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson is still to secure her Government’s backing for a Geelong City Deal.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has signed long-term deals for Townsville, Launceston and Western Sydney over the past year.