The infrastructure to go with a new stadium like road and rail upgrades have not made the 5-10 year annual plan by local and Regional governments. (Inside football). According to a forum a chap who works in the local council planning office has not seen any consent applications. Even for the Land for Stadium deal.
Yeah between the lack of infrastructure that now doesn't appear to be built anytime soon and that original letter outlining the problems of the bid before FFA even chose WU. Its going to be an interesting watch to see what happens, as they could be a club without a real home.
In the past week there have been new revelations about Western Melbourne Group’s (WMG) proposed Wyndham Stadium at 1160 Sayers Road, Tarneit. The Wyndham council gave the ground to the franchise to stimulate investment into the local area.
The site of the proposed stadium at 1160 Sayers Road Tarneit
When the WMG consortium was given an A-League licence in December 2018, Director Steve Horvat stated that the stadium would be privately funded. Horvat also stated that the infrastructure for the stadium, including a new train station and upgrades to Sayers Road, to accommodate the extra traffic, would be financed by the State Government. Club officials have also publicly maintained that they’ll set up house for the 2021-22 season.Now it has come to light in the past two weeks that these plans have changed, leaving the original timeline of playing at the Stadium for the 2021-2022 season unlikely to occur.
Artists impression of the new Wyndham Stadium precinct
According to the May State budget, there have been no funds allocated to the upgrades, leaving the local community scratching their heads as to how these upgrades will occur. Currently Tarneit Train station is the nearest station to the proposed stadium and is 7 kilometres away. A new station at Sayers Road is being slated to be only two kilometres away and would be easier to get to the stadium either by bus or walking.
As reported on the SBS World Game website ‘Almost six months on from winning the bid with ambitious promises of fast-tracked permits, there’s been no turning of soil, as project managers deal with on-site issues’.Western United FC CEO Maurice Bisetto stated that this is of no concern. Greg O’Rourke the Head of the A-league is not fussed by the setback stating that the FFA had originally expected the stadium not to be ready till the 2022-2023 season.
This raises questions regarding the funding, which surpassed the licencing bids of both Team 11 , Dandenong, and South Melbourne FC. The question has to be asked, if the goal posts around getting the licence are now moved, why did they get the green light in the first place?
(Taken from Insidesport forum)