Looking at aerials of Optus Stadium, it is hard to disagree that Burswood was the perfect location. As a drone pilot for Seven’s football broadcasts from Perth, I spend most matches looking at Optus Stadium from above. From that view, you realise the drone is not creating the postcard Perth image — it is revealing what was already perfectly placed.
A View Made for Television
Most broadcasts show sweeping drone shots of the stadium glowing beside the Swan River, Matagarup Bridge and the city skyline behind it, a picture that looks made for television. But that was never guaranteed. When Perth was debating where to build its new stadium, there were other options. Some of those locations may have produced a perfectly good football ground, with the same seats, the same lights and the same noise. What they would not have produced is this aerial view.
Drones Transform Sports Coverage
Before drones became a regular part of sports coverage, aerial vision was mostly saved for the biggest occasions. In football, that usually meant finals. You hired a helicopter, put a camera operator in the air, set up the broadcast links and spent money. Now, low-level drone shots are built into the coverage of almost every broadcast and a stadium is no longer only judged by what happens inside it.
The Cockburn Alternative
Watching old 7NEWS library stories this week about the stadium debate decades ago, it is still hard to believe Cockburn, about 20km south of the CBD, was once seriously considered. It may have worked as a place to put a football ground, but it would not have given Perth these stunning images. And it would not have given national audiences the sense that an event belongs to the city around it.
East Coast Envy
Other 7NEWS drone pilots on the east coast look at the Optus Stadium aerials with genuine jealousy. Their venues may be impressive. Some have added colour and LED lights, but this alone does not make a stadium spectacular.
A Growing Precinct
With every flight above Optus Stadium, I can now see the new racetrack taking shape in the same precinct. It has already brought debate, and not everyone will see it the same way. But from the air, it is hard not to see how it could become another part of this Perth postcard, another venue placed where the city itself becomes part of the shot. For many people watching, these aerial postcards are how they see Perth.
