Page 844 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
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play there. Shortly a trust to manage the facility will be announced. One of the principal and early functions of that trust will be to continue the negotiations which have been already initiated with the various sporting codes in relation to the use of the facility.
The various codes with which negotiations have already commenced include rugby union, which has shown considerable interest - I hope I do not talk for as long as you do about it - in the venue, particularly for these international matches. They are talking about having two matches there next year. The actual charging in relation to, say, the rugby union will be a matter for negotiation between the trust and the rugby union.
The other codes include VFL football. Last Friday I had the pleasure of visiting Bruce Stadium with Alan Schwab, who is the VFL executive commissioner, and he was accompanied by Mr Hassett of the ACT Australian football league. Both of these gentlemen were extraordinarily enthusiastic about the prospects of Bruce Stadium for its future use in the presentation of Australian football. Mr Schwab left there, indicating quite clearly his hopes to stage various types of matches there, including evening matches in the trial period and evening matches for the Panasonic competition. Also he mentioned the possibility of staging one or two VFL competition games there, and he mentioned the program that they are examining of creating a gap in the season, about July, to have a program of State of origin matches at various locations throughout Australia, and that would include Canberra and, in the case of Canberra, the Bruce Stadium. So a whole range of options is being considered by the VFL.
In relation to the size of the stadium as it relates to being appropriate for the playing of Australian football, both the ACTAFL representative and Mr Schwab indicated that there would be no problems staging VFL matches at the Bruce Stadium. I am surprised to hear the reference by Mr Stefaniak that it might not be appropriate for VFL games because I do not think that we could get a higher authority than Mr Schwab, one of whose functions is to promote the growth of Australian football league nationally.
Other codes whose representatives we have spoken to include soccer. They would have a problem with the playing surface, but not with anything other than that. They feel that a particular period of preparation of the ground could be negotiated. They require a much superior quality surface than do the more vulgar codes of rugby union and Australian rules football; they require a much smoother surface so that the ball runs true. They believe that that could be achieved if there were a period of a week or 10 days before a match was played. So they would see the possibility of international matches, such as those that were played here in recent years. Much to their surprise, one recent international match played in the ACT, for example, drew a crowd of 15,000. That is the sort of match that they would see being played there.
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