Saturday, September 22, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Perth Glory unhappy over construction schedule
The Perth Glory has threatened to walk away from Perth Oval over a dispute about upgrades to the stadium.
The State Government has announced further redevelopment of the site, with the southern stand being replaced and seats added to the northern end in front of the shed area.
Glory owner Tony Sage says the construction schedule affects the club unfairly, by reducing seating capacity.
"We've been told that our fans are only going to be allowed to have 5,000 seats for next year, the whole season," he said.
"And as soon as our season's finished, rugby starts two weeks later, they've already scheduled away games for those two weeks, and they get a full, brand new, 22,000 seat stadium with no disruption."
He says the Glory will play its first game of next season at Subiaco Oval and is looking at the Burswood Dome as a more permanent option.
But Sports Minister Terry Waldron says the long-term gains will outweigh the disruption to the Perth Glory season.
"Obviously they're going to have some disruptions next season," he said.
"And while that's unfortunate, they've [Glory] been aware of that the whole way through.
"And I guess the long term benefits and their ability to provide for their fan base, their ability to earn finance through the ground will be greatly enhanced."
The State Opposition says the government needs to take the Perth Glory's concerns about the redevelopment of Perth Oval seriously.
Labor spokesman Roger Cook says the government needs to sit down with Mr Sage in an effort to stop him from walking away from the venue.
"It's concerning that the government will spend $95 million doing up NIB Stadium and the people who seem most unhappy with it is the soccer community of Western Australia," he said.
Mr Waldron says the new additions will be built within the $95 million budget.
"When we announced the budget of $95.1 million, we said the budget was for the eastern stand and we were going to look at opportunities to do other works," he said.
"And we thought there may have been some scope there; as it's turned out, there is."
Work will start on the stadium on 2 July, following the Western Force's final game of the 2012 Super Rugby season.
The stadium is expected to be finished in March 2013.
Tags: government-and-politics, super-rugby, soccer, perth-6000 First posted June 07, 2012 13:54:25Sunday, April 17, 2011
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