Gabba upgrade on track to coincide with AFL Grand Final
The Gabba is on track for a multimillion-dollar upgrade that is set to be the catalyst in deciding where the 2020 AFL Grand Final is held. Read the latest details here.
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A multimillion-dollar Gabba upgrade is on track for an October completion, in what will be a further boost if the stadium receives the green light to host this year’s AFL Grand Final.
A planned $35 million upgrade of the Woolloongabba stadium is currently underway to improve “match-day atmosphere and experience” at the ground, with improvements to ticketing areas as well as food and drink outlets.
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The upgrade has been in the pipeline since last year, with the initial view to have it completed in time for this year’s now postponed T20 World Cup.
However with Queensland in the box seat to host the 2020 AFL Grand Final, the upgrade could not have come at a better time.
The renovation work is currently on track to be completed by October, in a further boost for Queensland’s bid to host one of Australia’s biggest sporting events, slated to be played on October 17.
A decision is yet to be made on where the Grand Final will be played but the Gabba appears to be the favourite, with further COVID-19 lockdowns affecting the southern states.
Lions boss Greg Swann has been a vocal advocate of bringing the Grand Final north of the border, with the Gabba the likely destination.
“Now that Adelaide and Perth are facing further restrictions, the Gabba would be best placed for it,” Swann said.
Lions legends say Brisbane deserves GF
– Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Brisbane Lions legends believe Queensland should be rewarded for the role it has played in allowing the AFL season to continue by hosting the Grand Final at the Gabba.
Victoria’s State of Disaster means the MCG will be ruled out of hosting the Grand Final – slated for October 17 – with the AFL saying it will make a decision by August so the venue had time to prepare.
With Victoria in a COVID-19 crisis, cases rising in NSW and the State Government’s of South and Western Australia playing hardball with the AFL on their borders, Queensland has been the saviour of the competition in 2020 – currently hosting 10 interstate teams in hubs.
Lions legends Jonathan Brown and Simon Black said fitting reward for this was for the Gabba to get the showpiece event.
“They have been unbelievable haven’t they Queensland, really, in terms of the way they have supported the game,” Brown said.
“I don’t think everyone behind the scenes would have been supportive of it given they are such a big rugby league state and to a lesser extent rugby union, so there would have been a bit of opposition to it.
“But it is great to see the way it has been embraced.”
Management for the Optus Stadium in Perth and the Adelaide Oval have signalled their intention to host the Grand Final with the MCG out of action, with both boasting larger capacities than the Gabba.
Black said the Gabba getting the Grand Final would be the “right thing”, despite Optus Stadium being voted one of the best sports venues in the world.
“It is up to the AFL just how much weight they will put on the Queensland side of things, the willingness to help the season up here,” he said.
“Queensland has played such a big part in the season happening and how much does the AFL take that into consideration when it is making a decision, that is a big factor.
“In terms of who has contributed the most in terms of a season happening, it is hands down Queensland, so is the AFL going to, in some ways I guess, do the right thing and reward Queensland for doing that?”
Three-time Brisbane premiership coach Leigh Matthews also said he would be more than happy if the Grand Final was at the Gabba, but added he would be interested in how the AFL decides an alternative venue to the MCG.
“The one thing I always think to myself, in Melbourne it’s a grand final week extravaganza, there is a big build up to it throughout the week,” he said.
“For the life of me I don’t know how at the moment they can make a decision two months out, there is a lot of things happening (around the country).”
MCG’S GRAND FINAL HOPES OFFICIALLY ENDED
— Jon Ralph
Victoria’s State of Disaster will ensure the AFL officially moves its Grand Final to a venue likely to be the Gabba and postpones any elite Under-18 football.
The league continues to ponder a decision on where the Grand Final will be played but has said it would make a decision by August so the venue had time to prepare.
Melbourne is now in hard lockdown until September 13 with curfews and heavy restrictions, while the Grand Final is slotted for an October 17 contest.
The AFL will have to have allocated a ground to the venue for a historic shift by the time Victoria can even consider coming out of lockdown.
Everything points to a Gabba Grand Final, given WA border restrictions that require quarantine and the Sunshine State’s willingness to help the AFL keep its season alive.
The AFL had told five NAB League clubs to delay their return to training next Monday by another week, despite hopes of a start to that competition on August 22.
