2018/2022 World Cup Bid - MCG

Australia’s bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup is gathering momentum, the bid is capturing enormous media attention with one of the key issues being stadia that will be included in the FFA’s ‘bid book’, to be completed next month.

I wanted to have a look at one stadium, sure to be included in the book, the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The MCG is an icon of Australian sport and, while probably no longer the favourite, is a chance of hosting the World Cup final. Many stadia will be upgraded, rebuilt for the tournament (should Australia win the hosting rights), but little has been said about what may be done to the MCG. Half the ground is fairly new, being rebuilt for the 2006 Commonwealth games, however the Great Southern Stand is now close to 20 years old, and could use replacing. Extending the new stand right around the ground would turn the MCG into a modern world class venue. Some would criticize the current look of the ground, with an old stand on one side and a new stand on the other making the ground look a bit ‘patchy’, quite different from some of the World’s best modern stadiums, which were built together, rather than in several stages. This would of course bring enormous benefits for AFL and Cricket fans, whom most frequently visit the stadium, as well as fans who attend World Cup games at the venue.

A large discussion point, surrounding the MCG and the World Cup bid, is it’s suitability to football. I would also like to see this addressed. Installing retractable seating would immensely improve the viewing experience for fans at the World Cup, and would create a football legacy of sorts, with the possibility of using the retractable seating for Socceroos games and other football matches in the future. Some have suggested a temporary conversion of the MCG to a rectangle for the tournament, I would favour this option which also has long term benefits.

(Current MCG)

So, my plan:

- Upgrade Stands: Extend the modern stands on the North of the ground right around the stadium, at the same time, make the ground slightly smaller, bringing in the Southern boundary line. The ground would now be more oval and less circular:

- Retractable Seating: This plan borrows from the proposed “Stadium WA”, which was to be a new stadium for Perth, but has not yet become reality. The stadium was to have a modern kind of retractable seating, where stands would pivot around fixed hinges – see this link for more info: http://www.dsr.wa.gov.au/assets/files/Major%20Stadium/The%20Stadium%20and%20the%20City%20Vol%201%20The%20Stadium.pdf

My diagram is fairly rough, but you get the idea. The lower tier of the MCG would need to be completely rebuilt, with the lower tier divided into 12 sections (8 which would be used for the rectangular seating). This system could see the MCG transformed into a world class rectangular stadium using only retractable seating:

(AFL Mode)

 (Stands Pivot to rectangular mode)

(Football Mode)

  
(The result may look something like this)

The large capacity of the MCG (100,000) ensures it will be part of Australia’s bid. I believe work should be carried out regardless, as a stadium of this quality would help ensure a successful tournament and would provide a great legacy for Melbourne.

Matt

Australia’s 2010 World Cup Kit

Here are the rumoured home and away shirts that the Socceroos will wear in South Africa. Judge for yourself, but I’m happy they’ve tried to mix it up a bit. It does look a lot like a Cricket or Rugby shirt though:

Higher Res: http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5711/aus20105.png

The kit is expected to be worn from 2010 until 2012. It will probably be worn first in the farewell match that will be played at the MCG in May.

Matt.

The Reason Australia Needs the World Cup #1431

Ah AFL – not a sport I really dislike. For any readers who are not from Australia, AFL is a football code which “uniquely embodies the Australian spirit”. It’s a sport that was created by Australians and for Australians – hence it must be the greatest sport in the World – If I were to argue against that I must logically be un-Australian, right?

There’s no question that AFL is currently the most popular sport in Australia. For those who run the AFL this is something that must continue to be the case. If it wasn’t the biggest sport in Australia, then it wouldn’t be the biggest sport anywhere and then it would be confined to the history books, and Australia would cease to have a game that we could be proud of. It might even be the end of Australia as we know it – how else can we be proud of ourselves as a people if we don’t have a sport to call our own?

</sarcasm>

The CEO of the Australian Football League, Andrew Demetriou, has come out today claiming that if Australia’s bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups is successful, the AFL may have to take a season off, potentially causing several AFL clubs to fold. His reasoning is that some of the stadia used by the AFL are also earmarked to be used for football games as part of any Australian World Cup, and may be ‘out of action’ for a couple of months.

Let’s ignore the fact that the AFL neither owns or payed for these facilities - while they have on occasion invested in stadium redevelopments and construction the funding for the facilities the AFL uses has come almost exclusively from state and federal governments. The same governments who know and understand the financial benefits a World Cup will bring to Australia.

The simple fact is, Andrew’s not telling the truth. The AFL have plenty of other stadiums and facilities that could easily enable them to have a season in 2018/2022. In 2006 the AFL played for much of the season without the use of the MCG due to the Commonwealth Games, this was relatively painless and the AFL were more than happy to allow this to happen, of course the AFL doesn’t consider Athletics to be one of it’s competitors.

Even if, as suggested today, the MCG could be out of action for several months as it is temporarily converted into a rectangular venue, some creative scheduling would ensure the AFL would be able to continue. Potentially the AFL season may have to take a break of 1-2 months, but there should be no problem with the AFL season extending into late Spring.

MCG as a rectangular venue?

