Jack Dyer Stand may go in $60m Punt Road Oval redevelopmentBy Caroline Wilson
The Age
7 September 2018 — 3:09pmA $60 million redevelopment of the Punt Road Oval, which would almost certainly lead to the removal of the Jack Dyer Stand and cement the Tigers’ long-term future next door to the MCG, looks set to be unveiled before the forthcoming state and federal elections.
Richmond’s emergence as a 100,000-member AFL powerhouse club heading towards their second successive preliminary final comes as Tiger bosses are lobbying intensively behind the scenes with a range of senior state and federal government figures to fund a new football hub for the club’s increasingly diverse gender and multicultural profile.
The redevelopment involving a three-way funding split between the federal and state governments and the club would change the face of of one of Melbourne’s best-known and most utilised corners and play a role in the proposed radical overhaul of pedestrian traffic between the MCG and Richmond station.
Underpinning their bid is that by 2020 the Tigers will house not only AFL and VFL teams at Punt Road but also their AFLW and VFLW teams and the club’s recently introduced Wheelchair team, which was defeated by Collingwood last weekend in the first Victorian Wheelchair League grand final.
It has emerged that 2017 premiership player Bachar Houli and his Islamic Academy, which is to be based at Punt Road and soon to receive a major funding boost from the federal government, have played a pivotal role in the Punt Road plans.
One of the last remaining VFL grandstands, the Dyer Stand was built in 1914 and after a number of renovations was named in honour of the Australian football Hall of Famer "Captain Blood" in 1998.
While not officially heritage listed, the stand has become a significant landmark.
When Tigers CEO Brendon Gale first mooted pulling down the stand earlier this season he conceded widespread consultation including with Dyer’s family would precede any final decision.
Officially tight-lipped regarding the redevelopment, Richmond have handed detailed drawings and proposals to both sides of politics and across several departments both in Canberra and Spring Street.
The redevelopment would see:
* The 104-year-old Jack Dyer Stand removed to make way for new seating, change rooms, community and elite training facilities.
* Expanded sporting amenities to house Richmond’s AFL, VFL, AFLW, VFLW and recently introduced team in the Victorian Wheelchair Football League.
* Spectator capacity lifted from 5000 to 8000 with new terracing around Punt Road’s outer wing, under the scoreboard and the north end goals.
* New lighting to allow for regular VFL and AFLW night fixtures.
* The expansion of the current training facility, which would also make room for Richmond’s expanding Korin Gamadji Institute and elite athlete and sport science educational partnership with Swinburne.
* Accommodation for students attending the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School.
* A facelift for the Swinburne Centre, which would see the unsightly and impractical small windows significantly enlarged.
Under Richmond’s proposal, the costing applications would include $20 million in Commonwealth funding and $20 million from the Victorian government. Richmond have pledged to cover the final third of that costing in the hope that the AFL would contribute $5 million.
While the plans, understood to have received strong support from the AFL and Richmond’s local member and Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne, are not wedded to the removal of the iconic Dyer Stand, that is the club’s strong preference.
Keeping the stand would come at a multimillion-dollar extra cost.
A total of 5000 supporters squeezed into Punt Road last September for the club’s final training session before the grand final and at last Saturday night’s televised VFL final there was restricted seating and the lighting fail during the third quarter. Under the new plans, seating would increase to 5000 with standing room for a further 3000.
With Richmond overlooked in the $500 million sport facilities funding package unveiled five months ago by Premier Daniel Andrews, a disappointed Gale and his team refocused their efforts towards a wide range of state and federal government departments.
Gale and his lieutenants, Michael Stahl and Simon Matthews, have worked closely with both sides of federal and state politics in the hope that Richmond’s sporting, social, multicultural and community achievements will attract pre-election commitments.
Earlier this year, Matthews led a Richmond delegation to the United Nations in New York where the Tigers became the first sporting club to present to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues, underlining the work of the KGI Institute.
The Tigers’ funding bid has been linked with the proposed radical redevelopment from Richmond station to the MCG. The Punt Road gateway is seen as the last piece in the puzzle of Melbourne’s inner-city sporting precinct.
The confluence of big AFL and NRL finals held in the precinct on Friday night, along with the logistical hurdles involving moving more than 91,000 supporters into the MCG for Richmond’s Thursday night qualifying final against Hawthorn, has again underlined the need for a new walkway linking Richmond station to the MCG.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/jack-dyer-stand-may-go-in-60m-punt-road-oval-redevelopment-20180907-p502dv.html
