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AFL "confident" Tasmanian stadium plans will go ahead despite cost blowout
Sam Edmund • May 27th, 2025 8:15 pm
The AFL remains supremely confident the Tasmania Devils and its Macquarie Point Stadium will both go ahead despite a cost blowout detailed in Tasmanian parliament.
The Tasmanian Government today confirmed the stadium would cost $945 million – up from the original estimate of $715 million.
It comes only two months after the government criticised a Tasmanian Planning Commission report which stated the roofed stadium would cost $992 million and had been grossly under-costed.
But AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon remains bullish, with the proposal expected to go to the lower house of parliament in late June and the upper house in early July.
“I’m confident because I know how important the team is to Tasmania, the stadium is to the team and also the stadium will be for Tasmania,” Dillon said.
“There’s a power of work that’s gone into it, we’re looking forward to going through this planning process, getting the (planning) permit and doing everything from there.”
Dillon growing concerns of stadium delays, Dillon said the league remained committed to the Devils entering the competition in 2028.
“The planning permit, if it happens in early July, it puts us almost ahead of where the original plans were,” he said.
“The process is in train and it was great to see the document that went out yesterday. It’s comprehensive.”
The stadium proposal is being assessed by the Tasmanian Planning Commission as a project of state significance, but the government has made it clear it wants to pull out of that process and instead give parliament the only say on whether the stadium will be built.
