Venue uncertainty for Central Coast Mariners as Western United announce start date for stadium construction

The Central Coast Mariners have today advised that there is no certainty that it will play its 2021/22 A-League home fixtures at the Central Coast Stadium, the news following yesterday’s announcement that fellow A-League club the Western United's parent company will begin the construction process of its Wyndham City Stadium next month.

With new start dates and fixtures for November and December for the 2021/22 A-League and W-League seasons announced this morning, Central Coast Mariners released a statement explaining “(we) would like to advise our partners, members and supporters that our scheduled home matches are currently listed as ‘TBC’ whilst we work through options available to the club.

“This is because a venue hire agreement for Central Coast Stadium is still pending by Central Coast Council and not yet finalised for any of our A-League or next season's W-League matches at Central Coast Stadium.”

With Central Coast Council currently tendering the management of the venue, the statement added “in respect to the ongoing management rights tender of the stadium, there is currently a process in place that the club is very supportive of and it is important that the process is not delayed or impacted by these short-term venue hire discussions.

“We will be working closely with APL (Australian Professional Leagues) on finalising this in preparation for the season ahead and while confident a solution will be found soon, we will not be making any further comments at this stage.”

A-League, W-League and the Wellington Phoenix
The first two months of the A-League and W-League will see both Wellington Phoenix teams based in NSW until the start of January, due to the border restrictions in place on both sides of the Tasman Sea as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Phoenix women, who will play their first W-League match on the opening night of the 2021/2 season against Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday 3rd December, will remain in NSW for the whole season, but could fly in to New Zealand to play double-headers with the A-League team, which is hoping to be based back in New Zealand as early as possible in 2022.

Wyndham City Stadium to begin construction
The parent company of the A-League’s Western United has announced that the construction process on the Wyndham City Stadium will commence on the 25th October.

Being built by Western Melbourne Group (WMG), the venue will be the first fully football club-owned senior stadium in Australia upon its completion

Once completed the stadium will have a 15,000 spectator capacity complete with in-club accommodation, offices, training facilities and changing rooms. The stadium is part of a greater sports-orientated real estate development by WMG estimated at $180 millions.

Part of the sports-oriented development is the Wyndham City Elite Training Facility, to double as the training ground for the club's teams. The facility will be equipped with three pitches including a 5000 person stadium to be used by the upcoming W-League side.

The Wyndham City Council awarded that contract design in July 2021.

Last season Western United played their 2020/21 A-League home games at AAMI Park in Melbourne, GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, MARS Stadium in Ballarat and UTAS Stadium in Launceston with one home match was disputed in Sydney's Leichhardt Oval.

Images: Central Coast Stadium (top) and the concept for the Wyndham City Stadium (below).