It was supposed to be one of the world's biggest stadiums, now all that remains of Waverley Park is the shell of a stand. And with a fight on its hands over Hobart's AFL stadium, what has the league learnt from its most ambitious build?
The last AFL match was played at Waverley Park in 1999 between Hawthorn and Sydney in front of a crowd of 72,130 people.
This year marks a quarter of a century since that final siren, but in many ways the lessons of yesteryear remain at the fore in the sporting media landscape.So has the league learned its lesson from the demise of the much lauded "VFL Park"?Waverley Park holds many records: among them, it was the first venue to be designed and built specifically for Australian Rules football.
It hosted World Series Cricket, concerts from the likes of David Bowie and U2, even a Grand Final — the first away from the MCG and the only one featuring a baby blue batmobile.The complaints were endless: it was too cold; the seats too hard; the surface too muddy; the sepia-toned scoreboard — though revolutionary when installed — too dated.A mooted train line to the stadium never eventuated, resulting in a migraine-inducting bottleneck from the car park to the freeway after each game.
The AFL is steadfast that the stadium will be built as promised, despite concerns about the appropriateness of the spend, location and even the need for a new stadium.Monash University Department of Economics associate professor, Lionel Frost, said the AFL should learn its lesson from past failings at Waverley.
"Because it was owned by the league, the economic burden was on the VFL and its clubs at a time when a lot of them were in a lot of financial difficulty," Mr Frost said. Meanhwile, the remnants of the stand and its VFL mural are provided some protection by Victorian Heritage Listing.X
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