Whatever the solution – you can be sure there is one. There are at least 9 years for the AFL to prepare for the World Cup, ample time to work out alternative arrangements. And Demetriou is suggesting that AFL clubs could die because of this? Laughable.

So why did Demetriou come out and make these comments? There are two possible reasons – the first is that he is trying to make the AFL appear hard done by and over exaggerating the financial impact that a World Cup could have on the AFL and AFL clubs – trying to increase the amount of compensation that the AFL will receive.

He could also just be trying to derail Australia’s bid. On reading the headlines many an Australian sports fan will be shocked. They probably had nothing against a World Cup up until now – but now it seems their favourite AFL side will ‘cease to exist’ if the Cup is played on our shores.

Whatever his motivation – you can tell that the media’s on his side as well. Australia’s newspapers are filled with sports journalists who would be without a job if it wasn’t for the AFL. This is the motivation behind many of the sensationalist articles you might have read today. Melbourne’s Herald Sun even ran a poll on it’s website - “Would you accept scrapping the AFL season to ensure Australia hosts the soccer World Cup?” – time to declare your allegiances Australia – it’s either the game we’ve grown up on and the game that identifies us as the greatest nation on earth, or it’s the World Cup – not both.

I was following the results of this poll this afternoon – noticed a pattern – the “Yes” votes seem to occasionally disappear. Could be a technical glitch I guess, but it seems a little suspicious to me:

There are a lot of people in this country who will do whatever it takes to make sure Australia remembers that AFL is the Australian game, and the only game that a ‘true-blue’ Australian can support. We need this world cup, we need it like North Korea needs democracy.

Matt.

Bundesliga comes to Ten’s ‘One HD’

Channel Ten have revealed that their 24-hour free-to-air sports channel, One HD, will be covering Germany’s top flight football competition, the Bundesliga, this season. Starting with a game between newly promoted Nuremburg and Schalke at 11:30pm this Saturday night - One will show a Bundesliga game live in High Definition every week.

Until now, I have been quite critical of One’s apparent ‘no-football policy’. It was quite poor to see a dedicated sports channel showing everything from AFL to paintball, but leaving out the world’s biggest game. In their defence, this may have had something to do with the rights to most football around the world already being held, but in any case to see them spend some cash on European football is a very good sign (just how much they would have paid is an interesting question – Setanta, who would have agreed to sh are their Bundesliga rights, are desperate for cash at the moment). Let’s hope we see even more football on One HD soon, the way Ten announced their coverage as ‘our first major European football league’ certainly suggests there may be more to come.

A lack of football coverage for those without pay-television has long been an issue in Australia, but consider what football will be shown on free-tv in the next 12 months:

One HD:
- 30+ Bundesliga games

SBS:
- 25+ UEFA Champions League games
- UEFA Europa league
- FIFA Club World Cup
- FIFA Under 20 World Cup (and other FIFA tournaments)
- A selection of other football, with many games on Sunday afternoons
- Not to forget next year’s World Cup… 64 more matches

ABC1:
- W-league

In fact, there will probably be more football on FTA TV in the next year than there will be any other sport. Pretty impressive considering how much more football is on pay-television.

Of course the obvious problem is that Socceroos matches and the A-league are still exclusively on Fox Sports. Bundesliga matches late on Saturday nights will be great, but I still look forward to the day when we see local football on FTA TV during primetime. Perhaps with One HD showing some interest in football, the money that the FFA gets from TV rights will significantly rise when they are next negotiated. I’m hoping that with a high price, comes some level of FTA coverage.

Matt

Gold Coast and Brisbane 2009-10 Shirts

The last remaining kits, not previously leaked, for the upcoming A-league season have recently been revealed by Gold Coast United and the Brisbane Roar. Pictures are below.

One interesting point is how the Gold Coast’s kit clashes with that of the Central Coast (see previous blog: http://mattwintersfootballblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/2009-10-league-kits-released.html). As mentioned in that blog, a few kits seem likely to cause problems when certain teams come up against each other this season. When the Mariners travel to Skilled Park, they will have no suitable clash strip to wear for the game. It is likely that this will force the Gold Coast to wear their white strip at home.

It’s all well and good that the Mariners came up with a striped kit as their home strip (incidentally, what are the odds that the FFA were the ones that pushed this, knowing that the Gold Coast wanted an all-yellow strip), and to have a yellow away kit, but these two strips really don’t clash. Perhaps a 3rd kit would have been a good idea for them (and maybe a couple of other sides).

Still, Reebok have definitely improved their kit designs a lot this season. Might have something to do with their contract expiring next year.

Matt

2009-10 A-league Kits Released

Last Week, 8 out of the 10 Hyundai A-league clubs new kit were released. Still no word on Brisbane or the Gold Coast’s kits – but here’s a lot at those that were revealed:

Adelaide:Adelaide’s home kit is fairly similar to previous years, although there does appear to be some sort of pinstripe pattern – hard to tell from the low res images though. Looks good though. The away kit is a little retro, but is a nice change.

