Adelaide a reference for hobart stadium

ADELAIDE and its stadium have become the reference point for those favouring a stadium in Hobart. Its praises are sung on high, and it is a magnificent stadium within walking distance of the

city through parkland and across the Torrens. They are good assets and not to be sneezed at. Nonetheless, the comparisons should stop there. Adelaide has a population of 1.367 million and

two AFL teams. Seventy-seven per cent of the population of South Australia lives in Adelaide. Hobart has a population of 253,241 and the prospect of one AFL team. Only 46 per cent of

Tasmania's population live in Hobart. Now I don't want to be a knocker. I don't believe we needed a new stadium just to get an AFL licence. I still don't. Now that it is

a requirement, however, I won't be manning the barricades to vote against it. I would nevertheless encourage our government to stare down the AFL and build a different kind of stadium.

One without a roof. One built for the community as much as AFL. One where it is required to be utilised as much as possible and when the AFL are not in town to stage gala days for

women's and junior footy and for the local league. The MCG has multiple games pretty much each weekend during the footy season. With its magnificent surface, York Park is treated more

as a sacred site, with very few games during the season and limited access for the local community. We have enough corporatised sacred sites. It's time we designed such infrastructure

for the good of all.