Opening date for GMHBA Stadium’s redevelopment up in the air before 2023 AFL season
Geelong pushed for home games late in 2023 to make the most of the completed GMHBA Stadium, but how many of those games will actually be played in front of a finished grandstand?
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There is no date set for GMHBA Stadium to throw open the doors of its new northern stand as poor weather throws into question how many games Geelong will host to a full capacity in 2023.
The Cats, through former AFL fixture guru turned Geelong administrator Marcus King, pushed for a heavily backended slate of home games next year to maximise the larger capacity once GMHBA Stadium’s stage 5 redevelopment is completed.
But a targeted completion date of May 1 will not be met and Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive Gerard Griffin said “we haven’t landed on a particular game yet to aim for completion”.
Geelong will unfurl its flag to the reduced capacity – which stands at about 22,000 – in round 6 against Sydney, before games against Adelaide (round 8) and GWS Giants (round 11).
After the mid-season bye, Geelong hosts Melbourne on a Thursday night in round 15 but Griffin said there was no guarantee the ground would be ready to host its full capacity of 40,000 then.
The Cats host five further GMHBA Stadium games in the run home.
“May 1 was the target but the commitment was to finish it by mid next year and that is very much what the commitment remains,” Griffin said.
“May 1 was a target which we are not going to be able to do but we are still anticipating a middle of next year completion.”
A wet calendar year and the knock-on effects of Covid on the building and building supply industry has been a factor behind missing the May 1 target.
“Construction is a tough caper. Whether you are building a home or a grandstand or an office block,” Griffin said.
“It is a tough caper because of weather, supply chain and unpredictability. The other factor is wind, if you were here (this week) you would have thought the roof was going to blow off.”
When the northern end of the stadium is completed there will be more opening for casual and opposition fans to attend Geelong games.
Seat-holding Cats members have squeezed options in past years but Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking said more general admission seats will be available in the future.
“I think one of the big shifts will be that it has been a stadium that for a long time there has been a lot of noise that you can’t get seats down here because it has been so tightly held by members,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful connection people have with the stadium, we are mindful that none of that is disrupted. What it will naturally be is that people will make decisions to travel and there will be people who travel down here knowing they will actually get in to our coliseum.”
More blockbusters on the agenda for GMHBA Stadium
Geelong should be set for regular blockbuster GMHBA Stadium clashes against the likes of Hawthorn, Carlton and Essendon in coming years as the ground reaches a 40,000 capacity, according to the stadium’s boss Gerard Griffin.
In a back-ended fixture designed to make the most of the mid-year completion of the stage 5 renovations at the ground, Geelong was pleased to host Victorian sides such as Melbourne and Essendon at GMHBA Stadium in 2023.
Aside from a Covid-affected meeting in 2021, the round 18 match will be the first time the Bombers have travelled to Kardinia Park to face the Cats since 1993.
Both Hawthorn and Carlton played in Geelong in 2020 in front of empty stands, but Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive Gerard Griffin said those clubs, plus Essendon, should be set to spend more time on the highway in coming years.
“I won’t claim to be a fixturing guru because it’s a highly complicated piece of work the AFL has to pull off every year but I think over time, you would see the Melbournes, Essendons, Carltons, Hawthorns here,” Griffin said.
“I think it would be hard to get a Collingwood or Richmond here but a combination of two or perhaps three of the others down the track. I think that’s right.
“I’d hope that is the case with a 40,000 occupancy. Over the last 3-4 seasons we will have seen two Essendon (games) and one Carlton here. I would hope that is something you would see down the track for sure.”
Collingwood has not ventured down to Geelong since 1999, while Richmond last played at Kardinia Park in 2017.
Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking said the club was excited to host Essendon, while the Melbourne meeting slated for Thursday night in round 15 would again act as the club’s Retro Round.
The Cats-Demons clash at GMHBA Stadium in 2022 drew a near sellout 21,501 fans at the stadium’s reduced capacity.
Hocking also said the club was “rapt” to host Sydney in Geelong in round 6, when the Cats will unfurl their 2022 premiership flag.
“We were always keen to unfurl it down here, it is our spiritual home,” he said.
“We’re fortunate that it is against the Swans and a Saturday night, so we are super excited.
“We have a range of ideas (for the unfurling) … we are looking to where we can to make sure our members and supporters are really connected strongly to it.”
Cats hopeful fixture wins can land big membership goal
A slate of marquee games early in the 2023 fixture has Geelong hopeful it can crack the 85,000 member barrier.
Cats chief executive Steve Hocking has put a long-term goal on the table of reaching 100,000 members and after signing up a club record 71,943 members in 2022 he is hopeful of seeing a leap next year.
Off the back of premiership success, Geelong will be able to house more members than ever at GMHBA Stadium when the stage 5 redevelopment is completed mid-year and begins the season with a series of big clashes at the MCG.
Geelong hosts Collingwood at the home of football in round 1, faces Carlton there a week later, before a home meeting with arch rival Hawthorn on Easter Monday the annual Country Game in round 7 against Essendon.
Hocking said the early slots against big clubs at the MCG had the Cats hopeful of landing a host of new members.
Only five clubs – West Coast, Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon – signed up at least 85,000 members in 2022.
“We hit a record membership this year of just under 72,000 so we are aiming with a bigger stadium and some presence in Melbourne to try and hit 80-85,000, which is where we would like to get to in 2023,” he said.
Hocking said getting in front of huge audiences both at the ground on and TV was a win for the club’s sponsors, while getting valuable gametime on the MCG can only help come September.
After round 7, the Cats are slated for two more MCG matches: against Richmond in round 9 and Collingwood again in round 22.
“(Marquee early games) means a range of things, you have to make sure your pre-season is right, you have got to get the players set as far as that goes,” he said.
“It is significant that we have an opportunity to play at the MCG. That is where finals are held, so we are looking forward to doing that.”
“That is the longer-term vision and part of the reason for that, a strong part of it, is it means we are able to be a really big club that matches the likes of Richmond, Collingwood and others like West Coast that have really big followings,” he said.
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