Australian Football League side Western Bulldogs President Peter Gordon said that "playing at a smaller stadium in Melbourne could earn the club up to an extra" A$4M ($3M) each season, according to Vernuccio & Waterworth of the HERALD SUN. Gordon said that "the city needed a new stadium that catered for low-drawing games, offering Whitten Oval as a potential venue to upgrade." He said that the Bulldogs "made a bigger profit playing at Cairns’ Cazaly’s Stadium in front of less than 10,000 people than it would at their 10 Etihad Stadium games combined." Gordon: "I think that Melbourne needs a new, bespoke stadium which maxes out at 25 to 30,000 (seats)." When asked what it would take for Whitten Oval -- which has not hosted an official AFL match since '97 -- to permanently host games, Gordon said it would take a "major capital investment." Gordan said that the Bulldogs playing half their home games at a smaller stadium, instead of Etihad Stadium, "would pump our revenue by A$2-A$4 million ($1.4M-$2.9M) dollars every year" (HERALD SUN, 7/22).
