SANFL Grounds

Thanks mate

Its been 10 years since we had a look at the various sanfl grounds.
It got me to think as I am doing some work on one of the ovals getting a bit of makeover.

Has anything changed at the ovals for better or worse in that time?

Unley has had a fair bit of activity on the stands and underneath.

What has occurred at the other grounds?

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:Its been 10 years since we had a look at the various sanfl grounds.
It got me to think as I am doing some work on one of the ovals getting a bit of makeover.

Has anything changed at the ovals for better or worse in that time?

Unley has had a fair bit of activity on the stands and underneath.

What has occurred at the other grounds?

The improvements at X-Convenience Oval (Elizabeth) since Greg Edwards "came home" have been remarkable.

The Central District admin office entrance has had a makeover, the grandstand and surrounds got a fresh coat of paint.

I'm now on the History Committee at the Dogs and we have spruiced up inside the changerooms with memorabilia from the past.

Having attended that place for 6-8 months of the year for the last 30 years now, it is looking as good as I have ever seen it, I reckon.

Lots of obvious changes in the outer at Richmond and more substantial development on the grandstand side is planned over the next few years I believe. A change to our ladder position would be nice too.

Flag No.10 wrote:A change to our ladder position would be nice too.

There is no surprise that on field success certainly helps with the off field stuff and this has been a noticeable change at Central.

I read or heard somewhere that Prospect oval is having an upgrade

bayman wrote:I read or heard somewhere that Prospect oval is having an upgrade

Yep. Cricket pitch area currently being replaced and will full size AFL goal posts in 2024 with the traditional red point posts now a thing of the past.

Great upgrades at Glenelg, finally joining the modern times with a digital scoreboard and time clock.

bayman wrote:I read or heard somewhere that Prospect oval is having an upgrade

Yes this is what I am involved in.
The pitch area (as of yesterday) is dug up and new irrigation for the pitches going in.
New posts that (should if installed right) will face each other.
Lighting too.

Saw painters making the stands "redder".

I never noticed the concrete terraces before, but they are currently pretty average condition.
A trip hazard waiting to happen. Not sure if they are part of the current plans.

Prospect has always been the oddity amongst the pack, running at an orientation of 41 degrees.
The AFL design specs for State Level grounds urge a north-south orientation, the sun being a factor.
They also stipulate "optimum" dimensions of 165m x 135m, not surprisingly because that is about what the MCG is.

Prospect is about 10m longer and 15m narrower than that, but at least approximates an elliptical shape.
However, that is governed by keeping a (required) 5m buffer from white line to the fence.
So it is one of the bigger grounds compared to Norwood, Unley and the Bay.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:
Prospect has always been the oddity amongst the pack, running at an orientation of 41 degrees.
The AFL design specs for State Level grounds urge a north-south orientation, the sun being a factor.
They also stipulate "optimum" dimensions of 165m x 135m, not surprisingly because that is about what the MCG is.

The direction of Prospect Oval is exactly the same as Thebarton Oval and is perfectly designed for the sun to set on the wing during winter. Both were designed with football front of mind. A north-south orientation is best for cricket in summer, but I’m unsure why the AFL suggest this. Ironically, the direction of Thebarton Oval will be realigned with the redevelopment, to be the same as Adelaide Oval.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:

bayman wrote:I read or heard somewhere that Prospect oval is having an upgrade

Prospect has always been the oddity amongst the pack, running at an orientation of 41 degrees.
The AFL design specs for State Level grounds urge a north-south orientation, the sun being a factor.
Prospect is about 10m longer and 15m narrower than that, but at least approximates an elliptical shape.

You mention that Prospect runs at an orientation of 41 degrees. I agree with Aerie that Thebarton runs the same way. What of Alberton which runs off centre the other way. What is its orientation.
I actually am disgusted that Prospect and all of the other grounds have gone to white behind posts. I think Red make a lot more sense and we would never have had the Malcolm Blight case of running into an open "point". Next thing we will start publishing our teams from the back line, will ridiculously award 4 points for a win and 2 points for a draw, instead of 2 and 1 and publish percentages as greater than 100%.

Sadly the Advertiser prints the premiership ladder/table in the sports results where you get results for all the different “minor sports” digest section if that’s the correct terminology, I’ll check what it’s called tomorrow…..

Obviously those interstate didn’t go to school or my teachers didn’t do their job properly as I’m sure I got told “percentage” means “out of a hundred”
If my teachers were correct (I know they were) how the hell can you have percentages ABOVE 100 ?

Yes, we should have red point posts and given Norths’ colors they should definitely be red and white at Prospect, it adds to the color and atmosphere

Big Phil wrote:Great upgrades at Glenelg, finally joining the modern times with a digital scoreboard and time clock.

