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In this past week, there have been stories that the A-League might have some difficulties in regards to venue availability for the A-League grand final.
Venue availability has been made complicated, not only because other codes are using the stadiums, but also some venues are booked for rock concerts.
The A-League grand final is to be held on Saturday April 20 at 6pm with the venue to be announced dependent on the finals series results. Possible venues could be Etihad Stadium, AAMI Park (Melbourne), Allianz Stadium and ANZ Stadium (Sydney),
However, where would a team like Adelaide United play if they host the GF? They are in the top four at this current stage with five rounds to go.
United’s home ground, Hindmarsh, is too small, while the Adelaide Oval’s capacity is reduced thanks to construction work.
The only option for Adelaide is AAMI Stadium, a ground that is synonymous with AFL. However, it does have a capacity of 51,000.
There is not such a problem for cities like Brisbane and Perth, as both seem unlikely to host the GF this year, considering they are eighth and ninth on the ladder respectively.
With the complexities of venue availability, it then got me thinking. As a radical thought, starting from next year, why doesn’t the FFA have the A-League grand final on ANZAC Day?
The pros are that it is an easy day for people to remember, and is a fixed date every year. Also, there is no Super Rugby on.
Finally, the only venues that would be unavailable are the MCG (Collingwood v Essendon),Westpac Stadium (St. Kilda v Sydney, NZ), the Sydney Football Stadium (Sydney Roosters v St.George-Illawarra Dragons) and AAMI Park (Melbourne Storm v New Zealand Warriors).
There are of course some cons. For example, there is serious competition with the other codes for media exposure and fan attention. This is because the A-League would be tackling the NRL and AFL head on.
Aside from some venue problems if the Phoenix hosted the grand final, some in the football community might not be in favour of playing on a day as special as ANZAC Day.
St. Kilda, who have an agreement with Wellington City Council, will be hosting five AFL matches at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, NZ, beginning this year with an ANZAC game against the Sydney Swans, followed by two matches each in 2014 and 2015.
St.Kilda have also made it publicly that they want to play on ANZAC Day every year from NZ.
While it seems good in theory to host a showpiece game, like a grand final on ANZAC Day, would it somehow detract what April 25 is all about?
NRL and AFL are hosting club games on that day. However, there have been a few critics over the years to suggest that the NRL and AFL are slowly hijacking that special day in late April.
The AFL and NRL, for many years, only had one match on that day. This year, both leagues will have two matches.
So in effect, are the NRL and AFL using ANZAC Day for commercial gain, at the expense of our Diggers?
Also would it be wise for the A-League to follow suit? Roarers, what do you think?
If ANZAC Day is not the ideal day with due respect to our servicemen and women, then, with Plan B, how about staging the A-League GF a few days later on the weekend.
With matches been played on ANZAC Day from both the AFL and NRL, it does leave less games on the weekend from those two codes. Less games means less venues to be used, and therefore stadium availability does become reality.
The other thing is that the A-League needs to maximise it’s ratings potential.
In my opinion, the right timeslot should be 6pm AEST on a Sunday evening.
Take an example this year. If the A-League GF was held on April 28, it wouldn’t have much competition from either the AFL or NRL as far as venues or matches are concerned.
In the AFL on April 28, it has Brisbane v Melbourne (Gabba, 1:15pm) and Hawthorn v North Melbourne (MCG, 4.40pm) to compete with.
In the NRL, there is Gold Coast v Newcastle (Skilled Park, 2pm) and Cronulla v Canterbury (Bluetongue stadium, 3pm, 4pm delayed Ch 9).
So in essence, only those four venues (MCG, Gabba, Bluetongue and Skilled Park) would be unavailable, which means majority of the other bigger grounds like ANZ, Etihad, Allianz, Suncorp and Pattersons can be used for the A-League GF.
I’m sure many Mariners fans are thinking that Bluetongue should be used as a GF venue. But with a capacity of just over 20,000, it is too small for a showpiece game to promote the code around Australia and the world
While there will be ongoing debate as to whether the A-League should have a finals series or a first past the post, in my opinion, football in Australia needs as much revenue as it can accumulate, and have as many matches for our players to play. So I favour having a finals series in the A-League.
Ideally, in the long term, the FFA should try to one day have it’s own venue, similar to the AFL, who will own the rights to Etihad stadium by 2025. The FFA, along with the NRL and the ARU should try to work together by putting plans in place for a stadium like AAMI Park in Melbourne to expand to a much bigger venue towards a capacity of 40,000.
That would allow major events to be held there, such as Socceroos matches, the A-League GF, State of Origin, Wallabies tests and so on.
A grand final on a Sunday 6pm in late April after ANZAC Day is a perfect time. Then again having it on ANZAC Day does have it’s benefits as I discussed before.
To paraphrase the headline: Should the A-League grand final be in the same week as ANZAC Day?
Roarers, what do you think?
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