Central Coast Stadium, our idyllic bayside home

[midfielder]

We'll be there! I hope there is at least the 10K + crowd the club is aiming for. If there is it should be noisy and enjoyable.
The downer is the weather forecast is very hot at 41 degs. with a possible shower developing. Uncomfortable for fans and players alike. It's going to be roasting in the Eastern stand. Might have to bring an extra iced water flask.

The stadium experience is actually quite a study theses days and in Australia was lead by the AFL who identified the need for a crowd to be sit in reasonable conditions further provide decent ground facilities and food and drink outlets..

Our stadium was built on the cheap and honestly was built for rugby league where matches are played normally in cooler and drier conditions...

I guess most of the stadiums are the same in this regard .... ours is particularly bad for early afternoon matches and if it rains ...

There is no where else to go but it would be nice if some shade cloth could be used for the eastern side... BTW not sure how to use the shade cloth...

 

[nearlyyellow]

.. Our stadium was built on the cheap and honestly was built for rugby league where matches are played normally in cooler and drier conditions...

Well, hardly on the cheap, approx $44m. Considering it was already flat land owned by the council (?) it shows you don't get everything near perfect even for that sum of $'s

I guess most of the stadiums are the same in this regard .... ours is particularly bad for early afternoon matches and if it rains ...
There is no where else to go but it would be nice if some shade cloth could be used for the eastern side... BTW not sure how to use the shade cloth...

I would think that to provide more sun and weather protection, particularly for the Eastern side, would be quite an expensive task. And who would pay? Council? And raise the ground rental even more? I don't think so.

 

[midfielder]

Well, hardly on the cheap, approx $44m. .

Memory being tested ... calls for help... My memory is the stadium was stuffed up rumours about it being on purpose or not, parts of the cement having to be torn out and relayed, resulting in the stadium being a year behind and adding hugely to the cost. Effectively sent the North Sydney Bears broke as they had budgeted to play there and it was delayed 12 months... which resulted in the merger between Manly and the Bears [sorry Manly take over] ... with Manly doing everything they could to get back to Brookie and be called Manly not the Northern Eagles...

Was told the stadium cost between 35 & 445 % more because of the re work... those on the coast at the time may know more of the story...

 

[nearlyyellow]

Memory being tested ... calls for help... My memory is the stadium was stuffed up rumours about it being on purpose or not, parts of the cement having to be torn out and relayed, resulting in the stadium being a year behind and adding hugely to the cost. Effectively sent the North Sydney Bears broke as they had budgeted to play there and it was delayed 12 months...

Wasn't it just problems with the actual ground/soil? And it all had to be torn up, deeply, and a completely new surface/drainage completed.

which resulted in the merger between Manly and the Bears [sorry Manly take over

] ... with Manly doing everything they could to get back to Brookie and be called Manly not the Northern Eagles...

Was told the stadium cost between 35 & 445 % more because of the re work... those on the coast at the time may know more of the story...

I seem to recall that the Feds kicked in $20m. and the State Gov. $20m. and the Council the rest?
(Sorry middy, I altered your post quoted, but with very good intent)

 

[dibo]

Speech from former member for The Entrance, Grant McBride.
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20001012038

He describes Northpower Stadium (as it was) as follows:

The NorthPower Stadium cost around $30 million. The State Government made a $12 million investment and, to its credit, that was matched by the Federal Government.​

So it would've been 12 State, 12 Feds, 6 Council.

 

[nearlyyellow]

Speech from former member for The Entrance, Grant McBride.
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20001012038

He describes Northpower Stadium (as it was) as follows:

The NorthPower Stadium cost around $30 million. The State Government made a $12 million investment and, to its credit, that was matched by the Federal Government.​

So it would've been 12 State, 12 Feds, 6 Council.

K so your figure of $30m. times middy's stated cost overrun of (max.) 45% = $43.5m. If that happened it was a disaster, and I don't remember there being talk of that kind of disaster. If there was a huge cost overrun who paid for it? Feds? State? Not Council, you can be assured.

 

[dibo]

I honestly don't think there was a cost overrun. There was certainly a delay to construction; that winter was wet as anything (that was my first year of uni and I rode past it every morning and evening on the train, wondering why it was taking so long).

 

[nearlyyellow]

Further confirmation from Hansard reporting on the proceedings of the NSW Legislative Assemble 4 years later on 11/05/2004:
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/0/DA76B9F5D422FC45CA25723C0008F770

where The Honourable Member for The Entrance Grant McBride said (in part):

"It was funded jointly by the State and Federal governments and Gosford City Council. The State and Federal governments each contributed $12.5 million and Gosford council contributed more than $4 million. The Central Coast Leagues Club and North Sydney Football Club contributed to the $32 million stadium"

So, I guess we could lock away the capital cost of Central Coast Stadium at $32m. ?

