Western Force - Stadium

Stadium

The Force previously played all of their home games at Subiaco Oval. The stadium has a capacity of 43,500 and is configured in an oval shape for Australian rules football.

In February 2008 the Government of Western Australia announced that it will build a new multi-purpose sports stadium located on Kitchener Park, next to Subiaco Oval. The stadium is scheduled to be built between 2011 and 2016, with the majority of the stadium being completed in 2014. Seating 60,000 people, it will mainly be used for Australian rules football matches, but will also be the home ground for the Western Force. The stadium will be oval in shape but will also have retractable seating which will reconfigure the venue to make it suitable for rectangular-field sports codes, including rugby.

However, with the defeat of the Labor government who promised this stadium in the 2008 election, it has since been cancelled. Instead, the Force moved into the 18,000 seat nib Stadium for the 2010 season. The reason for the move to the smaller venue is that it is a rectangular field, as opposed to the oval at Subiaco which is poor viewing for rugby union fans. The Force, along with association football club Perth Glory are pushing for an upgrade to Members Equity Stadium, which would create a truly world class rectangular venue for the two clubs. The Force were given a limited grant by the government to improve facilities at the stadium, and this saw its capacity increase to 20,500 in time for the 2010 Super Rugby Season.

Between 2010 and 2011 the State government developed a masterplan for an improved rectangular stadium and then completed a business case which saw $88million dollars allocated to the first stage which was to include a new permanent East stand, new lights, two video replay boards, LED signage at pitch level, replacement of the playing surface and replacement of the south scaffold stand with new scaffold. A Project Definition Plan was then completed and following this, the government allocated a further $7.14million to add corporate amenity including 48 corporate boxes and a 250 seat BBQ deck to the new Eastern stand.

In June 2012 builder BGC were awarded the head building contract for the project and on 7 June 2012 the Minister for Sport and Recreation Terry Waldron MLA announced that hard work by the project team, led by the Department of Sport and Recreation, and a keen price by builders would enable the south stand to become a permanent, unroofed structure rather than new scaffold. Work begins in early July with expected completion in March 2013.