PERTH'S new stadium is the most important Western Australian football issue for incoming AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan to contend with, according to WA Football Commission chairman Frank Cooper.
The WAFC welcomed McLachlan's appointment as successor to Andrew Demetriou with Cooper believing it was a great appointment for the code and for WA football.
Cooper described the 60,000-seat stadium as both the biggest opportunity and threat to WA football and the top agenda item the AFL’s new boss.
The stadium will be built at Burswood ready for the start of the 2018 season.
Pre-construction site works were completed recently and the contract to design and build the new stadium will be finalised mid-year.
According to Cooper, the WAFC yields roughly $15 million net revenue from its current ownership of Patersons Stadium that is directly invested back into football development in WA.
The new stadium is vital for long-suffering football fans in WA but it does present a financial challenge for the WAFC.
"It's the biggest opportunity for Western Australian football with the WA government committing to a stadium that will be state-of-the-art and hopefully the best in the country when it's complete," Cooper told AFL.com.au.
"But at the same time it brings enormous threats to football in that we need an outcome that delivers financial results that support the code over here.
"Patersons Stadium has been very good for football and we need the new stadium to be equally good for football in terms of financial outcomes."
McLachlan has been chairing the joint working group which brings together the AFL, Fremantle, West Coast, and the WAFC to discuss football's future at the new stadium with the WA state government.
"We need to replace that revenue and that's a significant part of the negotiations we'll be having as part of the joint football working group with the state government," Cooper said.
"So far the process has been working very well but we've yet to reach the pointy end of agreeing the numbers with the state (government) and that will be the interesting part of the discussion."
Cooper does not think that McLachlan's ascension to the AFL's top job will affect his ability to continue chairing the joint football group.
"We would hope not," Cooper said.
"We think that Gill has been a very important part of the working group. He's got good relations with the state (government) over here and is highly regarded and highly respected.
"So we'd like to see Gill continue in his chairmanship but we recognise that in the day-to-day he's obviously going to have a fair bit more on his plate.
Cooper said the WAFC had already visited Adelaide Oval and seen the benefit that South Australian football has reaped so far from the move to a new stadium.
"What it does is reinforce the excitement that Western Australian football feels around the opportunity that our new stadium presents and the challenge is with us to make sure that we take advantage of that opportunity for the benefit of football in Western Australia," Cooper said.