Central Coast:

No surprise here, we have already seen this kit. They really should fix the back of the home kit – the player name looks silly going over the stripes. They should really just make the top half of the back of the kit plain yellow, with a blue name and number. (similar to Perth’s kit – see below)

Melbourne:

Melbourne goes with a fairly standard strip, the V looks a little thinner than it used to, which is good. The little v’s running down the side are somewhat odd, but shouldn’t look too bad on the final kit. The away kit is white, rather than silver – looks good though.

Newcastle:

Newcastle will not use their Champions League kit in next year’s A-league. Their kit will, in fact, be very similar to their kit from last year. They’ve gone with a blue away kit, which looks good although I would have liked to have seen a blue/red away kit.

North Queensland:

North Queensland kit was leaked last week. This design looks quite bright, but I think the actual kit will look better than this looks on paper.

Perth:

Perth have gone the vertical stripes for next season, while I would have preferred hoops (just because we already have a couple of other teams in vertical stripes), this kit looks great. Again, I expect the actual kit to look better than the kit does on paper, because this design is quite bright. I think this is more accurate to what it will actually look like:

 

Sydney FC:

Sydney’s kit is fairly standard, but it certainly looks good. You can’t have everyone wearing an ‘interesting’ kit.

Wellington:

Wellington’s striped kit looks excellent. Their away kit is very nice as well. They have done the same thing as Central Coast with their player names going over their stripes, which is the only problem I have with this kit.

Gold Coast, Brisbane:

These are the only two clubs yet to have their kits released, the delay for Brisbane might be related to their name-change from Queensland, while Gold Coast evidently are still working on theirs.

Here’s a couple of mock-ups I’ve done, I have a feeling that Brisbane will go with the maroon, while I think the Gold Coast might go with a predominantly yellow kit – although I prefer the teal.

Clashes:

One interesting thing to consider about the new kits is potential clashes. I imagine that most sides will wear their home shirt as much as possible, with their away kit ready as an alternative when required. Consider some examples though – what happens when:

Wellington hosts Central Coast?
Central Coast plays Newcastle?

Interestingly the only solution to these clashes might force the home team to wear their away strip. This is why, in Europe, a lot of sides (especially those with stripes) have to have 3 kits, to ensure that they can always provide an alternative strip to the home team. I wonder what the solution will be for the A-league?

Summary:

It’s great to see A-league clubs without the standard template kits this season. I also look forward to seeing an away team that isn’t wearing white.

These kits will likely be unveiled officially on Monday, when the A-league draw is released.

Matt

North Queensland Fury Kit Revealed

North Queensland’s inaugural A-league kit has been leaked – here’s my mock-up of it (from the low resolution pics that were leaked):

It looks a little odd, but I like the combination of light/dark green. The back of the kit is mainly light green.

Matt

Australian Football Broadcasting Update

It’s been about 8 months since I finished my (mammoth) series of blogs regarding TV Coverage of football in Australia. I looked at football on Free-to-Air Television, then wrote about football on Subscription Television, and finally looked at the future of football on Australian TV. This will just be an update on the situation, there have been a few interesting developments since my last blog.

Pay TV:

Let me talk about Pay-TV first. While there haven’t been a lot of improvements made to the amount of football coverage we get lately, there have been a few things worth noting.

Fox Sports:

Fox Sports have pushed ahead with their High Definition football coverage this season, many A-league games have been shown in HD, as well as all Socceroos games and heaps of games from England. I haven’t got access to Fox Sports HD myself, but from all reports the quality has been very good.

Recently Fox have shown a bit more Asian football, including every one of the final round of Asian World Cup qualifiers. Unfortunately though, many of these games have been shown on delay, and viewers choice hasn’t been utilized.

One of the problems for Fox, when it comes to Asian football, has been finding commentators and producing the coverage. Fox prefers to provide it’s own commentators for games, which is fine, but the problem with this is that they have been reluctant to broadcast games unless they feel that it is worth doing commentary and doing good coverage.

The Asian Champions league, which is going on currently, is a good example. Fox would gladly broadcast all games from the Champions league, if it was as simple as just putting them on TV. But it would be very hard for them to provide commentary and to produce every one of these games. As I’ve said previously, the solution to this is obvious – they need to share the load with other Asian Broadcasters. Perhaps the AFC should spearhead this, but if the recourses of Fox, Star Sports, and other English Language Asian networks were combined, you could have good quality coverage of all games – and viewers all over Asia (and the World) could benefit.

Still on the topic of Asian football, I received a bit of an exclusive yesterday when I had confirmation from Fox Sports that the J-league will be shown on Fox this year. At this stage it will likely just be a highlights show, but at least it’s something. Expect to see this starting up in the next couple of weeks.

It would be awesome to see live coverage of the J-league one day, especially as games are shown at a perfect time for Australian viewers, and it would be a perfect competition to fill the void left by the lack of A-league during Winter. Again, though, it’s hard for Fox to commit to broadcasting the J-league live, as they would likely have to produce and do commentary for the games themselves (unless they could use the coverage that Eurosport do in England).

