Lions share final renders of ‘The Reserve’

Article posted by Coliseum, February 28^th, 2020

Image: Brisbane Lions

The Brisbane Lions – the Australian rules football club who play in the Australian Football League (AFL) – has shared the final renders of The Reserve Community Arena at Springfield in Australia. The club will begin construction of the facility from March.

The renders come as the project, known as ‘The Reserve’, is all set to move into the construction phase. The Lions’ $70 million stadium project was green lighted in August 2019 with earthworks carried out in recent months.

The Reserve Community Arena will be the Australian rules football venue and is located in the Queensland suburb of Springfield. The facility will be the new permanent training and administrative home of the Brisbane Lions, and will also play host to the club’s AFL Women’s home matches.

Apply for membership

The Lions will officially move their training and administrative headquarters to The Reserve by Spring 2021 just in time for their first AFLW matches at the arena in 2022.

AFLW is Australia’s national Australian rules football league for female players.

The latest renders show the final design of the Lions’ new home in rich detail. The southern arena plaza which fans will cross upon arrival from Springfield Central train station will feature an events lawn to host Lion Park activations and an indoor training field. The pick of Brisbane’s subtropical flora, including species that are in full bloom in Lions’ colors throughout the season, will be exhibited in the gardens and will be a vision for fans.

The arena renders also acknowledge the club’s proud Fitzroy past, with the grandstand paying homage to Fitzroy’s Brunswick Street Oval (the cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria). In Queensland, this red brick design is also strongly linked with Ipswich’s industrial legacy. Queensland supporters may also recognize the extensive balconies and timber as common features of traditional Queenslander architecture.

The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria, and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League (now the Australian Football League) when it was first established in 1897. On July 4, 1996, the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Football Club merged and became the Brisbane Lions Australian Football Club, the AFL’s first amalgamated club.

Spectator seating in the grandstand, hill areas and tiers around the oval have been designed in such a manner so as to bring members and fans as close to the football and action as possible. A flat oval surface will hugely amplify fence line views of the action on field. A mix of seating and standing options and cover will improve the Lions’ match experiences in hot as well as wet weather.

Construction on the training and administration facility is scheduled to start in March, and the stadium is expected to be delivered by November 2021.

The General Manager of Infrastructure, Strategy and Government Relations at the Lions, Jake Anson, said the discussions on the design process took months and was pleased as Punch to share the images with supporters – “The past year has seen countless hours invested into selecting consultants and contractors, finishing our design, formalizing our funding agreements and completing our lease and development approvals with the Council.”

Anson added, “A new live-stream video on our club website has been launched which shows fans our progress to date and will allow them to track our construction progress. Those earthworks will finish in the next four weeks with building construction to commence as soon as the site is ready. We invite interested fans to drive by the site and perhaps wrap in a visit to some of Springfield’s other attractions, which include the wonderful Orion Lagoon and Robelle Domain family precincts, Orion Shopping Centre which continues to expand and one of Queensland’s best public-access golf courses at Brookwater.”

He further stated, “The Lions will host a number of events over the year ahead that provide construction updates and launch the public phase of our fundraising campaign, which will focus on raising the final funds for our new home with opportunities for our supporters to be a part of our Lions Legacy.”

Lions’ head honcho Greg Swann earlier termed the project as a “game-changer” for the club – “We have been working towards this project since 2011. Our AFLW side will finally have a place to call home, after playing at numerous venues since their competition’s introduction in 2016.”

He further said, “The facility will provide a stable base for our men’s team, who train at a number of venues during the summer. We see Springfield as an exciting growth corridor and the space available there will allow us to continue to expand.”

The Reserve will be owned by Ipswich City Council and will be let out to the Brisbane Lions Football Club. The Ipswich City Council and the Lions have agreed a tenure term of 99 years, with the club to take on the mantle of preparatory earthworks and construction of its new home at the site.

The club has obtained funding from Ipswich City Council, the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments and the AFL, with a fundraising campaign set in motion to secure the final funds for the facility fit-out.

The Lions secured the final piece of funding for the $70 million project in January 2019, and while the final renders aren’t too dissimilar to those presented a year ago, there are though few changes.

The roof no longer continues around half of the boutique stadium and instead, the grandstand on the wing sits by itself, discrete from the main structure. The ground is expected to fit in around 10,000 fans and will feature lighting for night matches.

The venue is located 26 km south-west of the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD) and will host both AFLW and North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) home games for the club, as well as AFL pre-season matches. The Lions will mostly train at the new venue, but continue to play home AFL matches at their current residence – the Gabba.

The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia.

Continue to follow Coliseum for latest updates on venues business news. Coliseum is dedicated towards building the best global community of sports and entertainment venue executives and professionals creating better and more profitable venues.

Watch 250 member-exclusive videos with valuable tips for your venue