A 'time' clock? Do they also have a temperature thermometer?

Aerie wrote:

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:
Prospect has always been the oddity amongst the pack, running at an orientation of 41 degrees.
The AFL design specs for State Level grounds urge a north-south orientation, the sun being a factor.
They also stipulate "optimum" dimensions of 165m x 135m, not surprisingly because that is about what the MCG is.

The direction of Prospect Oval is exactly the same as Thebarton Oval and is perfectly designed for the sun to set on the wing during winter. Both were designed with football front of mind. A north-south orientation is best for cricket in summer, but I’m unsure why the AFL suggest this. Ironically, the direction of Thebarton Oval will be realigned with the redevelopment, to be the same as Adelaide Oval.

Do the AFL suggest this? The MCG runs pretty much east/west. They certainly play cricket North/South and Footy is not played in the same direction there. Is the Perth Stadium east/west as well?

rocket_rooster wrote:

Aerie wrote:

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:
Prospect has always been the oddity amongst the pack, running at an orientation of 41 degrees.
The AFL design specs for State Level grounds urge a north-south orientation, the sun being a factor.
They also stipulate "optimum" dimensions of 165m x 135m, not surprisingly because that is about what the MCG is.

The direction of Prospect Oval is exactly the same as Thebarton Oval and is perfectly designed for the sun to set on the wing during winter. Both were designed with football front of mind. A north-south orientation is best for cricket in summer, but I’m unsure why the AFL suggest this. Ironically, the direction of Thebarton Oval will be realigned with the redevelopment, to be the same as Adelaide Oval.

Do the AFL suggest this? The MCG runs pretty much east/west. They certainly play cricket North/South and Footy is not played in the same direction there. Is the Perth Stadium east/west as well?

Perth Stadium does also run East/West. The following is from the Stadium's website :

East:west field orientation to replicate alignment of the MCG and Domain Stadium (Subiaco Oval).

There is an AFL Design Guide Document that sets all of this out.
It goes further to include the design of change rooms, and just about everything to do with state level grounds. Also lesser specs for junior and minor level grounds.

It is a bit strange that Thebarton and Prospect are orientated within about a degree of each other at 40 degrees. That must have been on purpose. An interesting one for the history buffs. Were the 2 grounds established at about the same time?

Perhaps with the new stadiums enveloping the ground, the sun in later afternoon is less of an issue, so the orientation less critical. Just one hypothesis. I did read that the preferred orientation was to do with the sun position in later afternoon.

Adelaide Oval is basically in the same orientation as it was pre-development give or take a degree or so.

Alberton more or less mirrors the orientation of the streets and the full reserve extent in that locality. That is about 330 degrees.

Most of Adelaide suburbs extend from the city square which is orientated at 355 degrees. It was supposed to be 0 degrees but Colonel Light made a mistake. Longitude was always a problem to determine accurately due to the poor clocks available at the time.

So most grounds reflect this north south (355 degree) grid pattern.

This street alignment is no different in Prospect suburb, so maybe there wasn't enough North South room in the reserve to run it that way. But I think they could still have run N-S, so its different alignment was intentional. Particularly as Thebarton is the same.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:

It is a bit strange that Thebarton and Prospect are orientated within about a degree of each other at 40 degrees. That must have been on purpose. An interesting one for the history buffs. Were the 2 grounds established at about the same time?

North started playing at Prospect in 1922 and West Torrens started playing at Thebarton in the same year. As Aerie stated, the Ovals were designed that way to minimise the discomfort caused by the setting sun in winter. The whole of my footy following life, it always amazed me that Prospect was the subject of so much criticism for its shape, yet Thebby seemed to escape that criticism.
I can remember working with cartographers who superimposed the image of one of the ovals on the other and they were almost identical in direction. Prospect was a bit longer and Thebby a bit wider.

Prospect is one of the few grounds that closely reflect an "oval" shape.
In that, it was easier to put back in reasonable geometry.

Many of the other grounds are virtually rectangular with fat pockets.
Unley is "egg" shaped.
A few have straight sides with curves on the other. IE Norwood is a bit that way.

It would be harder on those other grounds (if redeveloped) to design a consistent geometry to the shape.

Video screen/ Scoreboard to be in place at Flinders Uni Stadium before Rd1.
Im led to believe it will be larger than the one at Prospect.

blueandwhite wrote:Video screen/  Scoreboard to be in place at Flinders Uni Stadium before Rd1.
I'm led to believe it will be larger than the one at Prospect.

That would then make it the second biggest replay screen in South Australia behind Adelaide Oval, demoting Prospect's to third largest.

Central to upgrade their scoreboard to include advertising and replays.

Some of the Eagles Renovations if the link works
https://fb.watch/q0661mDoFR/?mibextid=v7YzmG