 
(Incidentally, I’ve seen a few J-league games online this season – it really is a high quality league, and great to watch – I recommend checking it out if you have a good internet connection)

Setanta:

Setanta Sports still suffers from many of the problems that I talked about last year. They have heaps of rights, and plenty of good coverage, but no where near enough airtime to show live matches. One recent edition to Setanta’s coverage is the Russian Premier League. I quite like that they are showing this, as it’s one league that is well suited to Australian viewers, with games on a bit earlier than other European leagues. They desperately need more channels, or maybe some viewers choice system though.

Other:

I talked last year about the possibility of new channels coming to Foxtel, which could improve football coverage. While this has not happened yet, I have heard strong rumours that 3 new sports channels will be available on Foxtel before the end of the year, most likely from October 1st. I’m confident that Eurosport will be one of these channels, while Sky Sports News might be another. It also leaves the door open for that Fox Sports football channel, which is still a possibility.

(These channels will be just a few of the 20 channels that will be launched before the end of the year, also expect to see Foxtel convert all it’s subscribers to the Foxtel IQ. There should be a few other improvements as well)

FTA:

Unfortunately there isn’t a lot to report regarding football on Australian FTA TV at the moment. Most football coverage is limited to SBS, who continue their dedication to the World Game.

SBS:

They did try something different recently, introducing an extra show on Tuesday nights. The concept of “Extra Time” was very solid – a recap of the weekend’s football, with all the goals from the EPL and the A-league. Unfortunately making the show only half and hour long, and putting it at 6pm meant it was doomed to failure. SBS has said that it will be back at some point, hopefully they put it on Monday nights – maybe at 9:30 – and let it go a bit longer, so that all the big European leagues can be looked at in detail.

One thing that was fairly significant late last year for SBS was the FIFA Club World Cup. Firstly, it was the first time SBS had ever shown games involving an A-league team. Their coverage was solid, and the ratings were good. It was also significant because, for the first time, SBS used their extra digital channel to show football. They had Adelaide’s 5th/6th placed playoff as well as the Gamba v Manchester Semi-final exclusively on their digital channel. Hopefully they use this channel again for their coverage of the Confederations Cup and FIFA Under 20 World Cup later this year.

The other regular football that we see on SBS is the UEFA Champions league. We still do not know, however, if SBS will have the rights to this competition beyond this year, but hopefully they will, as there really isn’t enough football on FTA TV at the moment.

ABC:

It was good to see a FTA channel other than SBS getting in on the football action this Summer. ABC did a good job covering the W-league, and followed it up with coverage of two Matildas games early this year. Considering the timeslot and the quality of the football, the ratings were very good. Hopefully the ABC might start broadcasting other womens/youth football in the future – this was something I mentioned as part of my ‘ideal scenario’ in a previous blog.

Other:

You can expect to see some of the other commercial broadcasters taking football more seriously when the A-league/Socceroos TV rights expire in a few years, but for now these channels seem very reluctant to broadcast any football whatsoever.

One thing that might change this is Channel 10’s introduction of a 24hr sports channel, One HD. Now the merits of this channel are a matter for another blog, but surely with a dedicated sports channel on FTA some football will be shown? You’d think that, wouldn’t you?

Ten has bought rights to various sports events from around the world, although mainly from North America. They have been promoting their channel as '”full of sports from all corners of the globe”. It seems a bit silly that they would say this, and then not broadcast any amount of the World’s most popular game. In fairness, they aren’t showing any rugby either, maybe it is not football that they are reluctant to broadcast, but anything that might be a serious threat to AFL.

For the immediate future, it looks like football fans will still have to rely on pay-TV if they want to watch any serious amount of football. I do hope that changes (at least to some degree) one day.

Matt

2009-10 A-league Kits

A couple of weeks ago we heard some good news about the kits for next season’s A-league. Firstly, each club will have new kits next season – both home and away. Not only that, but Reebok (who still have exclusive designing rights to the A-league strips for the next two years) will finally allow clubs more freedom when designing their strips.

The good news just keeps coming, as it has also been confirmed that the FFA’s policy of white away kits has been done away with. Finally, although I’m not sure of this one, clubs are likely to be allowed to wear their home strips for all games, except when avoiding a clash with the home team.

I called for many of these changes a year ago, in my blog: 'A-league kits could be improved'. After hearing this latest news, I thought I’d do some new mock-ups and do some speculation on what we might see next season:

Central Coast:

The first kits for the new season have already been revealed, with the Central Coast Mariners releasing their kits for the 2009 AFC Champions League, which they will also use in next season’s A-league. When the first images of this kit were released, Mariners fans were a little disappointed at the lack of yellow, however I think (with the back of the kit being yellow), the kits will look a lot more yellow at matches than they did when the initial press images were released. Here are there home and away kits:

Adelaide United:

Some details of Adelaide’s new kits have already surfaced. Apparently the home kit will have some sort of ‘knitted effect’. This sounds a little weird to me, but I think I’ve made a pretty good guess at what this will look like. Also, United will have a black away kit next year, which I’ve done as well:

For the rest of the clubs I’ve only done home kits, hopefully the FFA will no longer require teams to wear alternate kits for every away match next season, so we will mainly only see home kits anyway. (perhaps there will be a part 2 to this blog)

Gold Coast United:

The Gold Coast’s home uniform will be yellow and blue, while their away strip will be white. I’d like to see them use the ‘aqua’ blue as their main colour for their home strip – something like this would look good IMO:

Melbourne Victory:

You certainly won’t be seeing the ‘V’ disappearing from the Melbourne kit any time soon, I think this one looks a little better than their current uniform though:

Newcastle United Jets:

Newcastle’s AFC Champions League strip will be revealed fairly soon, this is what it will look like (apparently). Whether or not this strip will also be used in next seasons A-league is still unconfirmed.

