The location of Seaford

[prwilkinson]

The purpose of the club being in Seaford is a mystery. If it is just a training/ admin facility, then it could be anywhere, so it might as well be back at Junction Oval which could have easily been brought up to standard, as we are St Kilda after all.. We don't play AFL matches in Seaford, we play them in the city or interstate, and supporters go to Etihad or the MCG to watch the games, otherwise games are watched or listened to on TV, radio or over the internet. I think Seaford is not seen as high profile or funky by advertisers/ sponsors etc. A recent training footage on TV of the team at Seaford a few weeks back showed the players running around against a backdrop of an unattractive concrete factory slab wall smeared with equally unattractive graffiti -not a great look compared to an attractive parkland or city skyline backdrop. I suppose we are stuck with it now.

St.Kilda left junction oval in 1965 because of the same issues the Melbourne footy club have had there recently.... The ground isn't our property... It's the VCC's and the St.Kilda cricket clubs... St.Kilda played there for nearly 100 years and there isn't even a statue or a mention of the club ever being there if you walk past now. If it was our ground we'd most likely still be there... which is sad really... given St.Kilda is one of the best parts of Melbourne.

[Spud]

I've driven around the Seaford area before and I saw huge housing development going on, it looks to me like a pretty good decision based on future population growth around there. At the end of the day it is only the administration and training facility not the ground we play at.

[Nick Bayside]

Seaford is a fine choice. 40mins by fwy from CBD. Although the ground is placed as far from its beach as possible. To whoever suggested a city skyline would make a good club promo, Seaford Beach is a much more picturesque promo than St Kilda's or a city skyline. The only better option here was to move to the hilltop, bayview ground in Frankston CBD. I vision us being there in five-ten years.

[Dr Spaceman]

To those of us who grew up wondering whether we would fold, merge or be relocated to somewhere outside Victoria, I can happily accept a home down the Peninsula.

And I'm sure many old South Melbourne and Fitzroy fans would love the hassle of having to travel to Seaford if it meant they got to stay in Melbourne.

[spert]

Our move to Moorabbin did work for a while, then it just began to deteriorate over a long period. I don't think Seaford will be long-term St Kilda solution, and will probably revert to a sports facility for the local community, which would be a good outcome. I think the club in the long-term should just move to Docklands, and train at Etihad.

[3rd generation saint]

The Seaford location was probably selected based on cost, it would have been the most cost effective solution.
To return the club to St.Kilda would have cost the club a lot more than Seaford, plus there really are only two alternatives in the area as I see it, Junction Oval, which as said before is run by the cricket club and the players would never be able to use the oval during summer and don't forget that it would also be affected through March due to the Grand Prix at Albert Park.
The other alternative would have been Elsternwick Park, but this too, would be impracticle due to the strong presence of amateur fotty there.
Now as someone keeps reminding us how far away Seaford is from civilisation that no one wants to go there, how does he explain Geelong's success, a few of their players even still live in Melbourne and travel down to train, a lot of them live in places like Torquay and other seaside towns down that way.
As I said, the current crop of players may be finding it a little inconvenient to commute down there from Sandringham and Beaumaris, but the new crop of players will enjoy commuting from Mt Martha, Mornington, Rye etc.
As I said elsewhere, it is going to be such a bad lifestyle living down on the peninsula where you will have a house close to the bay where you can your boat out for a bit of relaxation, with a short commute up the new Mornington Penninsula Freeway to one of the best training facilities in the comp.
Sure, much rather be in the centre of the city with the traffic, the lack of parking, I drive in the inner suburbs 5 days a week for work and I'll take what I desbribed in the previous paragraph any day.

[ando051]

I don't get the criticism

we have top class facilities for us NOW

after 5 years of negotiating at Moorabbin... we had nothing and would require another 2-3 years of negotiating to get anywhere. I love Moorabbin don't get me wrong... but there are ppl on that council that were just plain opposition to the club.Everywhere else was at least 5 years away and as far as i know... other than Casey Fields there was no other strong contendor willing to accept the Saints.


What exactly is it that people want here? What are the alernatives?

That had nothing to do with it. It all had to do with poker machines. The club were given permission to build a new Social Club/Entertainment venue on the corner of Linton/ South rd, but it all fell through because the club were not granted any EXTRA poker machine licences.

As a training facility Seaford looks like it has everything. The location will get better when the new Peninsula Link freeway is completed. What the Seaford location is lacking is infrastructure for the supporters to go to. Not even a toilet to use for open training sessions. I think there was a deal done to get more poker machines at another location in the area. We still have a 36 year lease at Moorabbin.

[GrumpyOne]

I don't get the criticism

we have top class facilities for us NOW

after 5 years of negotiating at Moorabbin... we had nothing and would require another 2-3 years of negotiating to get anywhere. I love Moorabbin don't get me wrong... but there are ppl on that council that were just plain opposition to the club.Everywhere else was at least 5 years away and as far as i know... other than Casey Fields there was no other strong contendor willing to accept the Saints.


What exactly is it that people want here? What are the alernatives?

