The ground (like Waverley) served its purpose well. It gave football independence from cricket - and when the SANFL returned to Adelaide Oval, they returned as a co-tenant, not a sub-tenant (Adelaide Oval is now operated by the Stadium Management Authority - a joint venture between the SANFL and SACA). Also, technically the last upgrades were in 2007 when the 2nd video screen, new PA system and new siren was installed. It was the last of the unique sirens before the generic siren we have today became more prevalent.
It's be a very interesting footy landscape if Waverley still existed, but with the infrastructure around it that was originally planned. If the trains that were originally planned were there I wonder if they'd have ever moved away from it. Having a stadium of close to 100K capacity would have dialled up the pressure on the MCG to keep the stadium up to date. At 50K Telstra/Marvel could never really even host a final let alone a Grand Final. Imagine a world where Waverley was a modern 100k stadium, you could end up in a scenario where Grand Finals were rotated or moved for long stretches.
My biggest memory of Football Park was the 1976 SANFL grand final between Port Adelaide and Sturt. The ticketed crowd was around 66900 but the police believed the crowd to be around 80000. The was so many people in the ground that there was over 10000 people seated on the grass area between the fence and the boundary line. That could never happen these days
A ground 15kms from the CBD would always be problematic. That was the same with the old Stadium in Townsville that the Cowboys in the NRL played at. The new one is now in the CBD there too.
I remember when they first started redeveloping adelaide oval for the footy you could to grab a slab of turf to grow for yourself. They done the same thing when they redeveloped the seats at footy Park from the steel bench seats. 1 of those benches is out the front of mine in the park right now hahaahahah
The fact that Football Park (AAMI Stadium) lasted 41 years shows how quickly sports stadium technology evolved these days and standards for entertainment venues has increased. I don’t think Docklands (Marvel Stadium), Stadium Australia (Accor Stadium) or Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (AAMI Park) will last that long. I only went to Football Park twice at the end of its use and I much prefer the redeveloped Adelaide Oval
Agree, I went to a Marvel Stadium game in 2014 to see Port play - as I was walking around the outside of it - thought to myself this looked so dated and yet it opened only 13 years before
The most memorable all of course was the 1987 GF b/t the Cocks and the Bays. What a demonstration of our great game before the Vics decided to stuff it up.
What killed this stadium was the introduction of Saturday afternoon and Sunday trading. People could no longer park in the large shopping centre carpark. Making it impossible to find a park nearby unless you got there a hour before the game.
Also westfield got pissed off and started charging for parking over 3 hours, so yeah. Government got pissed off at westfield for charging, but luckily that happened post football park, if football park still exist, westfield wouldn't budge in hell to have their parking for free next to an 50k stadium.
I wish i went i had a free ticket to go any Port game that year. Watching the game with a Port fan was still good though. His soul basically left when Westhoff missed😂😂
So many great childhood memories at Footy Park. Sturt winning the SANFL flag in 2002 and beating Glenelg in the 2009 prelim, and the Crows breaking Port's Showdown winning streak thanks to Stiffy Johncock!
I've got some good memories of Footy Park ... standing on the concrete terraces in the late 70s to watch SANFL games. SA vs Vic State of Origin games. The first ever Crows game in a trial against the Bombers. Seeing my beloved Centrals win their first SANFL Grand Final. When the place was full, it was rocking! But it is was difficult to get to and outdated by the time AFL moved to the renovated Adelaide Oval. RIP Footy Park!
Football Park was built without any Taxpayers money. Why are Taxpayers being forced to pay for Stadiums today? The AFL sells its TV Rights for over $2 million dollars a match. The AFL is also Tax Exempt as it's a classified as a non for profit.
Love these videos. Makes me wonder what the plan will be for Marvel Stadium which is now 24 years old. In 10 years time it's going to look very old and tired. Construction would be far easier if the construction team could have the whole site, instead of just working on a stand at a time with games still happening. I'd be curious if there are lowkey plans to construct a new stadium on a different site (ie. Caulfield Racecourse) so that the transition from old to new would be seamless, like it was for Football Park to Adelaide Oval. Obviously the MCG is still going strong, but it would struggle to take on all Melbourne based games during that time period.
You got to a lot of suburban or country footy / netball clubs and you'll find some footy park aluminium seating as they were offered up to grass roots sports when they got replaced.
I played RL while based at Woomera during 1960 It was called the the South Australian Rugby League and as our team got 2nd I got a cup and the blazer. Which I gave to my grandson in Sydney I think it was more a limited competition
A whole grandstand was kept at Waverly Park. Why was no grandstand kept at Football Park? The Adelaide Oval upgrade was paid for by Taxpayers. This is corporate Welfare. This money should have been spent fixing the Housing Crisis in SA.
Great vid mate. You're what Depressed Ginger should have been. Have always hated the move of both AFL clubs to Adelaide Oval - clearly a move to save costs and have just one premiere sports venue in South Australia. Always wondered what happened to Football Park.
This channel is like an aussie sports version of the u.s. 9/11 youtuber: 'depressed ginger' who also talks about sports. Seems as though you modelled your style and content off him but maybe you've never heard of him. Either way it's pretty cool to see the similarities of styles when it comes to both your channel and his.
Yep, the semi vs Freo only got 31742.....for context the crows have only failed to beat that crowd outside of the covid years only once at Adelaide Oval and that's when the temp was about 5 degrees by the end of the game....
The qualifying final got 44k which was decent in fact 2k higher than 2006 QF. If won that game the prelim would’ve been sold out like 2006. As for the semi, it had weird late time of 8.15pm which would’ve scared old supporters away and of course had loss week before.