North Queensland Fury:

North Queensland Fury (a name that may yet be changed before they begin their inaugural season – fingers crossed), will use green and white as their colours. I’m very happy to finally see a little green in the A-league, something like this would look good:

Perth Glory:

I used the idea of having white horizontal stripes on the Perth kit in my blog last year. The info I’ve seen says that this is quite likely to become reality next season. For my mock-up, I've tried to be a little more subtle with the horizontal stripes, making them only slightly lighter than the dark purple.

Queensland Roar:

Some fans have been calling for a maroon strip next season for Queensland. I still like the idea of Queensland in orange, so I decided to go half-and-half. I also brought back the blue shorts, which Queensland had in their first couple of seasons.

Sydney FC:

Sydney will apparently have a much plainer sky-blue kit next season. Will probably look something like this:

Wellington Phoenix:

Wellington will finally be in yellow and black stripes next year. Frankly, I think there’s very little chance this strip will look bad. My mock-up has more black than yellow, which I think keeps the kit looking a bit darker - like their current kit.

Well, there you go. I’m pretty confident that next year we’ll see a dramatic improvement in A-league kits. Even just the fact we’ll see games where neither team is wearing white will be a big step forward.

I can’t wait to see all the new designs.

Bye for now,
Matt

2018 FIFA World Cup – Australia? (Part 1)

For a couple of years the prospect of the World’s largest sporting  event coming to Australia has been talked about amongst Australian sporting circles. Some would have you believe that Australia is no chance of ever hosting a FIFA World Cup, others think it will be an easy task to win the bid.

There is no doubt about the impact the event could have on Australian football. Aside from bringing the FFA massive amounts of money, hosting the tournament would likely mean new stadiums for A-league teams and could generate a surge in interest that could finally propel football to the top of the Australian sporting landscape. But is it going to happen?

Over a couple of blogs I’m going to try and answer that question. First I will ask the question about whether it is logistically and financially possible for Australia to host such a huge event. Secondly I will look at our competitors, and try and make an assessment about whether or not we can crawl through the “seedy” political mess of FIFA to win the hosting rights.

Part 1 – Logistics/Stadiums

One of the major issues with the logistical side of hosting a tournament like this is the cost. In 2006, just under $3 Billion Australian Dollars were spent on stadiums, but that number is dwarfed by how much the German Government estimates they got back – close to $30 Billion.

Much of the money made from the tournament is due to a massive surge in tourism. The 2006 tournament drew 3.5 million people to Germany. It is difficult to predict if Australia could expect similar numbers, it is a much longer journey for fans from Europe and the Americas. However I think this could be cancelled out by large numbers of tourists from Asian countries. The 2006 tournament was held in Europe, yet more fans came from Japan than most  European countries – only England, the USA and Germany itself beat the Japanese in terms of total number of fans.

Money will also need to be investment in transport infrastructure – I am certainly no expert on the subject, but new airports/railway stations would just be another way that the FIFA World Cup would be of benefit to Australia.

Stadiums

When discussing Australia’s World Cup bid – this is something that gets talked about the most. Where are games going to be played? Is this stadium going to be good enough or big enough for World Cup matches? Will that satisfy the FIFA requirements?

Firstly, what are these FIFA requirements? What conditions does a stadium need to satisfy to be included as part of a World Cup bid. Before I go on, let me say that FIFA is FIFA – they make the rules, they can bend the rules, and really there is no such thing as a FIFA ‘requirement’ for a World Cup stadium. There are standards that FIFA would like stadiums to meet, but if they think a stadium is appropriate, they aren’t going to get obsessive about details. The FIFA ‘requirements’ are really just guidelines that a country can look at as it plans a World Cup bid.

Here is basically what you need to look at while thinking about World Cup venues:

- Capacity: Stadiums should be able to hold at least 40,000 people, and should be all seated. There should be at least 3 stadiums that hold more than 60,000 for semi finals and the World Cup final.

- Viewing Experience: Fans at the stadiums should be able to get a good view of the game from any position. FIFA do have specific details about maximum distance from the pitch, but as long as all fans get a decent view, the technicalities will not matter.

- Location: Generally FIFA has a one-city, one-stadium policy, however exceptions to this have been made in the past. Something that gets thrown up a lot is that FIFA will allow one city to have multiple stadiums, but no more than that. I have yet to find any sort of official source for this, and I expect it may not be true. Going back to my earlier point though, FIFA are not stupid – they aren’t going to enforce a bunch of rules just for the sake of it. It could certainly be argued that, because Australia is a country with a lower number of large cities, we are a different case to many past FIFA World Cup host countries. Another thing to consider is the distance between host cities – something that may be of concern for Perth.

