Page 317 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 31 May 1989
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Mr Whalan: Jimmy Barnes.
MR WOOD: Yes, exactly. It will be used as the Raiders' home ground and there is no doubt that that will be its major use. It will then get us coverage. It will be used for Panasonic Cup games, international matches of league and of rugby and of all sorts of other representative games.
I see a use for the stadium as a cricket venue. In discussions on this matter I asked whether there was any synthetic cricket pitch that could be taken out and laid down, as there are so many other synthetic surfaces. I understood there was not, but I also have information that people are talking about picking up a cricket pitch from some part where it is laid down and planting it there for cricket matches. I am sure that is possible. But I am confident that we will have day and night cricket matches there.
In keeping with the ALP's commitment to consult, Mr Whalan has met with a whole range of sporting groups and he may well elaborate on that. I know that he has seen people from rugby, league, cricket and Aussie Rules, and I am sure he will meet soccer people. I understand that in general they are in firm agreement with the proposal to shift to Bruce Stadium. As a trade-off for obtaining a lease of the main stadium, the ACT Administration has agreed to upgrade the athletic warm-up track and thus enable international standard competitions to be arranged. That is very important.
It is true that the warm-up track will not have the seating available. I went out there for the World Cup event a few years ago, and on occasions when there has been a large crowd there for athletics. On every other occasion that I have been out there for athletics - and I have been there often - I have noted that you can fit the crowd into a fairly compact area.
Mr Stefaniak raised the important point of leaving the existing track. That simply cannot be done. The whole area has to be grassed. Only by doing this can the ground be given a true multipurpose facility. Consideration was given to the possibility of covering the athletics track in the main stadium to make it available for future use. However, major drainage problems would occur due to the lack of subsoil drainage. Significantly increased costs in altering the levels of the arena to accommodate the extra depth of coverage would also be incurred. Along with that, there would be long-term damage to the synthetic surface anyway if something were laid above it.
If part of the track were left in the main stadium so that could be used as a warm-up area for the adjacent major track, drainage and run-off problems would occur and a safety problem for the players would be created in relation
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