Queensland Premier Peter Beattie thought strolling to and from Lang Park from Roma Street would justify the Government's decision to spend $280 million to upgrade the 40000 seat traffic hazard. Few agree, least of all Milton residents.

The quest for a world class rectangular sporting stadium in Brisbane is a valid one. As it stands, Stadium Australia and the Sydney Football Stadium both have a monopoly on the major football events in both Rugby League and Rugby Union, and rightly so. After experiencing Stadium Australia for myself for last year's Grand Final, there are few grounds that can compare for comfort or ease of access.

How many grounds can you fit over 100000 people into without feeling like you are standing or sitting on top of eachother and can then disperse the crowd through the train system relatively painlessly? One thing is for sure, you could never do that at Lang Park.

Last year proposals were sought for the Super Stadium project. The Lang Park Trust applied, as predicted, to upgrade the ground to a 60000 capacity and build a better public transport infrastructure which involved a bus tunnel and walkways. The proposal also called for banning parking within 1.5km of the ground.

Another proposal came from the RNA Showgrounds, the home of the Brisbane Ekka for the past 100 years or so. It hosted the first cricket Test in Brisbane back in the 1930s. While the 10-day show is a huge revenue raiser for the venue, the remaining 355 days a year are relatively wasted.

They proposed to build a new 60000 seat stadium on the site of the main ring. The proposal also included a state of the art bus terminal system, similar to those used at Garden City as part of the new Busway project, plus an 8000-spot car park. The venue would also have been completed in conjunction with the new City-Valley bypass which would provide easy access to the Southern Suburbs from the Bowen Hills venue.

Outstanding public transport, which has been proven successful with the Ekka each year which attracts some 100000 people a day; good parking access; good traffic handling; plus the advantage of a brand new stadium with state of the art facilities, with 80% of the seating under cover. The price, about $350 million.

It seemed inevitable Lang Park would be accepted however, considering a member of the Lang Park Trust was also the Sports Minister, Bob Gibbs. Predictably, it won, much to the dismay of the RNA Showgrounds bid. To many it seemed the wishy washy excuse of Lang Park being the "spiritual" home of Queensland Rugby League was the main selling point, even though its facilities were not and still are not up to standard.

That was evidence on Wednesday night, when a full house was on hand to witness the second State of Origin match. 39000 people braved shocking weather conditions to watch the encounter. Me included. I paid $45 for tickets in the Western Grandstand the day the tickets went on sale, under the impression that for that price I would have a reasonable view and be under cover. To my dismay I arrived to find myself looking straight out at the dead ball line with heavy rain pelting down on my head. $45? For this? I paid a similar price for the Grand Final at Stadium Australia to be under enough cover to shelter me from the rain that fell persistently all day and was in line with the 10 metre line, perfectly positioned to see Matt Geyer's pass for Paul Marquet's try for Melbourne (which was back by the way).

Next complaint was the leg room. There was none. I'm not a tall man, but my knees spent most of the night pressing against the back of the seat in front, and whenever the bloke in front went to cuddle his girlfriend he was brushing my leg too. No thank you! Don't get me started on what happened when someone along the row wanted to get out, or worse, get back in with four cups of beer balancing tenuously on a cardboard tray.

Add to this the fact that when anything happened down the other end, everyone stood up and we had absolutely no way of seeing what was going on. The screen was further to the west as well, making it completely unviewable.

What was scary was that this was the stand that they weren't going to do too much upgrading on. The Ron McAuliffe stand and the ugly areas at the north and south are the main targets of construction, with the roof on the Western Stand to be extended I believe.

Of course, there's the usual complaint about the facilities. At one point there was a 15 metre queue to use a bin!! Not the toilets. Not the beer queue, a damn bin! It was absurd.

Then came that fateful time when full time was blown and the crowd had to disperse. Castlemaine Street wasn't too bad, since the cops had closed it off allowing pedestrians to stream across. At Hale St, on the Ron McAuliffe stand side, it was a completely different story. They had not opened all the gates, so the entire capacity of the stand was making their way down one inadequate stair case, leading to one inadequate walkway.

From what I experienced, $280 million is not nearly enough to fix that place. A nuke costs more than that.

I'm all for tradition, I respect the blood that has been spilt and the agony and ecstacy experienced by Queensland teams of the past on the ground, of the wonderful Brisbane Grand Finals that have been fought out, and the Test matches, and the Broncos early days. In fact, for events where the crowd is between 10-20000, it's quite a neat ground to attend, apart from the ticket and food prices.

The overwhelming feeling when sauntering away was that I prayed to god that the Broncos do not move back. I prayed to God that the cabinet which votes on July 8 whether to accept the Lang Park proposal is voted out. I prayed to God that sanity would prevail and that the debate would reopen and the RNA Showgrounds would get another look in. I prayed to God that if that didn't happen they'd reinvestigate the possibility of upgrading ANZ Stadium, which really only needs the Northern and Southern stands demolished and rebuilt closer to the field.

One thing was patently obvious. Lang Park is not suitable for a high profile event like State of Origin. An event where part time league fans who want the best seat in the house are willing to pay, but want quality for their dollar. The drunken hooligans don't need anything more than the concrete slabs on the outer, but nobody likes being crammed in like a sardine.

If the Lang Park proposal is accepted, next year's Origin will not be able to be held there, as it will be mid-construction. Talk remains that the 'Gabba will be used. I hope that's not the case and that ANZ Stadium gets another look in. One thing nobody can deny about ANZ is that for all its shortcomings (distance from the action, difficult location for Northern Suburbs residents), it is comfortable. It is well serviced. It has excellent public transport facilities.

Mr Beattie might have enjoyed his little walk on Wednesday night. But when you have a throng of media and security escorting you to your comfy corporate box seat high in the Western Stand, it's hardly what the average punter experiences - and they are the ones that pay.

Please, like the graveyard that used to exist on the Lang Park site, let's continue the tradition and let the ghosts of stadiums past rest in peace, and lets move towards the future.