 - After-tournament Use: FIFA likes stadiums to leave a ‘legacy’ for football for years to come. This makes a lot of sense, and we have already seen how much the Korean K-league and Japanese J-league have benefited due to modern stadiums after the 2002 World Cup. This is important for the government as well, it’s a lot easier to spend money on a stadium if you know it will have lasting benefits.

At a basic level, that is really it. Other requirements are technical things that can be done at a relatively low cost (a completely flat pitch is one example) – and as long as you have a good stadium these should not be an issue. The minimum number of venues needed is 10, and with good upkeep of grounds (ensuring quality of turf etc.) no more than this should be needed – although it would be beneficial to bring the tournament to as many cities/towns as possible. Maintaining playing surfaces may also be a little tricky in the middle of Winter.

So let me go through where I think World Cup games could  potentially be played, when and if Australia ever hosts a FIFA World Cup. I will do an estimate of how much might be needed to be spent upgrading or building a venue, to try and determine how easy it would be for Australia to afford this tournament. Let’s start with venues that will definitely host games:

Definite Host Venues:

- Brisbane –> Suncorp Stadium

Capacity: 52,500 -> Upgrade to ~ 60,000
Upgrade Cost: $120 Million

Suncorp Stadium is an obvious choice for a World Cup venue. Really it would need no money spent on it at all for it to be a perfect World Cup venue. Although a little could be spent upgrading the capacity a little, so that it is an option for a semi-final. For this and any other small improvements I have allocated $120 million.

- Newcastle –> Energy Australia Stadium

Capacity: 27,000 –> Upgrade to ~ 45,000
Upgrade Cost: $120 Million.

Newcastle is, in my opinion, also a definite host venue. Newcastle is Australia’s 7th biggest city, and will be needed if we are to get the required number of venues. Energy Australia Stadium is already undergoing upgrades to give it a capacity of around 35,000 and there are already plans in place to get the capacity to over 40,000. A lot more work needs to be done to make it a world class venue, but I have no doubt that will be done. My guess is it might need $120 million.

- Homebush –> ANZ Stadium

Capacity: 83,000 –> Slight Capacity Upgrade to ~ 85,000
Upgrade Cost: $50 Million

Another obvious choice, Stadium Australia in Sydney is a truly World class venue. The only slight problem with the venue is that it is not completely rectangular, although the view for fans at ANZ stadium would be far better than at most oval venues. Homebush would probably host either the Final or the Opening game. Capacity could potentially be increased a little, I’ll allocate $50 million for some minor upgrading.

- Sydney –> Sydney Football Stadium

Capacity: 45,500 –> Upgrade to ~ 50,000
Upgrade Cost: $50 Million

In my view, the Sydney Football Stadium will be a definite World Cup venue. It is a second stadium in Sydney, but with ANZ Stadium in out in Sydney’s West, a venue in central Sydney would make a lot of sense. The facilities etc. could use a bit of work, and expansion to around 50,000 would be possible, so I’ll allocate $50 million.

Probable Host Venues:

- Gold Coast –> Skilled Park

Capacity: 27,500 –> Upgrade to > 40,000
Upgrade Cost: $150 Million

Australia’s 6th largest city is very likely to be used in a World Cup bid – and Skilled Park is a very nice, modern stadium that is likely to be used. Expanding Skilled Park could be a little tricky, but as long as the Gold Coast’s A-league and rugby league clubs are successful, an expansion to over 40,000 will be quite feasible. I imagine that a second tier would need to be built on one (or both) sides of the stadium. This would likely cost close to $150 million.

- Canberra –> Canberra Stadium

Capacity: 25,000 –> Upgrade to > 40,000
Upgrade Cost: $200 Million

It seems likely to me that the nation’s capital will be used in any world cup bid. With NRL and Super 14 clubs, and hopefully an A-league club within a few years, Canberra stadium is in a good position to argue that an expansion is warranted. It would need to be a fairly significant upgrade though, as the ground would need a lot of work.

- Melbourne –> MCG

Capacity: 100,000
Upgrade Cost: $20 Million

Despite not being the best place to watch football, I expect the MCG will end up being used if Australia ever hosts a World Cup. The capacity of 100,000 is too hard to ignore, and really the view that fans get at the stadium is no worse than you get at places like Nissan Stadium (host of the 2002 World Cup final). If it does get used, it is likely to host the World Cup final, which FIFA will insist should be played at the largest stadium. I’ve allocated $20 million for general upgrades.

- Adelaide –> ???

Capacity: Build with ~ 65,000
Build Cost: $800 Million

Currently Adelaide has no venue that is a chance of hosting World Cup games (although it would be possible to upgrade either AAMI Stadium or Adelaide Oval, but that would basically require knocking down the stadium and starting again anyway). However I think we can be virtually certain that games will end up being played in Adelaide. There are really two options for Adelaide – a rectangular stadium, which would hold a little over 40,000 - or a multi-purpose venue that would hold, maybe, 65,000. Obviously the only use for a rectangular venue would be Adelaide United games, as well as maybe the occasional Socceroos match and a couple of rugby games. A multi-purpose venue could be used for AFL as well, which would make it a lot more viable. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen. Depending on which option is chosen, something like $800 million could be needed for the new venue.

