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Well, only a few years ago who would have thought that Melbourne Victory would be playing football in a proper football stadium? To many this was just a dream. On Saturday night, that dream became reality.
Melbourne Victory played it’s first ever Hyundai A-League match at the newly built AAMI Park on Saturday, in front of great crowd of 20,358. It was a special occasion, and walking to the stadium you could feel the excitement from the supporters.
The result of the game was not anyone would of wanted or even expected, going down 2-0 to Perth Glory, but nonetheless it was an enjoyable experience for all who attended.
The atmosphere from the fans throughout the game was brilliant. The North and South ends of the ground were in full-voice for the entire game, and with the bubble roof providing much better acoustics than previously at Etihad Stadium. The North, East, South, West chant was fantastic, which got the entire stadium involved in the chanting.
But only a few years ago, none of this existed.
In the first A-League season, Victory played its home games at Olympic Park. It was not such a bad stadium to watch football, but you were just not close to the action with the running track that surrounds the pitch.
At the beginning of the second A-League season, Victory moved from Olympic Park to the Telstra Dome. It turned out to be an immediate success with 39,730 turning up to the first game, to watch Melbourne defeat Sydney FC 3-2. That attendance was double the capacity of Olympic Park, and the biggest the A-League had seen to date.
The attendances got even bigger. 50,333 showed up later in the season to again watch Sydney FC, this time the match ending in a 0-0 draw. It was incredible. Melbourne, in fact, Australia had never seen an attendance that big for a home-and-away season game ever.
Melbourne went on to win the Grand Final at the end of that season, thrashing Adelaide United 6-0 at the Telstra Dome in front of 55,436.
Even with it’s retractable roof and 56,000 capacity, it had its negatives, and that was the Telstra Dome was built for Aussie Rules. The pitch was in the shape of an oval, so you were very far away from the action. This wrecked everything.
I have been to many stadiums around Australia, and in South America, and being in a proper football stadium just does not compare.
Now, finally, Victory have this. A proper football stadium, A place where spectators are right next to the action. A place we can make into a fortress. A place where other A-League clubs will fear to come to. A place called home.
We no longer have to watch football that’s in the middle of an oval, or over a running track. We can feel the tackles, hear the players, the action is right there in front of us. We now have a proper football stadium, and boy do we love it.
Melbourne Victory’s history may be short, but it’s already full of so many achievements, and moving to AAMI Park is the just the beginning of a new chapter. The Victory are finally home.
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