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Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
The Western Bulldogs will play at least two premiership season games in Ballarat every year if Labor win the election.
Western Bulldogs players will also wear a Eureka-inspired playing jumper for the games.
Opposition leader Daniel Andrews and Bulldogs President Peter Gordon made the announcement on Thursday morning.
The Labor Party have already promised a 6000-seat covered grandstand at Eureka Stadium in April this year, if it wins the election, as well as AFL standard lights and a video scoreboard
The Bulldogs have also been vocal in their aim to expand into western Victoria and "win the west".
In a stunning revelation, the AFL last week disclosed the Western Bulldogs had entered into an agreement with the City of Ballarat.
However, both the Bulldogs and council have remained extremely tight-lipped on their agreement, with neither party even confirming any alignment.
The announcement from AFL scheduling manager Simon Lethlean followed the release of the 2015 NAB Challenge fixture that surprisingly had Western Bulldogs fixtured to play Melbourne, bucking a six-year trend that had North Melbourne aligned with Ballarat.
North Melbourne's CEO Carl Dilena expressed his frustration that his club was left blind-sided by the deal.
North Melbourne will no longer hold community camps in Ballarat and it is now expected that the Bulldogs will take over.
Former premier John Brumby joined forces with North Melbourne in 2010 when he announced a proposed redevelopment of Eureka Stadium, but that plan was abandoned when Labor lost the election.
The Kangaroos had looked at playing four games annually at a redeveloped Eureka Stadium.
http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2...eason/?cs=4170
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Interesting, no AFL spokesman in the article. Interesting. I guess the building a new WO grandstand is off the radar.
Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Eat it Norf. The nomads can go and work the Hobart market instead, seeing as you started and then walked away from all of Sydney/Canberra/Gold Coast/Ballarat
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Originally Posted by
Sedat
Eat it Norf. The nomads can go and work the Hobart market instead, seeing as you started and then walked away from all of Sydney/Canberra/Gold Coast/Ballarat
Darwin, Cairns, Canberra....
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Originally Posted by
lemmon
Darwin, Cairns, Canberra....
The only interstate market that we tried to actually own was Darwin, which was a commercial success until Melbourne and Port watered the market down - it was also a great success on the field, where we are something like 14-2 in Darwin.
All of our Sydney, Canberra and Gold Coast home games were/are merely the result of the club being forced to partake in home matches to assist the AFL with venue and scheduling contractual requirements. Norf actually based themselves in all of Sydney, Canberra and Gold Coast to create a 2nd home for the club but walked away from all these ventures. They also did the same with Ballarat until the Libs unexpectedly won the 2010 election, to which they simply courted Hobart and walked away from Ballarat.
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Much rather sell games to Ballarat then Darwin and Cairns!
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Not sure about the whole jumper thing. What do you guys all think? I Historically, I cannot think of one single 'gimmick' jumper that I saw and thought ' yeah, I wish we could wear that again', or the same sentiment for other teams. Can't think of any you would want to repeat.
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― Epicurus
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
I would like to know what dollars involved.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Love to see it grow to 3 or 4 games and have Ballarat memberships offered.
This could be a great windfall for us if its done properly
The curse is dead.
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Originally Posted by
Ghost Dog
Not sure about the whole jumper thing. What do you guys all think? I Historically, I cannot think of one single 'gimmick' jumper that I saw and thought ' yeah, I wish we could wear that again', or the same sentiment for other teams. Can't think of any you would want to repeat.
If it helps us connect to the community then it sounds great. To me jumper tinkering isn't really thst big of a deal considering we've had 4 or 5 different home jumpers in the last 20 years, the colors are what matters.
The curse is dead.
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Our jumper is the best in the comp. why mess with it? I understand that the club will want to tie itself to Ballarat and may see an opportunity for some symbolism, but our guernsey is a cracker.
Ballarat will be a tough nut to crack. It is a footy town with died in the wool fans of all Vic clubs. It'll take years of being there to get many of them to develop a little soft spot - let alone convert... And gimmicks won't do it.
Nonetheless, I fully expect some tacky Southern Cross Flag type thing...
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
I live in the eastern suburbs so it would be hard for me to get to games in Ballarat but thats not the point. This sounds like a great opportunity for our club to expand the brand a bit more and make a bit more profit. Will be great for our Ballarat based Dogs supporters and any Dogs supporters from the surrounds. Agree with MCL It would be better to sell a game or 2 to Ballarat than to interstate and keep it in Victoria.
"Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Originally Posted by
chef
Love to see it grow to 3 or 4 games and have Ballarat memberships offered.
This could be a great windfall for us if its done properly
as long as we still play 10 home games at Eithad.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Originally Posted by
Webby
Our jumper is the best in the comp. why mess with it? I understand that the club will want to tie itself to Ballarat and may see an opportunity for some symbolism, but our guernsey is a cracker.
Ballarat will be a tough nut to crack. It is a footy town with died in the wool fans of all Vic clubs. It'll take years of being there to get many of them to develop a little soft spot - let alone convert... And gimmicks won't do it.
Nonetheless, I fully expect some tacky Southern Cross Flag type thing...
Its not about converting them into through and through Bulldog supporters, its about get them to come to the game and support the 'local' side for the day ala Tassie and the Hawks which is also a dyed in the wool footy state with fans of all Vic teams.
This needs to be a long term effort if its successful.
The curse is dead.
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Post Thanks / Like - 0 Thanks, 1 Likes
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Re: Labor promise Western Bulldogs will play two games in Ballarat every season
Originally Posted by
bornadog
as long as we still play 10 home games at Eithad.
Yep I still want the majority to be played at Etihad hopefully with a much better deal there in the future.
"Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"