General NQ Cowboys new Stadium

[Wellington Warrior]

Design Unveiled For Cowboys New $250 million Stadium
A "symbol of hope"

A design for Townsville's new $250 million stadium has been revealed, with the facility resembling the region's Pandanus tree.

The winning design was unveiled on Tuesday in Townsville, with a tapered roof opening up to views of the regional centre and Magnetic Island, with construction expected to be completed in time for North Queensland's 2020 NRL season.

Acting Premier Curtis Pitt, a paid up member of the Cowboys, said he had always seen the stadium as a "symbol of hope" for the Townsville community.

"This stadium is a critical piece of infrastructure and it's going to be a big jobs generator," Mr Pitt said.

But he said he was disappointed at the lack of local contractors who had expressed interest in being involved in the project.

Mr Pitt said the footprint between the Pandanus tree and where the Cowboys' players and fanbase come from was an interesting synergy and he was thrilled with the design.

"People will be able to experience the game in state-of-the-art facilities," he said.

 

[tajhay]

Thats quite cool. Whilst we still play out of a former quarry inside a volcanic cone.

 

[bruce]

Townsville population 171,000

 

[Wellington Warrior]

And a capacity of 25,000... isn't there a minimum capacity for NRL grounds to be able to play finals games??

 

[Brother Faisal]

Wicked stadium, would be ideal for the warriors to have something similar.

 

[mt.wellington]

Townsville population 171,000

Penrose population 625...

 

[bruce]

Wicked stadium, would be ideal for the warriors to have something similar.

MSS is ok, just in the wrong place, but I see some clown wants to move the intercity bus depot to Manukau, might as well move Queen Street out there too

 

[Gizzyfan]

Build a 100000 seat covered stadium somewhere, move all Auckland homeless people into it, only requirement is the cost of a Warriors ticket. Ground will have toilet, washing facilities. Catering facilities and giant tv.

Win win, full house every week, Pollies happy, housing crisis alleviated, job done. Name it the ATC (Auckland Transit Camp) Will give account details for my direct credit as I get my coat.

 

[Blain]

Seems like over investing to me. Can't imagine a decent return spending that amount of cash, with a small population and not many sports other than the Cowboys playing there.

Looks cool though!

 

[Wellington Warrior]

Seems like over investing to me. Can't imagine a decent return spending that amount of cash, with a small population and not many sports other than the Cowboys playing there.

Looks cool though!

Pretty sure it's more than just a stadium. They have plans for an entire entertainment precinct to be built around it

 

[Wellington Warrior]

Found this..

Integrated Stadium and Entertainment Centre dream now reality
Townsville will be home to a brand new state of the art Integrated Stadium and Entertainment Centre (ISEC) following Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s pledge to provide $100M to the project and to make Townsville the first city in Australia to be the subject of a “City Deal” under the Government’s Smart Cities Plan.

Townsville Enterprise CEO Patricia O’Callaghan welcomed the announcement as a huge vote of confidence in the city by the Government, and an historic occasion in the story of Townsville’s development.

“Today is a momentous day in Townsville North Queensland’s history. Today a vision this community has had for the best part of a decade has become a reality with a commitment from the Turnbull Government to deliver an Integrated Stadium and Entertainment Centre.

“Just as The Strand redevelopment transformed our City almost 20 years ago, the construction of the Integrated Stadium and Entertainment Centre will redefine Townsville.

“We’ve been saying for years, and the Prime Minister echoed our sentiments today, that this is about more than a stadium. This project is part of a larger vision for an entertainment precinct home to world class sporting, music and business events. This facility will be the anchor for the $2B waterfront redevelopment in Townsville's CBD, create 1,600 jobs and generate nearly $700M during the construction phase alone.

"Today’s commitment is the confidence boost this region needed to say to investors that Townsville North Queensland is well and truly open for business.

“The commitment to this project is the result of a collaborative community effort. The ISEC committee includes representatives of Townsville City Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the Townsville Airport, the North Queensland Cowboys, the NRL, REDROC and Empower PR who have worked collaboratively to champion this project.

“This victory speaks volumes about the power of this community when presenting a strong and unified vision. We thank the community and Townsville Enterprise Members for supporting our vision. We commend Townsville City Council and Mayor Jenny Hill for securing the land for this project, the Queensland Government for increasing its contribution to $140M. We thank our greatest community ambassador and North Queensland’s golden son, Johnathan Thurston, who has been the face of this campaign for the past 18 months together with his family and of course the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys and NRL for their pledge of $10M. We also commend the advocacy efforts of Member for Herbert Ewen Jones MP and we must recognise the efforts of News Corp and the former Editor of the Townsville Bulletin, now current editor of the Courier Mail, Lachlan Heywood and the current editor of the Townsville Bulletin Ben English and General Manager Lewis Ramsey for championing this project over the past seven years.

