Top idea will stay a dream
IT looks pretty amazing, and it’s a seriously cool concept. But the truth about architect Don Gallagher’s vision for a stadium at Macquarie Point is that it won’t happen. The reason is mainly political.
But this story is even more complicated than that. That’s because the AFL has privately made it known that the promise of a covered 25,000-seat (or so) stadium would hugely help in building Tasmania’s case for its own team in the big league. Hobart-based Premier Will Hodgman is therefore an advocate behind the scenes. And it makes perfect sense for such a stadium to be built on the brownfield Macquarie Point site rather than another upgrade to Blundstone Arena. Just ask those who understand the big business of sports administration. It was no coincidence, for example, that with one foot out the door the outgoing Cricket Tasmania boss Nick Cummins (he’s moving back to Melbourne) called for a covered multipurpose stadium to be built at Macquarie Point. Yep, the man who for the past three years has been the king of Blundstone Arena said publicly — once he had nothing to lose — that an entirely new stadium is needed to “solve a lot of the current infrastructure issues that multiple sports face” in Hobart: transport to and from the ground, a high-performance venue that could be shared between elite sports, and a nationally recognised base for that future Tasmanian AFL team.
Why not build it at Launceston? Well, here’s another uncomfortable truth: there is no way a future AFL team could ever be based in the northern city that is home to about 100,000 people. It’s just not big enough. Even Hobart with its about-230,000 people is considered right on the edge of being too small. That is not to say home games would not be shared between Hobart and Launceston. But as for its home base, nobody is seriously talking about Launceston.
But anyway, despite all the talk, a Macquarie Point stadium is unlikely to ever happen. The primary reasons are political ones. Yes, there is a practical consideration in that the Macquarie Point masterplan that has been wrestled frustratingly slowly to fruition does not even contemplate such a thing (and you only need to look at Mr Gallagher’s vision to see how much of the site a stadium would take up). But the political considerations outweigh that truth. Firstly, any stadium really needs federal funding to make it stack up. And with Hobart’s two federal electorates being far from marginal, that’s never going to happen. Secondly, every Tasmanian politician knows that elections are won in the North. So no political leader wanting to win an election would ever consider announcing that the showpiece bit of football infrastructure in the state will be constructed in Hobart. It just won’t happen.
So if it won’t happen in Launceston for practical reasons and it won’t happen in Hobart for political reasons, then we have hit an impasse. Which is all a real shame. We reported on Saturday that Townsville, home to both a football (rugby league) team in the national competition and also to one of the nation’s most marginal electorates, is getting a brand new citycentre stadium built on the site of some old railyards courtesy of a mix of federal and state funding. It is due to open in late February with an Elton John concert. Meanwhile in Tasmania we can only ever dream. I guess that’s why they call it the blues.