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Kardinia Park would get a new 14,000-seat grandstand as part of a $230-million Andrews Government election pledge to upgrade Geelong's home of AFL, as well as the city's performing arts centre.
Key points:
- Labor is hoping to wrest the seat of South Barwon from the Liberal Party
- It says the upgrade will allow Kardinia Park to host more major events and women's sport
- Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says he will leave the AFL grand final eve public holiday in place if elected
Premier Daniel Andrews visited Geelong to announce $102 million for upgrades to Kardinia Park, which would increase the stadium's capacity to 40,000, by replacing the Ford Stand and Ablett Terrace with a new two-tier northern stand.
The stadium's current capacity is 36,000.
Under the plan, a new northern entry plaza would be built for patrons entering from Geelong's city centre and the South Geelong train station, and the existing Geelong Cricket Club rooms will be replaced with new facilities.
The redevelopment would also include new media and loading facilities with better access to the pitch to allow the delivery of drop-in pitches, which the Government says will allow the stadium to host major concerts and family events.
New unisex changerooms would be built as part of the redevelopment, which the Government says will allow more professional women's sport to be played in Geelong.
Work would start after the International Cricket Council World T20 matches being held at Kardinia Park in 2020, with construction expected to finish in 2022.
The Government says the project would create about 300 jobs.
Labor is also promising to complete the third and final stage of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre's redevelopment at a cost of $128 million.
This would include a 500-seat drama theatre, 250-seat courtyard theatre, another smaller performance space, an outdoor atrium, more dining options, an upgraded box office and refurbished back-of-house and administration facilities.
The project would cover about two thirds of the site, with most of the work focussing on the Little Malop Street side of the building.
Work on the arts centre would start in 2020 and be completed by 2023.
The Government says that project would create about 600 construction jobs and more than 300 ongoing local jobs in the tourism and service industries.
Work is currently underway on the on the $38.5-million second stage of the centre's redevelopment, including a new foyer, bar area and four rehearsal studios.
Labor will be hoping the announcement helps its chances of wresting the seat of South Barwon from Liberal MP Andrew Katos, who holds it on a margin of less than 3 per cent.
The seat, which includes areas south and west of Geelong's city centre including Highton, Moriac, Waurn Ponds and Torquay, was held by Labor from 2002 to 2010.
Its candidate is former federal MP Darren Cheeseman.
Labor will also be seeking to strengthen its hold on the seats of Bellarine, which Police Minister Lisa Neville holds on a margin of 4.8 per cent, and Geelong, which Christine Couzens holds on a margin of 6 per cent.
Mr Andrews said the upgrades would give Geelong "the best regional facilities in Australia".
Guy drops opposition to holiday
The pitch for football fan votes comes as Opposition Leader Matthew Guy ends the Coalition's three-year criticism of Victoria's grand final eve public holiday.
The Opposition and business groups have consistently attacked the holiday since was introduced by the Andrews Government in 2015.
In 2016, Mr Guy said that the grand final eve holiday was not something his team was "looking at keeping" if elected.
"It has got a lot of small businesses and their families offside … and [is] losing a lot of money," he said at the time.
But Mr Guy told the Herald Sun that the holiday would remain if he won the election.
"We didn't originally support it but we accept it's now part of the calendar," he said.
"I don't think Victorians want public holidays to be politicised so we will leave the grand final holiday as it is."
In 2015, a Government-commissioned report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers found that the holiday would cost the Victorian economy up to $852 million a year in lost production.
Topics: government-and-politics, elections, urban-development-and-planning, community-and-society, australian-football-league, sport, geelong-3220, vic
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