Vic Park

[Mick]

"The Future of Victoria Park"

From Sunday Herald-Sun. 21/11/99 Palmer's Punchlines:

Collingwood is weighing up its options on whether to stay at Victoria Park or look for a new address. The signals have been evident since the end of the season with former president Kevin Rose and player Jeff Clifton, now a leading architect, surveying every aspect of the famous old arena. For the Magpies to stay they will need to build an indoor pool, a basketball stadium that could double for indoor training and a more elaborate gymnasium. It will cost and the club will need help. That's probably the reason Rose has arranged talks with the Yarra Council.

The Negatives

• shows poor strategic planning on the Club's behalf that they are only starting now
• sounds a lot like McAlistar's Magpieland concept
• was the Club too hasty in selling off that land next door?
• word on the street is that the decision has already been made to move the admin to Olympic Park
• would be surprising to see the footy part there separately
• don't expect a members vote on the issue - this will be a quick, irreversable management decision

The Positives

• with over a 100 new (and bloody expensive) residences being built in the Walker Corp building there will be an instant demand for such facilities
• time for the Save Vic Park group to pull their finger out and provide some creative (and commercially realistic) solutions
• if we are to have a reserves side then the ground should be pushed as a community venue
• maybe a developer could combine Gym facilities with a few cafes and shops since the local area needs a kick along - with the yuppie push into Collingwood/ Clifton Hill these would be sustainable
• can any of the grandstands be heritage listed? See Brunswick street oval for a well handled effort and the current Lake Side debacle for a lazy effort
• can the whole site be heritage listed?
• can the land next to the railway be developed for this purpose which would lift the whole area

If you want to Save Vic Park you better do something about it quick !

[Damien]

I love Vic park as much as the next guy, (see my contibution to the last Hot Pies) but surely the fight to save it was lost after the last game there. I think most people were interested in saving it as a venue for Collingwood home games, but now that that's gone I reckon it makes more business sense to go to the Southern stand once the AFL move to Docklands. Keep Vic Park as a nice peice of open space that we can meander across now and then or a place to have a kick of the footy with the nippers.
If the MCG build the new Northern Stand and we have a new Social Club there, (which should be state of the art and a return to value in being a social club member) it will no longer make sense to have any facilities at VP other than for training.

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Damien

[Pete the Pieman]

Perhaps they could set up a safe injecting room there.

They'd certainly have a ready made market in that area,