Open letter to Anthony Albanese on the Hobart stadium
This letter is for the kids and footy fans of Tasmania. For its former, current and future footy stars. For the invisible volunteers who work in the shadows so their clubs can survive. Tasmania needs an AFL team. The AFL needs Tassie. That team needs a stadium. That stadium needs you.
Tasmania
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To:Mr Anthony Albanese
Prime Minister of Australia
Parliament House Canberra
Dear Albo,
This letter is for the kids and footy fans of Tasmania. The boys and girls who dream of playing footy at the highest level, at any level, with their mates and “besties”, against neighbouring schools and towns. Kids who just want to wear a pair of footy boots and some who will aspire for the ultimate dream of AFL and AFLW.
It is from Tassie’s former footy stars, its current footy stars, its future stars, its wannabes and could-have-beens, the mums and dads who drive kids to footy fields on frosty mornings, who cut the oranges and bring the sandwiches and juice, who wipe beaming faces and bleeding knees.
It is from the invisible volunteers who work in the shadows so their clubs can thrive and survive, and especially those who wash those muddy jumpers on days when nothing will dry.
They need an AFL team. Tasmania needs an AFL team. The AFL needs Tassie. That team needs a stadium.
That stadium needs you.
From the footy fans of Tasmania, the kids, the mums and dads, the schools, health and fitness campaigners, the hotels, restaurants, cafes, tourism businesses, Tasmania needs the Albanese government to back our team and help fund our field of dreams.
Macquarie Point has been selected as the perfect site for the people’s stadium – it would be the most accessible venue in the AFL relative to a capital city’s CBD.
The stadium design looks amazing and the state government has already committed $375m.
Time for you to tip in for the other half of the build.
It is not just football that will benefit from a legacy venue. Cricket plans Big Bash games there, one-day internationals and the ultimate red-ball dream, a Test match, maybe even the Ashes.
There would be concerts and conferences, and in the surrounding cultural and arts precinct, festivals would flourish. None more so than Tasmania’s favourite winter celebration, Dark Mofo.
The build alone would create 4200 jobs during construction and maintain 950 jobs a year during operation. During construction it would generate $300m in additional economic activity and then $85m each year after it is built as well as $162m each year in consumption, because of an expected spike in the visitor economy.
AFL boss Gill McLachlan says a Macquarie Point stadium would deliver a $2bn cash injection into the state’s economy in its first 20 years. Those numbers can’t be ignored.
Tasmania is blessed with great natural wonders, incredible people and a football culture that started in a sheep paddock at Richmond when the Gold Coast was a swamp.
We belong in the big league and a stadium is essential to Tasmania securing its place in the national competition.
With a funding commitment from your government, you can make that happen.
And when it does, generations of true believers will see their dream come true. And it will be future generations of Tasmanians to reap the benefits.
The game is incomplete without Tassie: The ONLY state without a team in Australia’s biggest sport.
It’s not truly a national game until this is fixed.
The Mercury
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