Western Australia Planning Minister Rita Saffioti said that the new Perth Stadium footbridge "will be just as big" as Sydney's "iconic" harbor bridge, according to Fran Nimrod of WA TODAY. Saffioti: "It is an elaborate design, and when you look at the size of it, as I understand, it's comparable to the Sydney Harbour Bridge in height." The Sydney Harbour Bridge is 134m high, almost 50m wide and 503m long, while Perth's new footbridge will span 160m at the center. It is, however, going to be "much shorter" at 370m, and "much narrower" at 9m wide. The total construction cost of the bridge is estimated at A$25M ($19.8M). The project "has been the source of many headaches for the new WA government" after it was revealed the budget had "blown out" by a "staggering" A$16M in April this year, and the original opening date "had been set back almost two years." The original delay "was allegedly due to fabrication issues in Malaysia, with significant delays to steel shipment dates a result of a legal stoush" between overseas companies involved in the fabrication (WA TODAY, 10/15).
BOILING OVER: In Perth, Mark Duffield reported the Australian Football League "renewed a threat to remain at Domain Stadium" in '18 as "tense final stages of negotiations on an historic deal to shift football to Perth Stadium boiled over this week." The threat was reportedly made after the WA State Government "refused an AFL demand that it be able to access money generated by other sports at the stadium" if its own share of stadium income "fell short of targets." The government has been "on the brink of clinching the historic deal for several weeks but has grown increasingly frustrated" by several bids by AFL heavyweights to "peel back conditions." Central to the tension was a clause that football access up to A$10.3M ($8.2M)-a-year of football’s share of the stadium economy in years 11 to 20 of the deal (THE WEST AUSTRALIAN, 10/13).
