It was a classic conflation by the AFL. "If you want a team, you gotta build the stadium". There's heaps of cars on the road with "Yes AFL team, Yes stadium" bumper stickers, and an equal number with "No stadium" on them. But until recently I never saw one with "Yes AFL team, No stadium".
Trouble is, the state government went along with it, Jeremy saw a chance to build his legacy, and Labor jumped on board as well.
Now we're in the ridiculous situation where both major parties want the $1b+ stadium even though this snap election is because the state's budget is already in the shitter, so anyone opposed to the stadium is going to be voting for the Greens or other minor parties/independents, and whoever gets in is going to have a far smaller minority than the Libs currently do.
As I said the majority of diehard footy fans are up north. We have a population here of about half a mil. Are they really expecting crowds of 5-10% of the entire state's population to attend every game?