What Canberra can learn from Townsville in its stadium quest
Plus, David Pocock praises a French stadium for its ecological innovations and Andrew Barr gets a stadium question.
Hello and welcome to the latest Stadium Canberra newsletter.
This email keeps Canberrans committed to a new stadium for the ACT updated.
This month:
Chief Minister Andrew Barr formally kicks the stadium down the road,
Journalist Clare Armstrong reflects on the Townsville stadium saga, and
David Pocock praises an ecologically-focused French stadium.
Stadium deprioritised due to COVID
ABC journalist Brett McKay asked Chief Minister Andrew Barr about the impact of COVID-19 on the timeline for a stadium at a press conference on September 18th:
Brett McKay: Have you tried to work out what sort of impact [COVID-19] will have on infrastructure projects around the territory, be it light rail, be it the hospital, or dare I say it the stadium?
Andrew Barr: [Laughing] You had to get the sport question in … As it relates to infrastructure like a stadium, that’s very much at its early conceptual stage and I think people would understand in light of the current situation there are higher priorities at the moment and we’re outside of footy season anyway now, so I don’t think there’ll be any news on stadium infrastructure for a little while now.
Watch the full exchange on YouTube here:
The light rail rollout, Mr Fluffy remediation, and the revitalised theatre precinct have all bumped the new stadium down the list of priorities for the territory. Last year Barr ruled out fast-tracking the stadium to assist with the post pandemic economic recovery. And now, some 15 months later, the government appears to be kicking the stadium even further down the road.
Instead, it’s continuing to pour money into Bruce. Today the government announced a new video screen for Canberra Stadium and other unnamed upgrades. We’ll detail what these include next month.
Townsville’s long stadium saga
The Daily Telegraph’s National Political Reporter - and former Townsville Bulletin scribe - Clare Armstrong was kind enough to share her thoughts on similarities and differences between Townsville’s new $300 million stadium and Canberra’s prospects for one.
Jackson: “Take us back to how the Townsville Stadium got up.”
Clare: “There was a fairly strong push from the community, or sections of the community, for a Townsville Stadium. [Local federal electorate] Herbert is a marginal seat that was held by the Coalition, although the area’s three state seats were dominated by Labor, so it showed you that it's a seat that could be flipped. And so there was interest from the state for the stadium if they could get federal backing.
“Before the 2016 election [then-Labor leader] Bill Shorten was showing an interest in backing the stadium, and at the same [LNP MP] Ewen Jones was of the opinion that they didn’t need it. He was advising then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that it wasn’t necessary, they had a stadium already, people didn’t like it, they don’t need it.
“Then in the literal dying days of - insanely a few days before - the 2016 election, it came up that this was pretty much going to be the deciding issue for Herbert. Turnbull came on board with the 50-50 funding split with the state and matched what Labor had already committed to. Ultimately it was too little too late because [Labor’s] Cathy O’Toole ended up winning the seat by 37 votes.”
Jackson: “Where was the push from the community coming from, and what about the other side?”
Clare: “I describe Townsville not so much as a one sport town, but as a one team town … everyone is Cowboys, the end. There was obviously a lot of interest from them. The best I can describe the ‘for and against’ is there were people who saw this opportunity for Townsville that had never really recovered from the Global Financial Crisis. It’s quite a connected community. You have a tourism lobby, you have a business lobby group the Tourism Enterprise, you have a large council - it’s the biggest city in Northern Australia - they had a lot of firepower behind them.
“But the one thing I didn’t understand was the old stadium [1300 Smiles]. I would talk to random people on the street who would be like ‘we don't need a stadium we've already got one’. As an outsider you can see the debate … they've got a stadium maybe they don't think they need a fancy new one. But I went 1300 Smiles and I was like, ‘seriously this your idea of a stadium?’ It is a paddock with removable stands, the toilets are port-a-loos, there is no parking.
“There was this attitude of like, ‘this has always been our stadium’ - a real rose-coloured glasses view of the reality of what that old stadium was. And there were a lot of people, some prominent, that felt ‘this is how it's always been and this is all we need, and we don't need to spend money on something new’. And then there was a sort of new generation of business leaders, community leaders, sporting people that could see that what they had was not sustainable - not just in terms of sport, but in trying to make Townsville a place that big events might come.”
Jackson: “What do you think Canberra can take from Townsville’s experience?”
Clare: “The interesting thing is KPMG did a business case for the stadium a few years before that in 2013 or 2014 which had found that it wasn't economically viable, but the point that then got made later on is that stadiums are never really economically viable.
“[Former LNP MP] Ewen Jones came out halfway through saying that he supported the stadium but only if the state built it, and I think he thought that was how he could straddle being in favour of it, but not having the feds on the hook financially. I think they probably thought that it looked like Bill Shorten was pork barreling by committing the $100 million, and that that would look bad on Shorten but they underestimated that people were just happy that he committed.
“In terms of transferrable lessons, I think the main thing is how the coordinated the movers and shakers in Townsville were in their approach to having it. We had people arguing why it would be good for jobs, why it would be good for tourism, that we’d be able to get a greater calibre of sport and entertainment, that there’d be jobs in construction, all that kind of stuff. We had a lot of interest groups trying to bring an extra perspective to the table.
“I suppose every town has their own Townsville Stadium, the kind of thing they want but is economically out of reach. And perhaps the deciding factor is if you happen to be located in a critical marginal electorate. But at the same time, I don’t think that Townsville would have got the stadium even given the political position if it hadn’t been for that coordinated effort. There are plenty of marginal seats that don’t get what they want.”
David Pocock praises French stadium
ACT resident, former Wallaby and vocal advocate for action to address climate change, David Pocock, was recently featured in a 2023 Rugby World Cup promotional video where he praises the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard in St Etienne:
“It is really a stadium that is showcasing what’s possible, from over 2,500 square metres of solar panels, to using waste to generate electricity, the way that they are using waste from game days, recycling, it’s a really holistic approach and I think a real example of what’s possible.”
The stadium is 90 years old but has been refreshed in recent decades. It underwent a minor refurbishment for the 1998 France football World Cup and solar panels were installed on its roof in 2007. A more radical makeover started in 2011 which upgraded the stands and facade:
This is what it looks like today:
Thanks again for your interest. Get in touch if you have any thoughts. Looking forward to doing another meet up when lockdown lifts.
Cheers,
Jackson