Stadium memberships ‘likely’
Premier Colin Barnett has told State Parliament that venue memberships will “most likely” be available for the new 60,000 seat stadium at Burswood.
And he said 10,000 seats would be set aside for AFL football games for general admission.
Under questioning in a parliamentary estimates hearing by Labor’s Rita Saffioti, Mr Barnett said there would be a limited number of stadium memberships sold, though he refused to go into detail about how many would be available or how they would be offered.
Stadium memberships, which are available at some other Australian venues like Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, allow patrons to purchase a seat to every event at a venue.
WA’s AFL clubs West Coast and Fremantle are wary of the idea of stadium memberships, which would compete with their own premium membership or corporate offerings, depending on the structure of the deal operated.
WA Premier Colin Barnett says 60,000 seats at new Burswood stadium will be reserved for members. Picture: Simon Santi/The West Australian
The clubs are also wary that demand for their membership offerings could be undermined if there are too many general admission tickets available.
“Most likely there will be a number of those (stadium memberships) on an annual basis,” Mr Barnett told Parliament.
“But the public can be assured that the general allocation of seats will be 10,000.”
Mr Barnett said there would be a “limited number” of stadium memberships. When Ms Saffioti put it to him that there could be 3000-5000 stadium memberships, Mr Barnett said those numbers were “fanciful”.
The Government is amid a series of sensitive negotiations on the stadium, including user agreements with West Coast and Fremantle, which will have a big impact on the clubs revenue models when they move in for the 2018 season, and with four consortia bidding for the operator rights to the stadium.
The consortia are Perth Stadium Management, a division of the WA Football Commission and backed by Live Nation and Delaware North; Perth Arena operator AEG Ogden; Stadium Australia Operations, the operator of Sydney’s Olympic Stadium; and Spotless’ Nationwide Venue Management, operator of the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
