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Wembley, home of the FA Cup. The Olympiastadion in Berlin, home of the DFB-Pokal. The Stade de France, home of the Coup de France.
All of these established cup competitions have one thing in common – the final is played at a permanent venue.
The venue is part of the very fabric of these competitions. As the song goes, “Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be, we’re going to Wembley, que sera, sera”.
Can these same traditions apply to the Australian FFA Cup? Why not have a permanent home for the cup Final, a venue determined in advance that will become synonymous with the competition itself? If so where could it be?
Sydney? No. There have been complaints already about football being too Sydney-centric. In fact the same arguments that led to the choice of the national capital can be applied to the choice of a permanent FFA Cup final. That’s right, Canberra.
So what is the official line? According to the FFA website, “the Cup Final will be determined in the interest of FFA, competing clubs, their members and supporters”.
In other words, there is no hard and fast rule. For all intents and purposes, the A-League grand final is played at the home ground of the highest placed finalist and rightly so. But knockout cups are different. Cup finals around the world are played at a neutral and traditional venue.
According to FFA, “It is the intention for the Westfield FFA Cup final for 2015 onwards to be on a weekend, to emphasise the importance of the Westfield FFA Cup final within Australia’s football calendar and consistent with national knockout competitions in other countries”.
Interesting that although there has been talk of an Australia Day final, the official line states that it would be on a weekend. And note the little nod to tradition “consistent with national knockout competitions in other countries”.
So could a weekend January FFA cup final in Canberra work? A weekend gives more time for people to travel from interstate, whereas Australia Day could be mid-week. The big question is, would anybody turn up to watch?
Take the case of finalists who are not well supported, say Perth versus South Springvale. It is hard to imagine many of their supporters making the trip to Canberra, but on the other hand would this final draw a full house in Perth or AAMI park? I am sure a final involving Sydney or Melbourne teams would bring in some of those clubs’ supporters.
So would 15,000 Canberrans turn out to watch neutral teams play? Obviously, this is a big unknown. In the AFL, Greater Western Sydney average about 9000 at Manuka despite the fact that they are not 100 per cent a Canberra team and have yet to set the competition on fire.
In good years the Canberra Raiders get reasonable support, and although down a bit this year the ACT Brumbies would sell out a Super Rugby final. So there is potential and remember we are talking about a one-off national cup final in summer.
Wouldn’t the FFA be missing out on potential gate receipts by not playing at a bigger venue? Let’s look at some possible match-ups. A Melbourne derby, or in fact any Melbourne final, still has the 27,000 limitation of AAMI Park, given that Etihad is being used for BBL in January.
Brisbane versus one of the Sydney teams at Suncorp? Would that get much more than 30,000? In my opinion a Sydney derby final in January would be unlikely to sell out ANZ and those empty seats might look worse at Homebush than they would in Canberra.
On a lighter note it could bring back into the fold one of Australian football’s prodigal sons. Current MP and ex-Gold Coast owner Clive Palmer could be invited to toss the coin and be designated as the honorary shirt sponsor. I could imagine one team having a “Vote for the Carbon Tax” and the other with “Vote against the carbon tax” and Clive taking his position based on the outcome of the match.
It is early days in the development of the FFA Cup and I am sure some readers may regard my idea as being too experimental, risky or just the ravings of a madman. I won’t begrudge the madman label but when you look at it, the FFA Cup is an experimental competition. The formative years should be precisely the time for trying out a few ideas.
The proposed new glass roofed rectangular stadium to be built in Civic by 2020 has a planned capacity of 30,000 with a possible contingency for an extra 15,000 temporary seats for big events. Imagine 45,000 football fans rocking the stadium by the lake. Now that begins to sound very exciting.
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