Those five clubs are now in Stage 3 lockdown, which will prevent them from training.
The AFL is still hopeful it might be able to schedule some representative football later in the season for Victorian players before the national draft.
Senior AFL industry figures were privately conceding last week there was no prospect of the MCG hosting another game this year.
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AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan thanked Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for her government‘s assistance as she allowed 10 Victorian teams to be housed from the state.
Palaszczuk said she told McLachlan that “if the season is based here – then the grand final should be played here too.”
With such prohibitive lockdown rules more AFL wives and girlfriends might be tempted to relocate into Queensland hubs.
West Coast coach Adam Simpson said on Sunday the club expected to be moved into another Queensland hub at some stage in coming weeks after Hawthorn, Carlton, Sydney and GWS played in the state.
“I suspect we might finish the year off in maybe Queensland. We might not be coming back until hopefully we play finals, so it might not be until after the finals series.
A GF IN A PACKED STADIUM INCREASINGLY UNLIKELY
— Jon Ralph
Any dwindling hope Victoria might stage a miracle COVID-19 comeback that allowed the MCG to host the Grand Final is over.
As news of Thursday’s 700-plus positives filtered through the football community on Thursday morning, the reality set in.
At some stage in coming weeks, AFL chief Gillon McLachlan or Victorian Sports Minister Martin Pakula will announce that the Grand Final is moving interstate.
But, privately, that concession has already been made.
If Victoria cannot stop the burgeoning number of positives, if it cannot even stop its citizens from going to work while COVID-positive, then an MCG Grand Final is the last of its concerns.
As the AFL crams its teams into Queensland, its greatest achievement will now be finishing this 2020 season.
Not monetising the Grand Final to secure $20 million from the West Australian or Queensland state government.
Not coasting to a late-October grandstand finish that creates a sporting festival that neatly dovetails into the Victorian spring carnival.
Just simply getting it done in a manner that awards one team a premiership and satisfies the contractual obligations of its broadcast partners.
The AFL’s decision to compress this season has become McLachlan’s masterstroke as the league attempts to outpace a pandemic that doesn’t discriminate by state or border.
In an ideal world, even without a Grand Final in Victoria, the AFL would have done what it does so well and sold the Grand Final to the highest bidder.
No organisation in Australia has monetised its properties so well, from spruiking a national draft in Broome to drive up the price for rival states, to selling its largely irrelevant pre-season competition to a little-known insurance company.
But the growing spread of coronavirus means the AFL can’t use Sydney’s Stadium Australia as a stalking horse and can’t offer the Grand Final to Perth’s Optus Stadium given tight border provisions.
One AFL club chief executive said it would be unlikely any state government could shell out $10 million for a sports event and then sell the concept to its public.
And given the economic hit, who would have the money to do so anyway?
Another said the AFL had a moral obligation to give the Grand Final to Queensland given the many concessions that state had already made.
Even on Thursday, 400 Victorians will fly into Queensland as families of AFL players in what is a massive risk for a state that has this week banned five million Sydney-siders from crossing the border.
The AFL recoups $12 million or more from ticket sales from the MCG Grand Final so will still hope to recoup some money from a Gabba Grand Final.
But when the Lions play the Western Bulldogs at the Brisbane ground on Saturday week only 16,000 fans will be allowed in.
The prospect of a Gabba full house — 42,000 capacity — for a Grand Final dwindles by the day.
Another senior figure said he would be surprised if the AFL hadn’t already discussed a price for the marquee package – its Grand Final, Brownlow Medal and national draft – when Queensland agreed to hub 10 Victorian teams in the state.
There remains one morbid possibility for the AFL that would see the MCG hosting the Grand Final and it is almost too scary to contemplate.
That by late October this pandemic has spread into every state and footy is only surviving by keeping players in hard lock down in one single 18-competition hub.
If that hub was in Victoria, two teams might meet at the MCG in front of those majestic but empty stands.
Footy’s day-by-day headlines focus on WAG trips to day spas and Dustin Martin’s return to Brownlow Medal contention.
If the single achievement the AFL pulls off this season is that it found a way to play the remaining games and hand out a premiership cup, it will be a towering accomplishment in itself.
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Originally published as Gabba upgrade on track to coincide with AFL Grand Final