Top excecutive Grant O’Brien backs Mac Point stadium on eve of appointment as Tassie AFL team chairman

The man about to be announced as inaugural chair of Tasmania’s AFL team says a world-class stadium at Mac Point would be a “significant asset” for the state and not just a footy field.

Incoming Tasmania AFL CEO Grant O'Brien. (AAP Image/David Moir)

The man about to be announced as inaugural chair of Tasmania’s AFL team in Hobart on Friday says a world-class stadium at Macquarie Point would be a “significant asset” for the state and an “entertainment hub”, not just a footy field.

Woolworth’s former $5.6m-a-year managing director Grant O’Brien, now chairman of Tourism Tasmania, CEO of the Port Arthur Authority and member of the Tasmanian AFL Taskforce, is all for the Mac Point project.

Woolworths AGM Chairman Gordon Cairns and CEO Grant O'Brien. Pic Stephen Cooper

Minister for Sport Nic Street said on Tuesday the chair would be announced “later this week”.

In a statement on Wednesday, the AFL said: “The appointment of a chairperson at an AFL football club is an important decision that helps establish the strong foundations, governance and leadership of their AFL and AFLW teams and more broadly the club and its standing in the community.

“The AFL and the Tasmanian Government will make an announcement on the chairperson for the 19th licence in due course”.

Macquarie Point stadium has fueled controversy as the Yes Stadium campaign, which has 20,300 Facebook members, and the No Stadium campaign, with 3,800 members, lock horns over the 23,000-seat roofed venue.

Yes Stadium supporters arrive at North Hobart Oval for Tasmanian v Queensland state game. Picture James Bresnehan

On Melbourne radio recently, O’Brien said stadiums can drive economies.

“Perth and Adelaide have demonstrated that world-class stadiums can be a significant asset for a city,” he said.

“They don’t get put on the ground overnight – they require a great deal of preparatory work, they are major projects and so they need to due diligence that any of those sort of things have.

“And the reality is, it won’t be just a footy ground. It will likely be for cricket and [overall] an entertainment hub.”

Designs of what Hobart's new AFL stadium at Macquarie Point could look like. Images supplied by AFL

Originally from Penguin on the state’s North-West Coast, O’Brien, 53, is on the record as a strong believer that Tasmania’s 19th AFL licence can only be a good thing for the state that regularly punches about its weight in all walks of life.

“Footy has been played in Tasmania since 1879,” O’Brien said.

“The flags that the goal umpires wave were first waved in Tassie.

“The first boundary umpires were in Tassie.

“Four of the legends of the game — Darrel Baldock, Peter Hudson, Ian Stewart, Royce Hart — are from Tassie.

“This is a football nursery and it has been part of the AFL for a long time but it is effectively withering on the vine.

“An AFL side can provide ambition with the ability of access to the young people of Tassie and that’s my motivation for getting an AFL team.”

O’Brien is on record as saying the game in Tasmania “is suffering at the moment”.

“Participation in boys in recent years has fallen by about 22 per cent so an elite team as has been shown in Queensland and NSW, the two most recent admissions into the AFL competition, spikes engagement and spikes participation,” he said.