Football Tasmania is yet to be convinced by the City of Launceston's plans for a $208 million upgrade of UTAS Stadium, with an official for the world game still wanting a standalone rectangular venue.
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The lack of a rectangular configuration was central to UTAS Stadium missing out on hosting matches for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, although the city is still hopeful of being a base camp for at least one of the 32 participating nations.
The City of Launceston's plans for the stadium, announced in February, include retractable seats on the eastern side to create a temporary rectangular arena, along with increasing the capacity to 24,112 with redevelopments of the northern and eastern stands.
But Football Tasmania president Bob Gordon said the state would still need a standalone rectangular stadium to help the bid for an A-League team, future World Cups and elite level rugby union and league matches.
"To put it in context, a new purpose-built rectangular stadium suitable for the world game, rugby union, rugby league and for concerts, is about half the price of the proposed upgrade at York Park," he said. "Instead of upgrading York Park, you could build two rectangular stadiums - one in the north and one in the south.
"I'm very confident that we'll get the [A-League] team, but we need somewhere to play."
The upgrade plans also include a separate sport and entertainment facility for basketball and netball, including the potential to host regular JackJumpers games in the NBL.
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Mr Gordon made the comments during a press conference at Birch Avenue soccer grounds on Saturday, and drew an response from mayor Albert van Zetten, who was also in attendance.
"I think Bob doesn't really realise what's going into the UTAS Stadium," Cr van Zetten said.
"We want to see a facility that's capable of meeting A-League, meeting Australian Rules Football, meeting basketball, meeting netball, all of the sports so we can get them in this city and continue to see young people excited about all of the sports being played in this city.
"What it means is on the eastern side, the seats will be able to be brought in so when we're playing the game it will look like a very rectangular shape.
"That's something the A-League wanted and when we presented that ... the FIFA people were quite excited and very pleased with it."
With the Women's World Cup expanding to 32 teams, the state government remained confident of attracting a squad to Launceston for the four weeks of pre-tournament training, and during the tournament itself.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the "configuration" of UTAS Stadium "wasn't acceptable" yet.
"That's a matter that we will continue to work through over the course of coming years in terms of the investment that we will see there," he said.