The first Brisbane Strikers fixture to be played at Perry Park since 1995 might be more than two weeks away, but already a visit to the rapidly evolving old home of Queensland soccer is enough to send a shiver of excitement through any supporter with a heart and a soul.

You can almost about feel and taste the atmosphere that will pervade the ground this coming NSL season.

When the BSSA visited the ground today, Perry Park was alive with activity. Painters, builders, concretors and members of the club’s playing, coaching and office staff are transforming what was recently a decaying football mausoleum into the living, throbbing home of a reborn football club.

A walk beyond the front doors of the clubhouse through to the old grandstand reveals rooms in the throes of refurbishment, but more on that later. Once through the interior of the clubhouse and out into the stadium area, one change is immediately apparent.

A new temporary stand has been installed across the pitch on the eastern side of ground, separating the second pitch from the main pitch. The temporary stand, which will not be roofed, is about eight rows high, except for small sections at either end which are about six rows high. It will provide seating for around 1,000 spectators. Sitting as it does atop a grass bank, it will provide spectators with an excellent vantage point from which to view the game, offering better elevation than the old grandstand.

The pitch itself, which only a short time ago bore the considerable scars caused by a couple of seasons of winter rugby league, irregular watering and insufficient care, is newly verdant. While there are still small patches of ground causing the club some concerns, these will be remedied over the next few weeks. Removal of mounded areas has evened out the surface, and weeding, top dressing and regular watering has restored the grass and produced that rich, green colour so beloved by football fans everywhere. Now, rather than being bone hard like most football pitches around Brisbane by the end of winter, the short-cropped turf is noticeably springy to walk upon. All that is now needed is a couple of weeks of warm weather (and in this respect the weather gods look likely to smile upon the Strikers) to encourage the grass to grow and thicken out.

The old grandstand, which will seat around 1,500 spectators, is midway through a spruce-up. Already, broken seating has been removed and guttering repaired. The posts supporting the roof have been painted in the club’s blue and yellow colours, and this will be followed by painting of the plastic seats which will soon be installed throughout the entire stand rather than only the middle sections. Behind the seating, concreted areas around the windows and doors to the clubhouse will also be get a blue and yellow makeover.

The ‘hill’ areas behind each goal are being regrassed for the benefit of families with young children, and there are plans to plant bushes and trees behind them to screen out those areas less pleasing to the eye (and perhaps to protect the investment made by paying punters as opposed to those more avaricious souls who may be tempted to try to watch games through the wire fences).

While the catering facilities (both the food and drinks areas, and the bar) for the punters in the main stand are being renovated, a Fourex bar will be located near the northern end of the temporary stand, as will a food and drinks kiosk. A bitumen path in front of the temporary stand will provide access to the northern end refreshments for patrons on the southern hill.

Around the perimeter of the ground, just inside the fence, concretors over the next few days will provide new car parking and access roads to the rear of the grandstand, where wheelchair access to the front entrance will be installed.

Floodlighting has been improved by the addition of at least four lights (which are technically superior to the ones already installed) on each pole. A tower will be erected behind the temporary grandstand to cater for television cameras - and yes, it does look likely that there will be television coverage of the NSL this season! Other media will be located in the main stand, with five internet connections available, along with the ground announcer.

Inside the clubhouse, and behind the main grandstand, a new members’ bar - which will be available to all season ticket holders and will host after-game get-togethers with the club’s players and staff - is getting the treatment. A new bar is being installed, and the club colours will again feature prominently. New glass, spanning the length of the members’ bar, will soon replace the old glass which, with its smaller, pannelled sections, obstructs what should be an uninterruped view of what happens on the pitch. New VIP and corporate facilities are also being fitted out, and six of twelve corporate packages have been sold even before they could be advertised. The old kitchens are being gutted and comprehensively re-equipped, and the changing rooms are being refurbished.

Although the current works are surprising in their scale, supporters should remember that much of what is happening inside Perry Park right now is aimed at improving the look and comfort of the ground for supporters and staff so that it is suitable just for the coming NSL season. Much more significant, and permanent works, are planned for next season and beyond. In the meantime, though, the Strikers are turning Perry Park into a presentable boutique stadium with a safe capacity of around 7,000.

We can tell you that there is already a palpable sense of pride within the Brisbane Strikers in what is being achieved. It is evident from the smiles of the office staff who have 'made do' with very cramped and primitive office accommodation during the club’s nomadic existence over the past several years. It is also evident in the enthusiastic and detailed overview provided to us by Club Establishment Coordinator, Steve Wilson, whose job it is to ensure that all the planning and hard work comes to fruition.

But perhaps most illuminating of all was the comment of player-coach, Stuart McLaren, who even in the midst of putting the finishing touches to the recruitment of his squad has found the time to do what you would expect any player to do - to stand out in the middle of his new home pitch and savour the feeling created by his new surroundings.

"It’s going to be awesome", he said simply. One can’t help but agree. It is hard to see how, even with a modest crowd of some 2,500, the grandstands on each side will not be nearly full, with spectators seated close to the action. Even if there were no-one on the hill at each end, the atmosphere generated by Brisbane’s supporters, who generally ‘punch above their weight’ in terms of vocal support, is likely to be imposing. But with a crowd of 3,500 to 4,000, there is little doubt that the place will "go off" when the Strikers are performing well.

And that is a thought for every football fan in Brisbane to savour. Only nineteen more sleeps to go.... 

Bill Waddell Stand Looking appropriate