That had nothing to do with it. It all had to do with poker machines. The club were given permission to build a new Social Club/Entertainment venue on the corner of Linton/ South rd, but it all fell through because the club were not granted any EXTRA poker machine licences.

Wrong.

The council had a condition on granting approval for us to relocate that required us to reduce the number of pokie machines.

[ando051]

Not Reduce Grumpyone, the current club has 46 poker machines the council were happy for those 46 licences go into the new club but did not want to grant extra licences.

[Bernard Shakey]

I don't get the criticism

we have top class facilities for us NOW

after 5 years of negotiating at Moorabbin... we had nothing and would require another 2-3 years of negotiating to get anywhere. I love Moorabbin don't get me wrong... but there are ppl on that council that were just plain opposition to the club.Everywhere else was at least 5 years away and as far as i know... other than Casey Fields there was no other strong contendor willing to accept the Saints.


What exactly is it that people want here? What are the alernatives?

That had nothing to do with it. It all had to do with poker machines. The club were given permission to build a new Social Club/Entertainment venue on the corner of Linton/ South rd, but it all fell through because the club were not granted any EXTRA poker machine licences.

Wrong.

The council had a condition on granting approval for us to relocate that required us to reduce the number of pokie machines.

Yeah, from 83 to 80. For the sake of three pokies we moved to Franganistan.

[suss]

I don't get the criticism

we have top class facilities for us NOW

after 5 years of negotiating at Moorabbin... we had nothing and would require another 2-3 years of negotiating to get anywhere. I love Moorabbin don't get me wrong... but there are ppl on that council that were just plain opposition to the club.Everywhere else was at least 5 years away and as far as i know... other than Casey Fields there was no other strong contendor willing to accept the Saints.


What exactly is it that people want here? What are the alernatives?

That had nothing to do with it. It all had to do with poker machines. The club were given permission to build a new Social Club/Entertainment venue on the corner of Linton/ South rd, but it all fell through because the club were not granted any EXTRA poker machine licences.

Wrong.

The council had a condition on granting approval for us to relocate that required us to reduce the number of pokie machines.

Yeah, from 83 to 80. For the sake of three pokies we moved to Franganistan.

If that my friend is the nub of it, then the person or people or made that fateful decision should be strung by their nuts.

[Solar]

Not Reduce Grumpyone, the current club has 46 poker machines the council were happy for those 46 licences go into the new club but did not want to grant extra licences.

wrong, the council refused to allow that many pokie machines to be re-located to the south rd complex. The whole loan was based on outside football income and thus fell apart. Despite this it was well known that the pokies licences would in fact have moved down the road to a well knowm pub.

To save face the council decided to create a "save the moorabin forest" campaign despite the fact that it was in fact a football ground carpark for the past 50 years. Go figure.

Barks would love to see any evidence that the move to port melbourne went any further then a couple of beers and a chat........

[Bernard Shakey]

Not Reduce Grumpyone, the current club has 46 poker machines the council were happy for those 46 licences go into the new club but did not want to grant extra licences.

wrong, the council refused to allow that many pokie machines to be re-located to the south rd complex. The whole loan was based on outside football income and thus fell apart. Despite this it was well known that the pokies licences would in fact have moved down the road to a well knowm pub.

To save face the council decided to create a "save the moorabin forest" campaign despite the fact that it was in fact a football ground carpark for the past 50 years. Go figure.

Barks would love to see any evidence that the move to port melbourne went any further then a couple of beers and a chat........

The club has the same 83 pokies they had in 2007. The council wanted that reduced to 80. What was the big deal? Archie Fraser has a lot to answer for. He has done remarkably well since leaving us, hasn't he?

[Enrico_Misso]

I don't get the criticism

we have top class facilities for us NOW

after 5 years of negotiating at Moorabbin... we had nothing and would require another 2-3 years of negotiating to get anywhere. I love Moorabbin don't get me wrong... but there are ppl on that council that were just plain opposition to the club.Everywhere else was at least 5 years away and as far as i know... other than Casey Fields there was no other strong contendor willing to accept the Saints.


What exactly is it that people want here? What are the alernatives?

That had nothing to do with it. It all had to do with poker machines. The club were given permission to build a new Social Club/Entertainment venue on the corner of Linton/ South rd, but it all fell through because the club were not granted any EXTRA poker machine licences.

Wrong.

The council had a condition on granting approval for us to relocate that required us to reduce the number of pokie machines.

Yeah, from 83 to 80. For the sake of three pokies we moved to Franganistan.

If that my friend is the nub of it, then the person or people or made that fateful decision should be strung by their nuts.

As I understood it Bitsy Titsy and her other demented Councillors had no objection to us relocating the SC.

But there were two catches.

1) You can't just move poker machines from one premises to another.
You actually forgo them and then have to re-apply for them in the new premises.

2) The Clowncil had a no-pokies policy so they announced they would therefore object to the "new" poker machines.
That meant that the application was at risk to be rejected or at least downgraded to the point where the economics didn't stack up.

Having said that Westaway rather than re-exploring the options simply gave in to the Frankston, which then became Seaford move.