Eureka Stadium (Mars Stadium)

[The Punter]

Was at the Doggies v Saints AFLW match - one food truck in the whole place. Not a great incentive to return.

 

[Ratdweller]

Are they really going to attempt to host two football games in Ballarat next year in May and July? Where are they going to put all the people? The hill on the Eastern side of the ground will be completely out of bounds by then and removed. It will be a construction site well into 2026 with construction works on the new stands due to start from early next year. I hope that the council has a good back up plan like maybe some temporary scaffold stands at the Southern end of the ground. I think that the Ballarat games should be suspended until the stadium works are finished. It seems stupid to schedule Port Adelaide and Adelaide to play games there in front of 6-7000.

 

[Rickee]

Are they really going to attempt to host two football games in Ballarat next year in May and July? Where are they going to put all the people? The hill on the Eastern side of the ground will be completely out of bounds by then and removed. It will be a construction site well into 2026 with construction works on the new stands due to start from early next year. I hope that the council has a good back up plan like maybe some temporary scaffold stands at the Southern end of the ground. I think that the Ballarat games should be suspended until the stadium works are finished. It seems stupid to schedule Port Adelaide and Adelaide to play games there in front of 6-7000.

The Bulldogs have a contract with Ballarat Council, they can't just not play there.

I do enjoy the thought of two of my least favourite teams playing in Ballarat in July, at that time it's colder than a step mothers hug there

 

[its been done]

The Bulldogs have a contract with Ballarat Council, they can't just not play there.

I do enjoy the thought of two of my least favourite teams playing in Ballarat in July, at that time it's colder than a step mothers hug there

True about the contract, though they could've just suspended it for next year and offered some sort of compensation for the distruption

 

[Ratdweller]

True about the contract, though they could've just suspended it for next year and offered some sort of compensation for the distruption

That would be true, but the Bulldogs contract finished this year, unless someone knows something that I don't? The Bulldogs only renewed our most recent contract with the Rat up until 2024. I can understand us being cagey at this point in time cause Norfs contract with Hobart was pretty much up and they may well have come sniffing back around Ballarat to cut our grass in 2025 before we renewed. We do have some breathing space with Ballarat now though cause Norf have done a deal with the Devil in WA. I look forward now to listening to Caro Wilson now packing Norfs bags off to WA every week. She had them first packed off to the Gold Coast 15 years ago, then off to Hobart every week for the last 10 years. I'm waiting for her to start demanding to have them shifting to WA. Geezus that woman hates Norf. It's pathological

 

[BallaratBulldog]

The Western Bulldogs will remain Ballarat's 'home team' for a further three years after the club extended its partnership with the city.

Works to expand the stadium and other projects in the Ballarat Major Events Precinct will begin in early 2025 and are expected to be completed in 2026. The stadium will remain operational while grandstands containing 5000 new seats are built.

Bulldogs commit to Ballarat for three more years as stadium project speeds up

Head contractor named for Ballarat Major Events Precinct project.

www.thecourier.com.au

 

[Ratdweller]

Was at Mars Stadium on Sunday and half of the stadium has been closed off with temporary fencing (Red) pending the construction works that are soon to begin. This will be in place throughout the remainder of this year and into early next year.

 

[The Victorian]

Was at Mars Stadium on Sunday and half of the stadium has been closed off with temporary fencing (Red) pending the construction works that are soon to begin. This will be in place throughout the remainder of this year and into early next year.

View attachment 2213137

So where does the 'away' cheersquad sit/stand

 

[Ratdweller]

So where does the 'away' cheersquad sit/stand

Adelaide

No seriously ... I was surprised by this too. The ground will merely have a capacity of 5000 this season until the works are finished, so why on Earth are they (The AFL and Western Bulldogs) even considering holding games here until the works are done? Forget the contractual obligations and simply off-set the contractual obligation for the next four years to 2026-2029.

I would have expected that the construction might have been staged around the oval to cordon off the main hill first in order to conduct the earthworks necessary to remove the hill and construct the two new stands perhaps prioritising one stand first in order to ensure that capacity never dips below 8000. When the first stand is completed, finish the second one quickly brining capacity back to 10000, and then do the earthworks to re-instate the southern standing boundary with its new capacity of 3000.

Anyway, we'll assume that it's being done this way for a reason, and of course that is likely because it is the quickest and easiest way to do everything within the allocated budget. The budget is still limited. I understand that $80 million has been funded to do the stadium upgrade as well as to build the new adjacent athletics complex and new parkland landscaping over the remainder of the former Showground site.

Image source: Wikipedia​