GFL STADIUM FIGHT
Cost of Simonds forces GFL to look at West Oval
THE first two weekends of the Geelong Football League finals will be played at West Oval unless a lastminute deal can be brokered between AFL Barwon and the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust.
The Geelong Advertiser understands the quote to play local finals at Simonds Stadium is more expensive than under the previous arrangement with the City of Greater Geelong.
AFL Barwon is weighing up whether to accept the cost or pull the trigger on its back-up option of using the cheaper West Oval.
The league believes it would be running the qualifying, elimination and both semi-finals at a loss if it accepted the latest proposed hire charge at Simonds.
Geelong council, which previously operated the stadium, had offered up the ground at a discounted rate as part of a sponsorship deal with AFL Barwon.
Still, it has never been a cheap exercise to play at the redeveloped venue.
The most recent costs to use the stadium under the previous council arrangement were about $35,000 for the finals series — about $8500 a day on average (two semi-final days, the preliminary final and the grand final).
AFL Barwon says the latest figure from the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust stands at about a “15-20 per cent increase” on past years.
The charge covers venue hire, stadium management, ground preparation, bench communications, scoreboard operation and supplier costs, such as security and cleaning. Charges also vary depending on the number of grandstands opened.
AFL Barwon relies on gate takings to recoup costs.
“We’re still negotiating with the trust and, at the end of the day, we need to make a financially responsible decision based on what the outgoings against the incomings will be,” AFL Barwon region manager Lee Hartman.
“We’ve already lost the 2017 Geelong footy club car parking contract, which was budgeted income for $35,000.
“Although that wasn’t a decision of the trust, potentially then running four days of finals at a loss on the first two weekends is not something we would entertain.”
The GFL is committed to playing its preliminary and grand finals at Simonds.
Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive officer Michael Brown said stadium management was working to provide “the best commercial rate” possible.
“We’re a not-for-profit organisation, so it’s not about making money, it’s about covering costs,” Brown said.
“We want to help out as much as we can. We’re really keen to have them here.
“I don’t know what council did, we’re not privy to that, all we’ve done is given them the best possible commercial rate we could think of to cover costs.
“So we don’t seek to make a profit, there’s obviously costs involved in opening the venue, security, cleaning, running scoreboards, all that stuff.
“We’re a trust, we don’t have any money, as much as we’d love to have them here, everyone who comes here has got to pay their way and they’ve also got to determine what they want to do as well.
“We’ll welcome them and they’ll make their call in due course.”
West Oval, which has often been used in the first week of GFL finals, has been booked and remains on standby.
The other factor in the equation is whether Geelong receives a home final at Simonds Stadium on the September 7-10 weekend, which falls on GFL semi-final weekend.
Should the Cats be fixtured a home final, then the first two weekends of the GFL finals would be at West Oval.
The GFL finals start on September 2.