- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
A recent Fairfax article by Dan Silkstone clumsily raises the question of just what the AFL might be able to gain should Australia win the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
It echoes suggestions over the journey that the AFL could use the opportunity to ‘promote’ itself to the world.
And it’s an interesting concept.
In this case, Silkstone uses the example in South Africa currently of a rugby Test (last Saturday) and a recent Super 14’s finals match.
Silkstone has questionable facts, though. He speaks of “80,000 fans packed into Newlands Stadium”, where match reports have stated 46,885.
But, to the principle of the article: Silkstone suggests the AFL can learn from these examples.
I’m not sure what two games are supposed to teach either the AFL or NRL, who would be looking at mid-season interruptions, with 9 and 8 matches a week respectively (17 combined) to reschedule both during the tournament and in the four week stadium lock out leading up to the tournament.
To the key notion though is the focus upon ‘World Cup tourists’.
The reality is that the AFL, with average crowds of high 30,000’s, will struggle to have much available capacity without the MCG.
Certainly in Melbourne, had the AFL NOT have stood up for Docklands. Then any hope of allowing access to World Cup ‘tourists’ within metro Melbourne would not exist.
Certainly matches in Ballarat or Albury would not be very marketable and have zero available capacity.
We need to remember, too, that the FFA was unwilling or unable to guarantee that the AFL and NRL would NOT be excluded from host cities. It wasn’t paranoia about football that drove the AFL and NRL to dig in on this issue.
Perhaps in part, it was the desire, should this occur, to be able to play on in capital cities and potentially attract ‘World Cup tourists’.
You don’t have to be a rhodes scholar.
Had the AFL and NRL lost host city access, and retained no decent venues, then it’s pretty hard to market any sort of credibility to these ‘World Cup tourists’.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.