Chief Executive Steven Trigg updates Crows members and supporters on a range of issues in the midst of a hectic offseason, in part two of an exclusive Q&A with afc.com.au ...

Q. It’s only about 150 days until the Club’s first game at Adelaide Oval. How exciting is that?
ST: “We can’t wait to get there. Most people in Adelaide would’ve seen the structure going up and be pretty excited by it. The first turf was laid at the ground this week, so it’s all very real. The people who say Adelaide Oval won’t be the ‘be all and end all’ are quite right. We still need to do things better and better, but Adelaide Oval does loom as being a really exciting proposition. Corporate Adelaide has certainly responded sensationally. We’ve got over 60 brand new corporate entities, who are partnering our Club next year either in corporate boxes or other product. We’re zeroing in on selling out all our corporate product in the next few weeks. I would expect that with the interest in membership, the season ticket and reserved seat tickets will sell out as well. The migration of existing members is complete and we’re about to go to the people, who have expressed an interest to join up as new members.”

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Q. Car parking and public transport have been works in progress. Do you have any updates?
ST: “We’ve been concerned about car parking on behalf of our people. The view of the State Government, the Stadium Management Authority, the Adelaide Council and indeed our view is that we need to get more people off the roads and onto public transport. When you’re in the CBD, you’re a better chance of doing that.

“In saying that, we’ve still been concerned about the volume of car parks and their location. We’re getting to the point where we’re much happier with it. The number of car parks in the north car park/Adelaide Oval No.2 tallies up to nearly 1,500. Another 500 car parks have been created at a parking facility on the corner of Morphett Street and Memorial Drive. The council will sell those on match day. They’re really close and easy to access, so that’s a great outcome.

“It also looks increasingly likely that west of Morphett Street/Memorial Drive will be available for car parking, which our members who love to have a BBQ at the tailgate will enjoy. Sometime soon, we’ll be contacting our members, who we know are tailgate BBQ-ers, and work with them on where they’re going to be.”

Q. What will happen to the existing facility at AAMI Stadium?
ST: “To be really clear, the administration and training base stays here and the oval stays here. We’re rent-free and the ground, to us, is maintenance free and being supported by the SANFL – that’s a tremendous outcome for our Club. With that kind of commercial arrangement, we’ll be here in the foreseeable future.”

Q. Equalisation has been a topic of debate recently. What does this mean for the competition?
ST: “The AFL is doing a couple of things in 2014, but what’s being planned for 2015 and beyond is quite a significant bolstering to the whole equalisation process across the competition. Exactly what it looks like remains to be seen. It will come from certain areas dependent upon a club’s fixturing, viewing audience, membership reach and profitability. The evening-up process will be more evident than it ever has been before. We’re probably already starting to see that in some of the fixturing, with the bracketing of the top six, middle six and bottom six teams (playing each other twice). It’s another equalisation lever that’s being pulled. It wasn’t put to us in those terms in regards to the first game at Adelaide Oval, but I think you could adequately put it into that bucket. We get some opportunity to work with the AFL on equalisation, so we’ll see where it lands.”

Q. The AFL fixture isn’t released until October, 31, but can you give us any insight?
ST: “We know we’re the away team in Round Two. Therefore, you would think we’ll be at home in Round Three to open our season at Adelaide Oval. We will make it one of the biggest celebrations of all time. We’ve been told there are some other aspects of the fixture that we will be pleased with and I’m assuming that’s a bit of Thursday night, which we’d requested, and also Friday night, which we had requested.”

Q. And on the field … how do you feel the Club is placed?
ST: “We’ve added two senior guys in Eddie Betts and James Podsiadly. They are both proven players and will make an immediate difference to us. They’ve also come to us through a process that hasn’t cosy us anything in terms of draft picks or players. It’s a great outcome.

“James has so much to offer off the field as well in terms of strength and conditioning and leadership. Eddie offers us something we’ve been looking for on the field for a long time. Hopefully, early in the season we’ll get Taylor Walker back too. With Eddie and James in the forward line, we become much more potent very quickly.

“We know the age profile of our list is at a terrific stage in terms of where we can take it over the year or two. We genuinely think that 2013 was the abnormal year, not 2012. We’ll look to make Adelaide Oval, which is a little bit different to most other grounds, our fortress. We’ll learn how to play it and play it well.”

Read Part One of Steven Trigg’s exclusive Q&A with afc.com.au