A-League Season 2011/2012

Postby **BigPete33** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:19 pm

There was a huge deal made about the grandstand/upgrade at Hindmarsh in the er.. 80's? (maybe 90's).

White elephant they called it.

Now we wish it held more!

I tend to agree with Bacon here, if the quality product is there then people will go to see it. If they have the match at Adelaide Oval it gets way more than 15k, even though it's worse for viewing. If Hindmarsh held let's say 20k they'd have filled it last night. Matches against Brisbane would draw similar now. If Sydney get their act together consistently that will also draw well.

I'm loving the start to the A-League so far, lots more quality right throughout and it's showing already with the attendances.

Postby **David** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:20 pm

Only been there once so can't remember - but is there possibility to expand the seating numbers? Or is it a "start again" scenario?

Postby **BigPete33** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:25 pm

Good question!

At a very uneducated guess they could "grandstand" the whole lot but I'm not sure that would actually add a lot more seats, depends on the overall footprint.

They could certainly fill in the corners and that would add 2-3k I would expect. Probably not a bad place to start.

May even be best to have it in the CBD, pretending that an Adelaide Oval upgrade had retractable/extendable stands or whatever. That's probably the best location being more central and better for public transport etc. MUST have the fans close to the pitch though - it's just not football otherwise.

Bacon · Postby **Bacon** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:39 pm

Heard the footprint isn't big enough to expand the whole thing, but the city side corners probably could be filled permanently. They did some for the Olympics (which I didn't attend) temporarily. I'd say the corner closest to South Rd & Manton St is the one that can't be upgraded.

Starting again, with them completely changing the layout of Santos Stadium (to a football pitch inside a running track, and good stands) could be the best outcome (but not the cheapest).

Postby **BigPete33** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:48 pm

I'm going to disagree, because I absolutely loathe the pitch inside a running track scenario.

Crowd is just toooo far away and that ruins it for me.

What's that stadium that has the green seating? I think it's where Melbourne Heart play? Other than being green it looks orright.

Bacon · Postby **Bacon** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:25 pm

AAMI Park.

I know Santos wouldn't be ideal, but just an idea.

Ideally, purpose built close to city, but never gonna happen.

Postby **bennymacca** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 8:40 pm

Hindmarsh is pretty easy to get to now with the tram so location cbd-wise is ok but I agree, 20k stadium would be ideal

maccatak11 · Postby **maccatak11** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:47 pm

Filling in the corners permanently (like they did for the olympics) would bring the capacity to 21k which would be a perfectly sized stadium. Atmosphere was bloody awesome last night! Best atmosphere I have been to at hindmarsh, including the Asian champions league final that i went to a couple of years ago!
GO YOU REDS!

trishan · Postby **trishan** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:36 pm

My captain Smeltz stepping up - 2 goals so far. I didn't know Pantellis was injured and Hamill only gets subbed on every now and then. Ah well. Bacon doing alright though I see.

trishan · Postby **trishan** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 6:37 pm

Crap - Tim Brown got sent off in the 89th minute - that ref was pretty trigger happy tho.

You're a Bunch of Factors