Next week reigning champions Sydney FC take on runner up Melbourne Victory. Both sides will be desperate for a decent performance, Sydney is still searching for their first win and Victory will be looking to make up for their disappointing derby performance.
This match has all the ingredients for another Melbourne versus Sydney epic contest except one, location.
This Saturday I expect 25,000 at the Sydney game. Atmosphere at Etihad will be okay; Victory fans are the most passionate in the league.
If the game was played at AAMI the place would be electric. Close to full capacity creates such a great atmosphere for everyone involved, especially those ‘A-League virgins’. A half-full Etihad does not portray the right image for football in this country; empty seats everywhere and fans are too far away from the action.
For first-time A-League fans Etihad leaves you with the feeling of “that was alright, but what else can I do next weekend”, whereas AAMI connects with fans, leaving them asking the question “when is the next match?” If John Smith is on the couch watching the game live on Foxtel, and sees this image on the television, the only reason he will leave the couch is to grab another beer, if he sees an almost full stadium, chanting and fans close to the action next week he may just be at the game itself.
After the Melbourne derby both Victory and Heart matches will attract new fans to attend, which is fantastic for the growth of the game. The AFL drawn grand final may have provided the FFA with a huge advantage, after biting the bullet last week and moving one of the most anticipated games of the season. Dumb luck of an international weekend may have played its part but at the end of the day football received widespread media coverage.
One catastrophic fixturing issue is that over the four weekends there is only ony game at AAMI, and three at Etihad, meaning any momentum gained from the derby will be lost by the uninspiring atmosphere of Etihad. This may sound like a witch-hunt against Ian Collins and Etihad, but the realities are AAMI is a purpose built stadium for football, as Etihad is for Australian Rules. I know that contracts have been signed and Victory are to play key matches at the venue, but If the FFA are serious about growing the game in key markets AAMI should be the only A-League venue in Melbourne.
Over the next month Victory have home games against Sydney, Adelaide and Gold Coast. This is a huge month for a team who are not in great form. Ernie Merrick’s men would greatly benefit from the cauldron like environment of AAMI Park.
The time is now for the FFA to buy the Victory out of their Etihad contract. The World Cup bid and A-League would greatly benefit from the two Melbourne teams playing at the one stadium.
Let’s hope we find a solution to this problem, and all Melbourne derbies are played at the new home of football – AAMI Park.
victoryblog
Guest
"No more games at Etihad = disaster." hahaha. Its quite the opposite actually.
Jack
Guest
Victory needs Etihad stadium and the venue attracts a lot of afl fans, AAMI Park doesnt, if Saturdays match was played down olympic park way the crowd would have barely been 13,000, you will always get a few thousand extra people to games at etihad, for a game against sydney you are guaranteed an extra few thousand afl medallion club members alone on top of bandwagoners. No more games at Etihad = diaster.
Interesting
Guest
Apparently Etihad Stadium quotes over $50,000 to pull the seats in for 'soccer mode' which would make the venue much better for fans. Naturally Victory baulked at the cost, also something to do with you get less advertising signs around the ground in 'soccer mode'. I think sooner rather than later a divorce will occur between the two parties.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
victoryblog It's funny you should ask that question because I was absolutely livid when I discovered Heart was playing all 15 games at AAMI Park, but MVFC was persisting with 5 matches at Etihad. I was that disgusted with MVFC's decision that I immediately called the Heart office and asked them to send me out a Membership package when it became available! However, after a couple of days, I calmed down and realised I could never support another team, even thought my commitment to MVFC was only 4 years old. Neverthelss, several football mates, who had never taken to MVFC, have jumped on the Heart and I am delighted they are, once again, actively involved with the football family.
victoryblog
Roar Rookie
So does that mean you won't be supporting your team for the games at Etihad? Pretty poor excuse. As much as I hate Etihad it won't stop me from going to watch my team play. Just be thankful you still have a team to watch.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
FKCZ- Those were 2 of the points I brought up at the end of the survey, and I also added "I never want to go to Etihad stadium ever again"! I hope they've got the message :-)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I stopped renewing my Hawthorn AFL club memebership at the start of the 2002 season. 8 years later, and I am still getting renewal packages sent out to me and raffle tickets for me to sell. I guess some within AFL circles still don't understand that "NO means NO"!
Art Sapphire
Guest
That 5 game Etihad GA membership is only available to interstate and rural members. You have to live more than 100k away to qualify. It's not the best of both worlds and if you ask most Victory fans you will find that having purely reserved seating membership at AAMI is a joke. Having to play 5 games at Etihad is icing on the joke.
Gibbo
Guest
hi kurt, how are you? i know its hard to comprehend, but not all football discussions are about afl. warm regards
Mister Football
Guest
The Heart will offer that flexibility because beggars can't be choosers! Victory doesn't have such concerns.
