New Olympic Park stadium back on the cards

The Melbourne Football Club's dream of celebrating its 150th birthday at a permanent home near the MCG has moved closer to reality with the revelation that the Demons have found a landlord in a planned $100-million, 20,000-seat stadium and training facility at Olympic Park.

The stadium - seemingly abandoned by the Victorian Government following the loss of the rugby Super 14 licence to Perth last year - could be resurrected within three months by Sports Minister Justin Madden.

The State Government looks set to announce by May that it will relaunch the major project. The move, a fillip for the Olympic Park precinct, would resolve the Demons' search for a permanent home and see Melbourne and Collingwood share a new training ground - a first for the AFL.

In a series of ramifications for sport and major events around the city the new stadium would also see:

- Collingwood's training ground moved along Swan Street, potentially to the Olympic Park athletic track site.

- The Magpies and the Demons to share the AFL-sized training facility.

- Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Victory and the Melbourne Football Club to open for business as early as November 2007 with commercial premises and merchandising stores fronting Swan Street.

- Those offices linked to the new stadium, which would initially boast a seating capacity of 20,000 with Melbourne Victory to play 14 games there each season and Melbourne Storm 12 matches a year.

- The Demons sharing indoor training facilities such as a gymnasium and swimming pool with the rugby league and soccer clubs, while having separate rooms for its players ideally linked to the training ground.

- Melbourne, which in 2000 took over part of the AFL's lease at the MCG, released as a sub-tenant but insisting on a more permanent ground agreement with the stadium - part of wider and renewed fixturing talks with the MCC and MCG Trust.

- The Melbourne Tigers basketball team offered administrative and training headquarters at the new Swan Street stadium.

The government is understood to have warmed to the prospect of the stadium, despite losing the rugby licence, largely due to the prospect of attracting major soccer, rugby and rugby league support along with other major events to the precinct. It sees a 20,000-seat facility as more economic for certain events than the significantly larger Telstra Dome.

While construction could not start on the stadium - likely to be situated in the vicinity of the Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre - until after the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the indications are that the Demons' new home could be completed in time for the 2008 pre-season.

"We have made it clear we want to have new headquarters in place by November 2007," said Melbourne chief executive Steve Harris. "That is the official start of our 150th year and a key pillar in our business and fund-raising strategy."

Collingwood chief executive Greg Swann said the Magpies would not object to a new outdoor facility on the proviso it remained in the vicinity of the Lexus Centre. He said the club had no significant issue with sharing a major ground with Melbourne.

Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron said: "One of Melbourne's major icons is sport and the prospect of three clubs from three different codes, all named Melbourne, is obviously exciting.

"There's enormous cost savings as well as synergies we can work on if we shared commercial facilities along Swan Street."

The Demons have heads of agreement in place with the Melbourne Olympic Park Trust to investigate the possibility of both shared and individual facilities but the trust's interim chief executive Sue Nattrass confirmed that both Melbourne and Collingwood had indicated a willingness to share an outdoor AFL-sized training ground, likely to be situated between the Lexus Centre and the new stadium.

"There is no precinct like this in the world," said Nattrass, "when you consider the Arts Centre, the Botanical Gardens, the Music Bowl, Olympic Park, the tennis centre leading to the MCG - it is clear this is a wonderful place for a new stadium and we've still got Melbourne Storm and Melbourne Victory to look after."

Nattrass said she was "hopeful" the government would re-launch the project and that it would certainly be situated on the south side of Swan Street.