Fair play, missing middle needs filling

I've never been shy when it comes to extolling the virtues of Optus Stadium.

It is, in my opinion, the best sporting venue in the country.

Sure, it can’t seat as many people as the MCG, which is among the dozen biggest stadia in the world, but it’s a much better venue for watching sport, even if I think it should have been designed for a crowd of 70,000.

Perth’s problem now is its other sporting venues because it’s missing something in the middle.

Gone is the dilapidated but historic Subiaco Oval that hosted most of the state’s major sporting events over the past few decades.

The next biggest now is HBF Park (formerly Perth Oval), which can hold just over 20,000 people but only for sports played on a rectangular field.

The WACA Ground, meanwhile, is expected to cater for crowds of between 12,000 and 15,000 when its redevelopment is complete, and WAFL grounds at Fremantle, Joondalup, Bassendean and Leederville can hold between 10,000 and 15,000 people, depending on how bullish authorities are about packing them in like sardines.

All of which leaves a big gap in the city’s stadium offerings.

After all, what option do sporting organisations have if they expect a crowd of 30,000?

Clearly, there’s only one venue that can handle such an event, and that’s Optus Stadium.

But it would be half empty, which detracts from the spectacle and forces the host organisation to pay for capacity it simply doesn’t need.

There’s an even bigger problem if Perth Stadium isn’t available because of bookings by other sports.

The lack of a mid-sized venue in Perth has become an issue in recent months due to the late cancellation of South Africa’s cricket tour to Australia, which led to a T20 match between Australia and England on October 9 being shifted to Optus Stadium.

That forced stadium management to cancel the WA Football Commission’s booking to hold the WAFL grand final at the ground on October 1, because it wouldn’t allow enough time for the wickets to be dropped in and prepared for the T20 match.

And that left the WAFC with Fremantle, Joondalup, Bassendean and Leederville as its venue options for the WAFL’s biggest day of the year. It chose Leederville and a capacity of 14,000.

It was a bitter blow for the WAFC, which welcomed a crowd of 29,879 for last year’s grand final at Optus Stadium and was hoping for a bigger crowd this year, given the possibility of well-supported clubs East Fremantle and West Perth making it to the season decider.

But cricket has first dibs at Optus Stadium in October.

So, it seems to me there is a need for a second-tier sporting venue in Perth with capacity for up to 30,000 people.

I would have thought Leederville Oval was the perfect option for redevelopment: it’s central, it’s on the train line, it’s had a crowd of almost 25,000 before (albeit for a WAFL game in 1978), the cost of its upkeep is now beyond the City of Vincent, and it already has two permanent tenants (Subiaco and East Perth Football Clubs).

It was also once touted as being WA football’s future “centre of excellence”. Clearly, new stands would be needed, and the entire facility would need a facelift.

Whether any state government has the political capital required to invest money into a stadium soon is a big question.

Certainly, the WAFC could financially contribute to the redevelopment by selling off the parcel of land it was given as part of the deal for walking away from the lease at Subiaco Oval.

And the AFL could be approached for some level of funding, given it contributed very little to Optus Stadium.

A redeveloped Leederville (or a similar site) could then host myriad sporting events, become the venue for a WA sports museum (Business News, August 9 2021, p63) and provide the WAFC (currently based at the old Tuart College) with a permanent home.