[COM] Adelaide Oval Redevelopment

[ml69]

Watching the crisket here in Bris. The Oval looks sensational - lots of positive comments about Adelaide by Ch. 9 news team and the cricket commentators. (almost like there has been ignorance about how great Adelaide really is). The cricket is good PR for the city - pity the east stand is not open. Chockers in the rest of the stands. Bridge DID get opened too! Hope weather does not interrupt too much. (Twice stopped for rain by 11.00AM).

ADELAIDE - TOWARDS A GREATER CITY SKYLINE

Im watching cricket too and agreed ... the +ve PR that Adelaide is getting about the oval and the changes in the city in general is quite tangible ... Adelaide Oval redevelopment is seriously helping us shake off any remaining rust belt perceptions.

BTW ... the oval looks absolutely stunning and the Riverbank/Southern stand looks massive on TV! Looks like an MCG stand when the camera pans up close!

[Pikey]

Just spent a brilliant day at the oval, in the Southern Stand.

The viewing angle from the second tier (level 3) was unreal. Going right up to the back row though is one hell of an experience, and definitely not for someone who haas vertigo, it's damn high! Photos just don't do the height any perspective at all.

A few teething problems occurred (to be expected) but the positives outweighed the negatives 100 to 1. It's easy to get to a toilet, theres bars/food stations everywhere and the fit and finish on the whole stand is first class.

Can't wait to get back there and do it all again tomorrow!

[Matt]

*RIVERBANK Stand.... RIVERBANK!

Glad to hear it looks even better in person, busting out of my skin to see it.

Looking amazing on the news bulletins here.


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[ghs]

I agree with ml69. On TV from some angles it looks like the MCG.

[spiller]

Also spent all day down there today (was quite pleased to learn the second tier in the riverbank stand (odd name I thought) is a dedicated members area). My thoughts: the stand is absolutely top notch. THAT ROOF is a masterpiece! It seems stupid, but sitting under it, the way it envelopes the entire stand, its hard not to stare up at it. My concerns: the western stand really seems second rate now compared to the new stuff. Not so much the seating and views - those have always been fantastic - but the general layout seems even the more ridiculous and confusing. They have added two new food outlets on the upper level (one at either end) but the toilets are still difficult to get to. I dont think what is currently there is enough for the footy crowds. Logistics aside (which is the most important thing in my eyes) the general 'fit and finish' of the western stand is quite a long way behind. I already had this opinion of the western stand prior to the other upgrades, but today's experiences have only confirmed it for me.

oh well, it is what it is. the rest is fantastic, and it still feels like Adelaide Oval to me.

I took this pic from the very back and centre of the southern stand.


EDIT: another thing I realised today, perhaps because I was under-dressed for the english summer weather, is how open this ground is. I know they have done this on purpose, but unless you are in your seats, there isnt much protection from the elements. very different from the MCG in that regard which has enclosed terraces. The upside is great city views from the backs of the stands. Come footy season, it could get fairly wild out the back but probably not much of an issue because you spend most of the time in your seat at the football in comparison to the cricket.

The southern stand seemed to be a lot better at retaining heat than the western stand too, maybe something to do with the material used on the roof and definitely because of the much larger roof. there was a fair difference in temp.

[Waewick]

I read somewhere that the wind was an issue higher up in the stands and some of the bars?

Anyone experience that? If so will the complete stadium fix that issue?

[spiller]

yep the terrace bar at the back of the upper level of the southern stand was a wind bowl. this is what I was referring to above. the completion of the other stand won't make any difference, as its pretty much like an open roof top with a few sun shades. you also get a lot of drafts blowing into the bay entrances (again because the backs of the stands are completely open) but as soon as you move to your seats this is a non issue. FWIW, it's not as windy in the bay entrances of the southern stand as it is in the western because the southern bay entrances are a little more enclosed due to the much larger cross sectional area of that stand.

[Waewick]

yep the terrace bar at the back of the upper level of the southern stand was a wind bowl. this is what I was referring to above. the completion of the other stand won't make any difference, as its pretty much like an open roof top with a few sun shades. you also get a lot of drafts blowing into the bay entrances (again because the backs of the stands are completely open) but as soon as you move to your seats this is a non issue. FWIW, it's not as windy in the bay entrances of the southern stand as it is in the western because the southern bay entrances are a little more enclosed due to the much larger cross sectional area of that stand.

Cheers. Sorry for not reading your post properly.

[Matt]

Was the outdoor Terrace Bar open to the public?


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[spiller]

Waewick, all good!

Matt: As far as I know, yes it was. But some disgruntled security guard demanded to see our member's passes to enter a certain section of the third teir (which is on the same level of the terrace bar) so not sure what the go was there. The second tier of the southern stand is linked to the western stand via a walk way also.

[Waewick]

Waewick, all good!

Matt: As far as I know, yes it was. But some disgruntled security guard demanded to see our member's passes to enter a certain section of the third teir (which is on the same level of the terrace bar) so not sure what the go was there. The second tier of the southern stand is linked to the western stand via a walk way also.

Sorry that was meant to havea smiley face.

My phone really doesn't like this Web site ( if you can't tell) and posting has proven difficult.

[Briggzy_03]

Fantastic article from the Guardian about Adelaide Oval.

A new era for the Adelaide Oval

Adelaide was known for its beauty and grandeur, but the changes evident on the first day displayed the realities of modern sport

Adelaide Oval has seen its share of iconic moments on field.

Just as Australia was once a collection of six separate states with their own identities and idiosyncrasies, its Test cricket venues were also distinct in their virtues and unique in aesthetic. In their place we now have a mostly interchangeable collection of mega-stadia; homogenous and characterless grandstands that nevertheless acknowledge the needs of modern sport, not to mention the posteriors of spectators.