- Perth –> ???

Capacity: Build with ~ 60,000
Build Cost: $1 Billion

The planned new super-stadium in Perth, which would have been a perfect venue for World Cup matches, is currently in limbo. Around 12 months ago, the venue was ‘confirmed’, but now with a change of local government it appears unlikely to be built. Perth also has another major disadvantage, in it’s location. If Perth is used for World Cup matches, it is doubtful that it would see any matches beyond the group stage (asking a team to travel across the continent for a single crucial game would put them at a disadvantage). My guess is that Perth will end up building a suitable venue, and that it will be used to host one group during the group-stage – there is some chance that Perth might not be used at all though, so the local government will need to be willing to get a new venue built.

Possible Host Venues:

With 9 venues so far, only one more is really needed (although it would be nice to have 12 venues, the same number as were used in 2006).

- Townsville –> Dairy Farmers Stadium

Capacity: 27,000 –> Upgrade to > 40,000
Upgrade Cost: $150 Million

With NRL and A-league sides, it could be argued that Dairy Farmers Stadium would be a good candidate for an upgrade. Townsville does suffer from the problem of being quite a distance from any other venue, so if it were used, matches in the knockout stage would be unlikely. The North Queensland Fury (who will play during the wet season) could certainly benefit from giving fans undercover seating.

- Gosford -> Central Coast Stadium

Capacity: 20,119 –> Upgrade to > 40,000
Upgrade Cost: $200 Million

This one strikes me as an unlikely host stadium, partly because it only has one permanent home team (Central Coast Mariners), and also because expanding the stadium may prove difficult, due to the stadium’s location (they don’t have stands at one end of the ground because there is no room between the stadium, a road, and the sea). It might be possible to get the capacity up to 40,000, but unless the Mariners start getting huge crowds that warrant the increase in capacity – I can’t see it happening. Could definitely be a good training/warm-up match venue though.

- Melbourne -> Swan Street “Bubble” Stadium

Capacity: 33,000 –> Upgrade to ~ 50,000+
Upgrade Cost: $150 Million

Currently under construction, Melbourne’s new rectangular stadium will only be used if the MCG is not able to be used (if it’s decided that it is not spectator-friendly). The “bubble” stadium was built with expansion to 50,000 in mind, so that would certainly go ahead if the stadium was to be used. If it was to be Melbourne’s only venue, I’d wager that the authorities would make sure it was expanded to over 60,000 so that a semi-final could be played there. If not used for the World Cup itself, it would certainly be used for warm-up matches and/or a training venue.

- Docklands –> Etihad Stadium

Capacity: 56,000 –> Convert to ~ 50,000
Upgrade Cost: $10 Million

If Melbourne is to have a second venue, it will be Etihad Stadium (FIFA won’t let us use both the ‘bubble’ stadium and the MCG, given that they are so close to each other). The “dome” is beautifully modern, and if it were to be used for the World Cup, the stands could be slid out (and temporary stands built in the corners) to use the stadium in rectangular mode. No real upgrades would be needed, but I’ll allocate $10 million for general upgrades, and to temporarily convert it into a rectangular ground.

- Geelong –> Skilled Stadium

Capacity: 28,000 –> Increase to > 40,000
Upgrade Cost: $200 Million

Skilled Stadium in Geelong has a few significant advantages. Firstly, it’s nice and close to Melbourne. Secondly, an expansion of the stadium to 40,000 would definitely be viable, given the fact that all home games played by the Geelong Cats (an AFL side) are always packed. It is an Oval stadium, but it is quite small and thin for an AFL ground. The big problem would be upgrading the stadium, as it is currently of quite poor quality, so a lot of money would need to be spent (probably $200 million). Personally I don’t think Skilled Stadium would be a bad option.

Unlikely:

There are a few more venues that I could have mentioned, but I don’t think there is any realistic chance of any of these venues hosting matches:

Tasmania – At the moment Tasmania doesn’t even have any  sides in any national football competitions. I certainly hope that Tasmania United are successful in their bid to enter the A-league, but even so I can’t see a 40,000 seat stadium being warranted. Some might think that upgrading Launceston’s AFL ground (Aurora Stadium) could be an option, but Aurora’s field dimensions are the same as the MCG’s, without the huge stands – I cannot see any possibility of a Tasmanian venue hosting matches.

Wollongong – If Wollongong was to secure an A-league team, then an upgrade to Win Stadium might be a possibility, but I can’t see it being expanded to hold 40,000.

Northern Territory – I’ve heard a few people suggest that Darwin should host a couple of games, but this isn’t going to happen – Darwin is not big enough for a decent sized stadium, and it’s too far away anyway.

Cost:

So that’s it - if you think there are any other options, then let me know - but I think the required 10-12 stadiums will have to come from the 14 I’ve mentioned here.

