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Here’s hoping the fine citizens of Newcastle enjoy their rare Friday night out, having had to wait until Round 11 to play a home game under lights this season.
It’s a shame the Jets are considered little more than an afterthought these days, since the Novocastrians are one of just six clubs to have won the A-League, having lifted the coveted ‘toilet seat’ back in season three.
They’re also the club that brought Socceroos greats Ned Zelic and Paul Okon back home, as well as providing two Johnny Warren Medal winners in Nick Carle and Joel Griffiths during their glory years.
The Jets are a club with some serious pedigree, so why are they consigned to play seven home games on a Sunday afternoon this season?
The answer, like so much these days, seemingly comes down to metrics.
Failure to pack the punters in means the Jets and their long-suffering supporters are condemned to the graveyard slot on Sunday afternoons.
Their only other Friday night ‘home’ game is ironically in Coffs Harbour, and the fact that Tim Cahill and his Melbourne City side are the visitors has Newcastle-based fans tearing their hair out.
I won’t see the Newcastle – Adelaide game tonight because I’ll be at the Gabba with my good mate Grant Rieper watching the cricket.
We’re not exactly hardcore cricket lovers, but the lure of $20 Twilight tickets – or so they were advertised – will be enough for us to clock off early and head down for a couple of sessions.
The tickets, it should be said, weren’t quite $20. They were $20.50, plus the obligatory Ticketmaster booking fee, which meant in reality they were closer to $24 each.
Nor were they abundantly available, with the seats – not surprisingly – situated in the part of the ground that makes you automatically search for somewhere better.
But the point is that after a long period of burying their heads in the sand and pretending that the game was in rude health despite the fact that no one actually attended Test matches, Cricket Australia has finally acknowledged that high ticket prices might be one of the things keeping spectators away.
With the penny having belatedly dropped – it’s a good thing these executives are on the big bucks! – the result for the first day’s play was the highest ever non-Ashes attendance at the Gabba, with more than 26,000 fans shuffling through the turnstiles.
And it got me wondering – are we satisfied with the price of A-League tickets?
It’s a sensitive issue, but it’s one I had already been thinking about after seeing just how many kids piled through the gates at Suncorp Stadium for ‘Kids Go Free’ day last Sunday.
Will any of those children be back at an A-League game when their parents have to pay for the tickets? I certainly hope so.
But what does it say about our average ticket prices when so many parents are hanging out for the chance to take their kids to a game for free?
The Melbourne derby is the hottest ticket in town, but is $76.50 for a single adult ticket in the Gold section at AAMI Park too expensive?
Or do most A-League fans simply buy season tickets and not have to worry about match day prices anyway?
When you add on the cost of a Foxtel subscription, not to mention the astronomical fees many parents pay for their kids to play the game, being a football fan in this country is an expensive proposition.
The Melbourne derby should sell out by dint of its reputation alone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one or two empty seats given the cost of admission.
So are we happy with ticket prices? Or should we just accept a trend we’re seeing much more of in Europe – empty seats at some of our biggest fixtures?