The move away from local flavour did not come with a recognisable demarcation point like Federation, it evolved at the languid pace of hot summer days and across the breadth of a nation’s cricket history. In recent times, only Adelaide and Sydney could truly lay claim to a point of differentiation and maintenance of tradition. Adelaide was always just different. It was beautiful.

Now, cricket continues to acknowledge realities, conceding ground and reaching mutually beneficial compromise with its sporting competitors. After enjoying a monopoly on the Adelaide Oval for so long, cricket now shifts to the status of co-tenant of the revamped ground. In actual fact the chief beneficiary of its dramatic redevelopment will be the state’s two Australian Rules football teams, Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

The sight that cricket fans took in on day one of this Ashes Test was many lifetimes away from that which confronted Billy Murdoch’s Australians and Arthur Shrewsbury’s Englishmen for Adelaide’s inaugural Test of 1884. The Riverbank Footbridge, incomplete but temporarily opened for the Test, now connects the ground with the city and nearby public transport. The grandstand of the same name offers views of not only the on-field action, but a look back across the cityscape behind.

It drew the Australian’s Andrew Faulkner to wonder whether the Cathedral End of the ground would still be spoken of thus now that St Paul’s has been obscured by a glossy new grandstand. It’s one of several new quirks that will take some adjusting to.

Still, nods to the past can be seen throughout the reboot. An as yet unnamed southern stand sits in place of the old Bradman stand and was completed with only days to spare before the current Test. Fittingly, Bradman’s name now adorns the pavilion housing the changerooms and player viewing area. One stand on the Western side bears the Chappell name and the other still that of Sir Edwin Smith. All offer superior capacity and increased comfort from those they replace.

Ian Chappell spoke warmly of the honour, adding that his late mother Jeanne would have been glad to know that the gates named for her father Victor Richardson keep their place among several familiar sights. The grand and enduring scoreboard of 1911 remains immune to the fickle fashions of intervening years. In contrast, a modern digital flat screen sitting beside it cannot even hope to compete, like a paperback copy of The Da Vinci Code sharing shelf space with a first-edition volume of Shakespeare. Both serve their purpose.

All in all, it would be fair to say that the works to rejuvenate the ground have been far less an imposition to locals than the shift away from the traditional Australia Day Test schedule to an early-December fixture. Those late January encounters of days gone by were once set in stone on calendars in Adelaide and its surrounds.

Chappell took a pragmatic view of the changes to the ground, arguing “there’ll be people who complain that it’s not what it used to be but you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to give people facilities that they’ll like and you’ve also got to have facilities that bring in extra revenue.”

He was equally unfussed on the topic of the drop-in pitch and said “this is the same thing I’ve seen at the Adelaide Oval for 40-odd years now.” Never one to rest on sentiment, Chappell applauded the return to the ground of the local football code, noting that football’s shift away was nothing more than “a battle of egos” between Sir Donald Bradman and former SANFL president Don Brebner.

Though a South Australian import, Bradman was a staunch advocate of the ground’s beauty and grandeur. No doubt its undeniable Englishness appealed to the Anglophile in Bradman. In Farewell to Cricket in 1950, he said the ground “would gain top marks if one considered the natural beauty of its environment,” particularly the surrounding parklands and gardens, as well as the “stately cathedral”, whose literal and symbolic presence he felt acted as a natural moderator of crowd behavior.

Now the ground's famous grassed hill acts as an attractive beer garden for local and visiting fans in an atmosphere that still has the vibe of a raucous garden party. The lush green of the drought-resistant santa ana couch grass retains a similarly eternal appeal.

In its time Adelaide Oval has also seen its share of iconic moments on field; Bill Woodfull absorbing the full force of Harold Larwood’s Bodyline bumpers in one of the most hostile of all Tests; Allan Border hurling a ball into the players’ viewing room floor as his side succumbed to the West Indians by one run in 1993; Mackay and Kline’s death-defying last wicket partnership to force a draw with West Indies in 1961, so long overshadowed by the tie in Brisbane but no less thrilling; not to mention Bradman’s undefeated 299 against South Africa in 1932.

Lingering a little too closely in the mind of Australians would be Faf du Plessis’s stoic resistance of last year. The spoils have always been harder to come by for bowlers.

On Thursday the first batsman to assert himself on the new-look ground was David Warner, who raced to a typically impetuous 24 runs before perishing to a rash cut shot with 24 runs to his name and plenty of others on offer.

The more that things change, the more they remain the same.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2 ... CMP=twt_gu

[Vee]

The Ashes test match has been a great vehicle to showcase the redeveloped Adelaide Oval and the new Footbridge. Kudos to the construction workers who have worked hard to meet the deadlines for this match.
Comments from locals and visitors have been overwhelmingly positive.

Great photography showing the fans at Adelaide Oval.
Check out the distribution of fans around the oval, zoom to find yourself and perhaps tag yourself (or blur if needed???).
http://bupa.com.au/fanpic

One thing I noticed was the large number of bicycles chained to fences/posts etc outside the Oval. Will there be provision for ample bike racks in an appropriate place (with sufficient visibility or other mechanism for enhanced security)?

[Matt]

On that, I saw a video on YouTube yesterday of a cyclist with a Go Pro on their helmet hunting for bike racks (according to the video, a couple of hundred were promised).

As yet, there appeared to be nothing - hopefully this is quickly sorted.


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[joshyboy]

Bear in mind that this venue isn't complete. 70% of it is useable, but it's by no means complete.
Any things like bike racks will be last in, after the landscaping is restored between the scoreboard and the cathedral etc etc.