"There were a number of local businesses who donated their time and resources to the community campaign which is a testament to this community's passion for seeing this project delivered. Their efforts will now be rewarded."

“Townsville Enterprise Board Directors today met with the Prime Minister to welcome the commitments and to discuss the Coalition’s plan to ensure an outcomes-based funding model for the region. The proposed City Deal is unprecedented in Australia and is intended to galvanise efforts across all levels of government, the private sector and community in relation to funding and planning the future development of Townsville.

“We also commend the Coalition’s commitment to maximise participation of local contractors and businesses in the build of ISEC. Making sure that Government projects use local businesses is a priority issue that Townsville Enterprise has pushed hard for in the lead up to this Federal election.”
The ISEC project now has commitments of $140M from the State Government, $10M from the North Queensland Cowboys and NRL, and now $100M from the Federal Government. This $100M commitment to the project has bipartisan support.

Townsville Enterprise looks forward to working with all levels of Government and the private sector to deliver both the stadium and entertainment centre components of the project, and in realising the transformation of our city and region.

 

[bruce]

Pretty sure it's more than just a stadium. They have plans for an entire entertainment precinct to be built around it

What a brilliant idea, it really is...better than for Eden Park where there is an Olympic Walking exercise to get from the city to the ground.

 

[Horriors2014]

Townsville population 171,000

So what should this teach our country?

You build it and the people will come. This is 'vision'. The facts suggest mission impossible with the ratio of population to investment. But enough of the community and government see that they need something. Most people will work there eventually probably.

 

[bruce]

So what should this teach our country?

You build it and the people will come. This is 'vision'. The facts suggest mission impossible with the ratio of population to investment. But enough of the community and government see that they need something. Most people will work there eventually probably.

Fair comment, but they built North Harbour Stadium and nobody wants to go there.

 

[Wellington Warrior]

Fair comment, but they built North Harbour Stadium and nobody wants to go there.

That says more about the lack of vision for public transport to the stadium than anything else. 'Build it and they will come' really only applies if you are able to get there!

 

[snake77]

Exciting news for the Cowboys. Although a lot of this would have been in the pipeline for a while but winning a premiership would of helped with organizing funding.

I was watching a stadium thread on League Unlimited quite a lot as I am quite interested in stadium designs and the things around the infrastructure to make it work. This Cowboys stadium has come up quite a bit.

Ideally all clubs should be playing in a modern stadium and one that is sized that it would be full or close to full most weekends.

The Warriors have won the first battle with no not being forced to move to an unsuitable venue. Hopefully besides improvements to Mt Smart as per the deal to stay our next announcements around stadiums is the Warriors moving to a new purpose built stadium.

 

[bruce]

Hopefully besides improvements to Mt Smart as per the deal to stay our next announcements around stadiums is the Warriors moving to a new purpose built stadium.

Hope is a wonderful thing

 

[snake77]

Yeah I was trying to brief. I was thinking about the Warriors or Auckland getting a new stadium and the amount of jokes or debate that would create. We have another 2 threads for that.

The Warriors or even Auckland Council should keep a close eye on this to see how the project goes. How long does it take, is it finished on time and on budget. We have been debating about stadiums in Auckland, this is a good chance for the people debating the stadiums or would have a big say in it to review a similar project.

 

[bruce]

Yeah I was trying to brief. I was thinking about the Warriors or Auckland getting a new stadium and the amount of jokes or debate that would create. We have another 2 threads for that.

The Warriors or even Auckland Council should keep a close eye on this to see how the project goes. How long does it take, is it finished on time and on budget. We have been debating about stadiums in Auckland, this is a good chance for the people debating the stadiums or would have a big say in it to review a similar project.

All this reminds me of how the Cowboys got their name. Apparently there are neither Cowboys nor a beef industry in Townsville, so how did they get that name?

When (the same time as the Auckland bid) the locals set up a campaign to get the Winfield Cup to Townsville they employed a former Kangaroo player Kerry Bousted as promotions manager for the bid. He later became CEO but resigned when they changed to Super League.

Apparently Bousted used to complain about the way things were done in Townsville. He used to say they were just a bunch of "Cowboys". The name stuck and was included in the public vote for the name.

A bunch of Cowboys they might be, but they have a bloody good stadium on the way.

 

[Horriors2014]

Fair comment, but they built North Harbour Stadium and nobody wants to go there.

That's because there was no strategy around the stadium. They just built it for a rugby club, and that was that. Times have changed. Any investment affects, and is affected by its environment. NQ have the backing of a whole town and much of the State it appears. They've had long discussions and made plans in consultation with businesses on how to make it successful. To my knowledge that hasn't been the case with our traditional model in NZ. We've just looked at the next big event, or see a need and filled it with what we had. Result=half-pai job.