Source : BUSINESS NEWS
An AFL’ gather large’ in Western Australia could be on the tickets after national MP for Perth, Patrick Gorman, took to Leederville Oval to spruik a$ 1.5 million purchase, if the Albanese state been returned to power.
Mr Gorman – the assistant minister to the prime minister – was joined by City of Vincent Mayor Alison Xamon to make the election commitment, which will fund construction of new changing rooms at Sullivan Logistics Stadium ( formerly Leederville Oval ).
” Can I only say how delighted I am about today’s news. I really want to congratulate Patrick for conference with the City of Vincent and … recognising the importance of really investing in this rectangular to make it the premier tier-two rectangular around in WA”, Ms Xamon said.
” We’ve seen that the Cook Labor state has already invested in the new ground, which is going to be incredible, and the lamps, which are going to be finished quite quickly.
” This is the next step to make sure that we can truly actually invest in this oval usually, but also particularly, WAFLW, and also hopefully the AFLW, and this can be part of getting to have things like the gather round come here to Perth.”
Mr Gorman wouldn’t be drawn on what the upgrades meant for a potential gather round – which would involve all 18 teams gather in one location for nine games over a single weekend – in WA.
” I’d love to see it here, but I also recognise there’s a lot of negotiations between the AFL, the state government and the venues,” Mr Gorman said.  ,
” I’m not going to prejudge those negotiations.
“WA is seeing more and more sport played here ]including ] the NRL here in just a few weeks. But this is a community announcement, it’s about making sure the young boys and girls playing in Auskick can have good facilities as they get up to those elite levels”.
The announcement comes after the state government injected$ 3.8 million into upgrades at the oval in August last year.
That funding was used to install broadcast-quality lighting, as well as new dugouts, irrigation and a new playing surface.
However, those upgrades are slightly behind schedule, leading to a rescheduling of round one and two WAFL fixyures from night to daytime fixtures.
Round three fixtures have not yet been rescheduled.
Since the early 2000s, both the East Perth and , Subiaco Football Clubs have been co-tenants of the ground, after relocating from HBF Park and now-demolished Subiaco Oval, respectively.
Prior to 1994, the , West Perth Football Club , called Leederville Oval home, before electing to relocate to Joondalup in a bid to connect with Perth’s growing northern suburbs.  ,
With the addition of the WAFLW and Rogers Cup competitions, 10 teams – five each from the Royals and Lions – have had to work together in a bid to train and play games at the venue.
During winter, this added foot traffic has routinely played havoc with the surface, resulting in extremely heavy conditions for players during games, particularly following periods of heavy rain.
