State and federal governments are currently looking at Skilled Stadium as a potential venue to host matches as part of Football Federation Australia’s (FFA) bid for the 2018-2022 World Cup.
The same architects engaged in recent redevelopments at Skilled Stadium have begun drawing up plans for further works that might one day see the ground transformed into a 44,000-seat stadium.
Cook believes such an increase would bring Skilled Stadium into line with the majority of the AFL’s premier grounds.
While saying there was “plenty of water to go under the bridge” before that happened, the Cats’ chief welcomed the idea that his club might one day again be able to host the likes of Carlton or Collingwood on their own turf.
“If you’ve got a capacity of 40,000-plus, you know you’re talking about similar sizes as AAMI Stadium, as Subiaco Oval, the Gabba … so it brings you into line with all those,” Cook told afl.com.au.
Cook said any additions that could further consolidate the club’s long-term future at Skilled Stadium were well worth considering.
“That’s why we started the masterplan back in 1999/2000 - to keep Geelong in Geelong,” he said.
“We’ve made a fair inroad into that objective.”
Cook has overseen major changes since taking on the CEO’s role at Kardinia Park.
Stage two of the Cats’ redevelopment plans, largely focused on ensuring the club’s long-term sustainability in the region, will be completed in less than a month when Geelong receives the keys to its new Premiership Stand - taking the ground’s capacity to 30,000.
Cook said the club’s next target was an increase to 35,000.
“That’s the stage three, and we’ve been lobbying governments and the AFL for about a year now, trying to seek funding for that,” he said.
“It’s a $75 million funding requirement and then you’ve got stage four after that.”
Cook said FFA’s World Cup bid could be an extension of the football club’s own redevelopment work, and it was something the Cats would be thrilled to see eventuate.
“From our point of view the vision sort of went to about 2018-2020,” he said.
“We think that if we can get stage three up - which would take the capacity to 35,000 - that would have accommodated us until we think around 2020.
“In terms of stage four it’s very much a State Government-led vision and it’s a natural extension of stage one, two and three for us.
“We’d love to see it happen but we are also realists and we know that there’s two or three stages to go - one being simply that the FFA would need to include the government’s recommendations in their World Cup bid, and there’s no guarantee of that at this point in time.”
Image: an artist's impression of the proposed redevelopment of Skilled Stadium. Courtesy Geelong Cats.
