![\"Macquarie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/458656fad9a4ea05297e23f7f92834b6.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAnti-stadium leaders are taking a last minute punt at convincing the AFL to abandon its push for Hobart’s waterfront stadium.<\/p>\n
The fate of the contentious $1.13 billion new build, which the AFL has made a precondition of granting the Tasmania Devils’ license, will be decided in parliament in December.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the vote, an 18-strong grouping of MPs and mayors released an open letter to the AFL pleading for a meeting at the end of the month.<\/p>\n
“The AFL’s ongoing insistence that Tasmania builds the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium, against an expert planning recommendation, represents reckless and unacceptable corporate overreach into state responsibilities,” it reads.<\/p>\n
The group is likely to be left disappointed.<\/p>\n
A previous effort to get a meeting with chief executive Andrew Dillon in June through a similar open letter received no response.<\/p>\n
The AFL, which has been contacted for comment, has remained steadfast in making the stadium a condition of granting Tasmania a license as the 19th side.<\/p>\n
The stadium’s necessary approvals will be decided in parliament later this year, with both the Liberal minority government and Labor opposition offering support.<\/p>\n
That was despite a state planning report damning the plans and recommending it not be built.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The stadium is planned for disused waterfront land on the CBD fringe at Macquarie Point. (Linda Higginson\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n
“If there was logic in the politics of this state, the Labor Party and the Liberal parties would read this planning commission report and recognise the dire warnings that it poses,” Tasmania Greens deputy leader Vica Bailey said.<\/p>\n
Parliamentary approval will be decided in the upper house, where the government needs the support of three crossbenchers to join with the major parties to pass the bill.<\/p>\n
Meg Webb, an anti-stadium MP representing southern Hobart, said she and her colleagues were subject to a vast amount of lobbying from both sides.<\/p>\n
“We have a lot of people trying to tell us what we should be doing in terms of our vote on the stadium,” she said.<\/p>\n
“This is not a done deal. This is still a matter that will be decided in the parliament and in the upper house.”<\/p>\n
The 18-strong grouping is comprised of the mayors of Hobart and Glenorchy, four Senators including Jacqui Lambie, federal MP Andrew Wilkie, as well as Greens and independent MPs from Tasmania’s lower and upper house.<\/p>\n
Polling has consistently showed Tasmanians do not support the stadium.<\/p>\n
“This state, which is already broke, cannot afford to spend $1.13 billion … ballooning to $1.8 billion when the cost of debt is taken in over a decade,” Mr Wilkie said.<\/p>\n
“We can’t afford it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-stadium leaders are taking a last minute punt at convincing the AFL to abandon its push for Hobart’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,133683,64,63,55,639,12804,133682,100480,85,133684,53432,133681],"class_list":["post-219065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-anti-stadium","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-hobart","tag-macquarie-point","tag-planning-commission","tag-sports","tag-state-responsibilities","tag-tasmania-devils","tag-waterfront-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}