WHY HOBART’S STADIUM GAMBIT ECHOES THE ILLUSORY ALLURE OF “IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME”
In the 1989 cinematic gem Field of Dreams Kevin Costner’s Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a ethereal whisper from the cornfields: “If you build it, he will come.” It’s a line that has become shorthand for the seductive power of grand visions—ploughing under a cash crop to erect a baseball diamond in the belief that it will summon ghosts of the past, heal family rifts and draw crowds from afar.
The film romanticises this leap of faith as a triumph of heart over ledger where the stadium (or ballfield) becomes a magical attractor, filling seats with spectral sluggers and wide-eyed pilgrims. But beneath the nostalgia lies a cautionary tale: unchecked optimism can lead to financial ruin, social division and a monument to hubris gathering dust.
Fast-forward to 2025 and Tasmania’s proposed Macquarie Point AFL stadium in Hobart feels like a real-world sequel—one where the whispers are from politicians and league suits and the “they” who are supposed to come might just stay home, leaving taxpayers holding the bag. The Hobart stadium, a $1.13 billion (and climbing) roofed, 23,000-seat behemoth on the city’s historic waterfront was greenlit as a non-negotiable condition for Tasmania’s entry into the AFL with the Tasmania Devils team in 2028.