Now – how much will this cost the country? If you add up the total amount I estimated for all 14 venues, it comes to around $3.2 billion dollars. That’s a lot, but when you consider that this number includes two brand new stadiums, and is for 14 venues rather than the required 10-12, Australia wouldn’t need to spend any more than Germany did in preparation for the 2006 edition. Of course with the current financial worries of the world, it’s hard to predict if this number might need to increase a little, but nonetheless I do think that it is financially viable for Australia to be bidding for the World Cup (perhaps that is why the federal government has been so supportive thus far).

My Choice:

So here is my choice for an ideal world cup. I’ve included which games I think each venue would host (remember that a World Cup is comprised of 64 matches – including 48 group stage games, 15 knockout games, and a 3rd place playoff). I’ve also tried to ensure that each ground is not overused, so no ground has more than two knockout matches etc.

Match Venues:

1. Melbourne – MCG – 100,000
> 4 Group Matches  (inc. 1 Australian game)
> 1 Quarter-Final  (Australia’s likely path)
> World Cup Final

2. Homebush – ANZ Stadium – 85,000
> 4 Group Matches (inc. Opening Match + 1 Australian Game)
> 1 Round of 16 Match
> 1 Semi-Final (Australia’s likely path)

3. Adelaide – New Multi-purpose Stadium – 65,000
> 4 Group Matches
> 1 Round of 16 Match (Australia’s likely path)
> 1 Semi-Final

4. Brisbane – Suncorp Stadium – 60,000
> 4 Group Matches  (inc. 1 Australian Game)
> 1 Round of 16 Match
> 1 Quarter Final

5. Perth – New Stadium – 60,000
> 5 Group Matches
> 3rd Place Play-off

6. Docklands – Etihad Stadium – 52,000
> 4 Group Matches
> 1 Round of 16 Game
> 1 Quarter Final

7. Sydney – Sydney Football Stadium – 50,000
> 4 Group Stage Matches
> 1 Quarter Final

8. Newcastle – Energy Australia Stadium – 45,000
> 4 Group Stage Matches
> 1 Round of 16 Match

9. Gold Coast – Skilled Park – 42,000
> 4 Group Stage Matches
> 1 Round of 16 Match

10 Geelong – Skilled Stadium – 42,000
> 3 Group Stage Matches
> 1 Round of 16 Match

11. Canberra – Canberra Stadium – 40,000
> 4 Group Stage Matches
> 1 Round of 16 Match

12. Townsville – Dairy Farmers Stadium – 40,000
> 4 Group Stage Matches

State-by-state breakdown:

Queensland – 12 Group Games + 2 Round of 16 Games + 1 Quarter Final = 15 Games

NSW/ACT – 16 Group Games + 4 Round of 16 Games + 1 Quarter Final + 1 Semi Final = 22 Games

Victoria – 11 Group Games + 2 Round of 16 Games + 1 Quarter Final + Final = 15 Games

South Australia – 4 Group Games + 1 Round of 16 Game + 1 Semi Final = 6 Games

WA – 5 Group Games + 3rd Place Playoff = 6 Games

I think that is pretty fair on all states. Victoria only has 15  games, but that is made up for by having the final. NSW/ACT have 22 Games, which is to be expected. Queensland gets 15 games, which is good for them, although the last game in Queensland is a quarter final. South Australia only has 6 games, but gets a semi. Western Australia misses out a little, but due to their isolation I didn’t want to make any teams travel there for a knockout game – they host 1 group, but you can’t play all 6 matches from the 1 group at the same venue, as the last 2 games are played simultaneously. I also gave Perth the 3rd place play-off, which the two teams could travel too on their way home.

Another interesting point of note is how many Oval/Rectangular stadiums are used. Although I’ve never seen anything official, FIFA may have some sort of requirement limiting the number of oval stadiums used:

Rectangular Stadiums: Suncorp, SFS, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Canberra, Townsville = 6/12

Oval Stadiums: MCG, Geelong = 2/12

Semi-Rectangular: Homebush, Etihad Stadium = 2/12

Unknown: Adelaide, Perth = 2/12

I call Homebush and Etihad Stadium “semi-rectangular”, because that’s what I believe they are – this picture of Homebush demonstrates that:

I think, to ensure a good quality World Cup, Etihad Stadium needs to be used in rectangular ‘mode’, while the new Perth and Adelaide Stadiums must be built so that they can at least be ‘semi-rectangular’.

Training Venues:

One final thing I quickly want to look at is ‘training venues’. When 32 countries arrive in Australia, they will want to play warm-up fixtures, and to have good facilities to train at. This is a good opportunity for the Football Federation to explore upgrading some A-league grounds, that may not be included in the actual World Cup bid. Some potential venues may be:

- Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide – perhaps an upgrade to 25,000?

- Members Equity Stadium, Perth

- Central Coast Stadium, Gosford (Already Mentioned)

- Swan Street “Bubble” Stadium, Melbourne (Already Mentioned)

- Parramatta Stadium, Sydney – if a West Sydney A-league team is playing there

- Hobart Stadium, Tasmania – if a Tasmanian A-league side ever gets into the A-league.

That’s it for now, in my next blog I will look at the politics of our bid: How easy it will be to stop the AFL/NRL seasons for a month in June, and what sort of competition we have for the hosting rights.

Bye for Now,                                                                  Matt