Mister Football
Guest
On this subject, I actually got a call from the Victory admin a few weeks back about my lapsed membership (which, I imagine, is common practice these days in football clubs). And last week I got yet another reminder in the maill, but this one was offering 5 game memberships, all General Admission, for the five games at Etihad (also a familiy ticket). So just to reinforce what people are saying, it's the best of both worlds to be able to sell out the bubble dome, with all-seated memberships, and to be able to still offer general admission at Etihad, where the hope will be that the Victory can attract 30k crowds. It's not such a bad idea.
FKCZ
Guest
Spot on! If you're a member you would have been asked to do a online survey about your experiences at AAMI Park so hope you mentioned all the above in the survey.
FKCZ
Guest
Yeah but how many members do Adelaide have? Enough to fill the whole of Hindmarsh? MV has over 18,000 members which is almost 2/3rds of AAMI Park's capacity. Factor in the mandatory away supporters bay and corporates sees capactity further reduced. Having said all that the stands behind both sets of goals should have been made GA for members and the general public.
Timmo
Guest
thank you Phil this is why Adelaide United has a solid support base win, lose or draw. We have two membership opitons. Gold Member for reserved western stand. The Northern, Eastern and Southern stands are all general admission so you could be a Red member and if you have mates and family who can't get to all the games but want to sit with you they can because its first in first serve. If All A-League clubs have one stand reserved seating an maybe one end and the other 3 ends general admission you might see more die hard fans invite more casuals along to the games. Isn't this what we want?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
victoryblog Totally agree that: 1. There needs to be a General Admission section for members to sit together with casual spectators - I'm pretty sure the Heart's Gen Admin Membership allows such flexibility; just as MVFC's Gen Admin Membership in previous years allowed flexibility. 2. We shouldn't be playing ACL matches at Etihad. If anything, stadium management should want us to play elsewhere since one of the ACL's major sponsors is Emirates and the AFC insist that every "Etihad" sign in the stadium has to be physically obscured on match days. Even the tickets for the games are not allowed to refer to "Etihad Stadium" - the power of the Football Confederations is unbelievable.
victoryblog
Roar Rookie
Oh yeah and by the way, the FFA would never pay a cent to get MV out of a stadium contract. The greedy lot are still so reluctant to even bail out A-League clubs and save them from extinction.
victoryblog
Roar Rookie
Personally I don't see why MV signed such a long contract when they knew AAMI Park was going to be built and its estimated completion. Yes, they wanted to make sure these bigger matches were open to more fans but in doing that they've sacrificed any decent atmosphere. Yes at the time our crowds were a lot bigger but there was no guarantee that that was going to last and it didn't. In my opinion MV have screwed themselves over big time. Okay, they might make a few extra bucks here and there but playing at Etihad means there is more pressure to get a big crowd to break even - they better be advertising these games like mad! Isn't it better to sell out AAMI Park and turn a few people away rather than get just over 30k Etihad plus a crap pitch and crap atmosphere? And can I ask why Asian Champions League matches were part of the deal? The whole point of the contract was that we'd be attracting more people meaning not having to turn fans away and making more money from ticket sales? Surely that part would be scrapped from the deal after last season? And about these so called "blockbuster" matches. Why the hell are we playing Gold Coast at Etihad? Sure we got big crowds against Sydney & Adelaide but why did they think the same would happen for United? Because they have Culina? Cause he's really going to attract another 10k or so.... As a fan I hate the matchday experience at Etihad. Sure it helped us gain a better following and was important for our early growth and success but those days are over. Apart from the Grand Final we shouldn't be playing any other games there. The Club also stuffed up at AAMI Park though. I do agree that they need a general admission section. AAMI Park is the perfect size for a club like Victory. I'd see it as a positive for football if it was the hottest ticket in town and sold out every week. We should feel lucky that we have a brilliant stadium like AAMI Park to play at. Other clubs around the world that play at a higher level don't play at a venue as good as this, let alone have the luxury of moving bigger fixtures to a larger stadium. Unfortunately though we can't do anything about it now and we'll have to just put up with it. I'll be at those Etihad games of course but I'm not looking forward to sitting 50 meters away from the pitch. At the very least we can just hope that the seats will be brought out for these games (next season etc anyway as it won't be happening this season).
gp
Guest
Agree, not only is grass probably better for soccer at aami, but a rectangular stadium makes soccer twice as good. I love AFL but the problem with the ground being so big is that you are rarely close to the action. Soccer has this and should play at aami. As many said as it was being built, they should have made it slightly bigger though.
Phil H
Guest
Agree with this. I love the new stadium but the members-only reserved seating model is a turn off for the many members who want to bring friends or family along in an ad-hoc manner. And let's be clear - this is not an AFL-conspiracy. As stated above, MV contracted to Etihad when it saw the new stadium as not meeting its needs for the so-called blockbusters. And the crowds at the time supported this view. I would also think that MV sees some benefit in the longer term having more than one stadium competing for its business.
Mice
Guest
Some pluses for Etihad Stadium. Easy to get to, you can sit with your mates, you can sit where you like, within reason and admission is cheeper. I bet when Melbourne Victory next play Heart at Etihad that the attendance will be well over 30,000 for these exact reasons.