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One of the bonuses of having an A-League team in Western Sydney is the creation of a second city derby. Coupled with the Melbourne derby that makes six huge blockbuster matches, each with the potential for large crowds and big TV ratings.
But for the league to fully utilize a second derby, the FFA must make sure that the matches are played in the most appropriate stadiums and balance the schedule so it results in high crowds and high TV ratings.
Key to achieving this goal is scheduling the derbies on separate weekends.
This season’s rivalry round in week three of last year was a great success, involving the Melbourne derby, the Hunter rivalry and the South Queensland rivalry.
It attracted the league’s highest ever aggregate crowd for a single weekend.
While a similar round next season – involving both the Sydney and Melbourne derbies – would undoubtedly smash more records, it is imperative that Sydney and Melbourne play their derby matches on separate weekends.
This would mean that neither match would overshadow the other, and each would have its own full week of build up.
It would also give the league increased exposure and coverage of the game in the media.
Furthermore, Fox could schedule all the derbies in the prime-time Saturday night slot, which wouldn’t be possible if the two derbies were played on the same weekend.
The hosts of the three derby matches should be split.
Derby I should be held at ANZ Stadium in Homebush, Derby II at Sydney Football Stadium at Moore Park and the final derby of the season at Parramatta Stadium (assuming that Parramatta will be Western Sydney’s regular home ground).
Homebush is the obvious choice for the first derby as the first-ever match-up between Sydney FC and West Sydney is likely to draw a very large crowd (potentially upwards of 40 000).
Such an audience couldn’t be catered for at the 21,000-capacity Parramatta Stadium.
It is important that Derby I is played in the west and not at Moore Park, so that the potential number of fans in the west can be maximised.
This would attract fans who aren’t part of the core support base, who would not be regularly attend West Sydney matches.
Such people would then be encouraged to become regular fans of West Sydney.
The final derby should be played at Parramatta rather than Homebush because of the atmosphere issue.
From reading comments on football forums many people seem to think that derbies shouldn’t be played at Homebush at all, citing a terrible atmosphere.
While the first derby should draw a significant crowd and so needs to be played at ANZ, the third doesn’t have the same novelty.
While we can expect a decent crowd it certainly won’t be as large as the crowd for Derby I.
I’m sure most fans would rather a full house of 21,000 at Parramatta Stadium than 30,000 or so in the cavernous ANZ, which might have up to 50,000 empty seats.
A three-way split only makes sense for the inaugural season.
In the future it will depend on what kind of crowds West Sydney get for Derby I and across their first whole season. Then the club can make a final decision on where it will play its derby matches.
Finally, it is important that the actual timeslots for the Sydney derbies cater for both fans going to the ground and for Fox Sports (looking ahead to the upcoming TV rights deal).
Saturday evening has been the timeslot for most of the Melbourne derbies, and Fox will certainly be pushing for the Sydney derby to be played at a similar time.
However, unlike in Melbourne, where the derbies are always played in a relatively central location, getting to Parramatta/Homebush will take a significant amount of time for Sydney FC fans to get to and visa versa.
Depending on where one lives a trip by car or public transport for an ‘away’ derby could take more than an hour each way.
A Saturday night timeslot of seven-thirty or eight pm would deter many families with children from travelling out to ‘away’ stadiums for derbies, for fear they wouldn’t be home until eleven or later.
A balance between catering for Fox and for fans needs to be struck.
The game needs to be late enough for the match to be broadcast during prime time, but not too late that families are deterred from making the long trip out to the stadium.
A potential timeslot could be six or six thirty pm.
The Sydney derby is a fantastic product to help us sell the A-League to Western Sydney (and indeed Sydney as a whole).
But the FFA has to schedule it right; by giving each match its own weekend separate from that of the Melbourne derby; by playing the derby in the right stadiums; and by scheduling it in a timeslot conducive to both Foxtel and the fans.
On a side note, the club should be the West Sydney Wanderers (drawing from Parramatta’s heritage of hosting the first ever football match in Australia between The Kings School and The Wanderers FC in 1880).
They should play their opening match at Parramatta Stadium in a twilight timeslot against a nearby team like Newcastle Jets.
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