 

[midfielder]

Further confirmation from Hansard reporting on the proceedings of the NSW Legislative Assemble 4 years later on 11/05/2004:
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/0/DA76B9F5D422FC45CA25723C0008F770

where The Honourable Member for The Entrance Grant McBride said (in part):

"It was funded jointly by the State and Federal governments and Gosford City Council. The State and Federal governments each contributed $12.5 million and Gosford council contributed more than $4 million. The Central Coast Leagues Club and North Sydney Football Club contributed to the $32 million stadium"

So, I guess we could lock away the capital cost of Central Coast Stadium at $32m. ?

That sounds about right...

 

[nearlyyellow]

Gee it's very hard to get historic photos of Graham Park and of the construction of the new stadium. But here's a few I have dug up:

Waterfront at Graham Park 1964. This looks like it was taken from around the stadium side of the new road.


The old Graham Park grandstand about 1997 and a game of football in progress in the rain. Whose colours are those in the NSL?



This is the *only* image I can find of the construction process, from the daily Telegraph a short while ago:

 

[nearlyyellow]

I also found this document about how the groundsman prepares and maintains the surface for two codes of football. Interesting how it's done and shows why CCS got top ranking by the PFA.

http://www.greenhorticulture.com.au/files/sqtklvfwqz/Couch-only-for-A-Leagues-Mariners.pdf

(you'll have to follow the link, the pdf is too large to upload and I don't particularly want to copy and paste, even though it's only 2 pages. Anyone who can't get it and is interested contact me and I'll email you a copy of the pdf.)

 

[ballantyne]

The stadium is poorly designed in my view. The sun exposure in the eastern stand, the severe bottlenecks in the northern corners of the concourse, the lack of rain cover. All of these problems could have been avoided by talent rather than money, but you were never going to get that at the time or place.
Could've been worse cf Waverley Oval.

 

[midfielder]

The stadium was built on the cheap and was mainly pre fab with the cement pre-cast and bolted too the steel.

My source on the cost over runs was one of the engineers who was working on the project... we worked together for 3 years in NZ building a petrochemical refinery at a place called Marsden Point.

The delay sent the North Sydney Bears broke, thus the forced merger with Manly [sorry take over or f**k over] ...

I can't recall the problems that caused the delay locals at the time may know and the drainage thing mentioned I guess was the cause... but whatever it was is why we have the stadium to ourselves today... and given how little the council paid for the f**ker the rent they demand is more in line with a capitalist or even worst Woollies ... dare I say the council acting like a banker who knows you have no other option...

 

[eenfish]

Theres no way that game is being played in 1997. Wasn't construction well under way by then?

 

[midfielder]

The colours in the NSL were Sydney United ... they mainly played RL there ... I recall playing a pre season match there in RL I played for the Guildford Owls...

 

[pjennings]

It could be Gosford City Dragons

 

[dibo]

Theres no way that game is being played in 1997. Wasn't construction well under way by then?

Definitely not 1997. See the 'silver rattler' in the background? They were phased out by the early 90s. Looking at the style of the jersey and hair etc. I reckon it's late 70s/early 80s.

EDIT - also, stadium construction didn't start til late 1998 or early 1999.

 

[nearlyyellow]

Definitely not 1997. See the 'silver rattler' in the background? They were phased out by the early 90s.

Close, but no cigar. They were withdrawn in October 1996. The old "silver 80 wheelers" eh? I remember many a nightmare late night commute back home on those. But that still predates the 1997 caption. I will work on that and see if I can get a correction.

 

[dibo]

The ***BANG*** as you went into each of the tunnels as all the windows slammed in their runners with the air pressure in the tunnels...

 

[style_cafe]

The stadium experience is actually quite a study theses days and in Australia was lead by the AFL who identified the need for a crowd to be sit in reasonable conditions further provide decent ground facilities and food and drink outlets..

Our stadium was built on the cheap and honestly was built for rugby league where matches are played normally in cooler and drier conditions...

I guess most of the stadiums are the same in this regard .... ours is particularly bad for early afternoon matches and if it rains ...

There is no where else to go but it would be nice if some shade cloth could be used for the eastern side... BTW not sure how to use the shade cloth...

Cut the shade the shade cloth into pieces 600mm x 600mm (2ft x 2ft) , lay it on your head,then put your hat on!!!