Mac Point Stadium win for all: Tasmania Devils’ Grant O’Brien

Tourism, hospitality, and services are all set to cash in from a new stadium, Tasmania’s AFL boss believes, drawing from similar infrastructure projects in Adelaide and Perth.

Tasmania’s AFL boss Grant O’Brien has no doubt Macquarie Point Stadium will deliver in spades for his football club and that all Tasmanians will have a Devil of a time attending concerts, conferences, cultural events in Tassie’s tailor-made field of dreams.

With a timeline of 2029 to throw open its doors and welcome people to the Mac Point party, pressure is mounting for “Mac Arena” to rise from its waterside wasteland.

O’Brien says the 23,000-seat roofed stadium will kick goals for the entire community and quickly establish itself as an intergenerational asset.

“The opportunity for the state is not just about providing a stadium that is going to be suitable for a football team,” O’Brien said.

“It is also about providing a stadium that is suitable for a whole range of things, whether that be concerts or conventions or events.

Inside view of the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium – it would host AFL, cricket, concerts, conferences, arts and cultural events. Picture: Supplied

“From a facility point of view, Hobart and Tasmania generally are crying out for a facility that will have the sort of operational assets and facilities that the proposed stadium will have.

“The way I see it, football provides the opportunity for infrastructure that is going to be a much bigger opportunity for the state.

“That is particularly from an economic point of view — tourism, hospitality, and services are the industries that are going to benefit from this.

“And in the initial stages construction will be a beneficiary of a project of this size.”

The AFL is sticking to its strict 19th licence condition “no stadium, no team”.

While we wait, the Tasmania Football Club has been born, O’Brien has taken the helm as chair, marketing maestro Kath McCann installed as executive officer, a board appointed, Brendon Gale chosen as CEO, the search for a football operations manager, recruiting manager, and commercial operations manager started, and this week a 7ft tall green machine, Rum’un, unveiled as the team mascot.

The most important piece of the puzzle has been designed, adopting aspects of Tasmania’s maritime and cultural heritage.

It is currently going through its Project of State Significance assessment, the result due in September — ironically, footy finals time of year.

The budget for Mac Point is $775m, and there is a belief that it could tip over $1b.

O’Brien and his team at Tasmania Football Club are apolitical.

Hobart's proposed AFL stadium at Macquarie Point. Picture: Macquarie Point Development Corporation

They say there will never be a perfect time to build a stadium.

In a statement, the club said: “Stadium projects across the world have all faced similar journeys to completion, but history would suggest that once completed these projects have delivered above and beyond expectations for communities — Adelaide Oval and Perth Stadium are good recent examples of this in Australia.

“Tasmania Football Club views the Macquarie Point Stadium as an investment for Tasmania but also understands that it is a large sum of money and respects the right for those in the community to have different perspectives and opinions on the project.

“Tasmania Football Club encourages community consultation and discussion on this project and would like to see this process be respectful to all involved.”

From the TFC’s perspective Mac Point offers two key aspects — a state-of-the-art venue to seat more people that either Ninja Stadium at Bellerive or UTas Stadium in Launceston.

“We have 207,000 members and not all of them are going to want to come to the footy, obviously,” O’Brien said.

“But the capacity of the existing stadiums in the state is not going to hold the average crowd that we believe is going to come to the games.

“So from a football point of view, a stadium that has got a greater capacity is necessary for us.

“That then leads to the equally important thing from a footy club point of view, which is to be able to use those games to generate the sort of income we need to be a successful club.

“Returns from game-days are critical for any club, and we are going to be no different to that.

“So having the sort of stadium that is going to house a good amount of people in a manner that provides what they expect from a modern-day stadia is good for us and all of the things that go with that.

“Capacity and having a commercial asset are the two most critical things for us in terms of the proposed new stadium.”

Not only will the Devils men debut at Mac Point when the stadium is complete.

“My wish is that our AFLW team has a following by the time they are up and running in 2027-28 that warrants them playing in the stadium like the one that will be built at Macquarie Point,” O’Brien said.

“We’ve got this unique opportunity to start afresh with girls and women involved in the club, and being equals in the club from the very beginning.

“My hope, and what we will be working towards, is to ensure the girls and women in our AFLW team get the same opportunity as the men to play in facilities like is envisaged at Macquarie Point.”