New Stadium for Adelaide?

I would like to make a brief comment on an issue that has been much talked about in Adelaide media this week, it is the issue of a potential new stadium for Adelaide. It wouldn't be a specific football stadium, but it would be a lot better for football than our current major stadium - AAMI Stadium (which really isn't suitable at all). South Australian premier, Mike Rann, has planned to build a new hospital, costing $1.7 billion, and has ruled out a new stadium. The other side of politics, the Liberals, have said that they would rather upgrade our current hospital and have said that one of their goals is to build the new stadium.

Rann wants to build a new hospital on a prime location, right next to the torrens, on North Terrace. It's silly because this part of Adelaide is dominated by entertainment venues - it's a perfect place for a stadium, or at least some sort of cultural centre etc.

The current hospital is now in a perfect location, right next to the Uni and medical school. The smart thing to do is upgrade it, you would have to do it carefully and it would cost a lot, but not as much as a completely new hospital. You could easily upgrade the building and facilities so that it would be as good as a completely new hospital.

Some people want to spend the money reseved for a hospital on a stadium instead, they don't have their priorities right IMO. However we should be patient on the stadium issue, if we were to win the World Cup bid it would become a lot easier to justify the cost. Also, we don't need to spend over a billion dollars on a new stadium, Telstra Dome only cost half a billion, ANZ Stadium only cost $800 million - sure construction costs are up, but we would not be looking at a billion dollars for a new stadium.

The reason I will vote Liberal at the next election is that they aren't going to waste an awsome piece of land on a hospital, and they are not going to waste money on moving a hospital, when a substantial upgrade would be just as good.

Bye for Now,
Matt