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Brisbane Roar can go a long way to clinching the Premiers Plate tonight in the blockbuster first versus second match against Western Sydney Wanderers.
With a finals run-in which sees the Roar play six of their last nine games at home, a win at Wanderland would open up a ten-point gap on second place.
However, the Roar will have to deal with a potential issue that may well derail their premiership campaign and it has little to do with who they play, but rather what they play on.
Super Rugby starts this month and the Queensland Reds will be churning up the Lang Park surface as only rugby union can do.
The following month, the Brisbane Broncos will begin their NRL season and Brisbane Roar’s wonderful passing game will be sorely tested by a surface that will quite probably not be conducive to the style of play that has captivated many fans this season.
Of course, the Roar are not the only side that may be seeing surfaces cut up by co-tenants in the coming weeks and months.
Eight A-League clubs share the ground they play on with a rugby league or union ‘flatmate’.
It is an unavoidable consequence of playing in the top stadia around the country, with a population unable to support clubs building their own grounds for exclusive usage.
It is not the time for football to get its back up because the rugby codes are commencing their competitions.
Rather, it is time for the various clubs to work together with their co-tenants, and for the A-League to work with the NRL and the ARU, to ensure that the A-League games are played on the best surfaces possible for the remainder of the season.
The Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United are the only A-League club who do not have a permanent co-tenant.
For the other clubs, the most preferable option when ground usage starts to ramp up, is to play first, which given the cycle of competition, would mean on Friday nights.
Obviously that is not possible most of the time due to a number of factors, among them TV rights of the other codes as a well as the A-League.
It would therefore make great sense for A-League clubs to be insisting in their ground hiring arrangements that the preparation of the surface starts as soon as the Super Rugby or NRL game is over.
Without being demonstrative, A-League clubs need to exercise their rights as tenants to ensure this happens.
Football clubs are now an integral part of stadium contracts, as grounds are being used year round.
Year-long occupation brings in more revenue for stadium management, more membership, more advertising, more money through food, merchandise and ticketing sales and more sponsorship opportunities for the stadium itself.
Within two seasons, Western Sydney Wanderers have more than doubled the attendance and usage of Parramatta Stadium.
Despite their ordinary season, Sydney FC are averaging crowds as big as their co-tenant Sydney Roosters and a little under the NSW Waratahs (who have a supporter base almost as fickle as Sydney FC!).
Brisbane don’t get the kind of crowds that the Broncos and the Reds get, but they have the potential to bring the A-League Grand Final to Lang Park, something the Broncos can’t do no matter how well their season goes.
Melbourne Victory are a bigger club than the Melbourne Rebels or the Melbourne Storm, even if they seem hell-bent on alienating their most passionate fans (I know it is not all the club’s fault but as a side-issue, it has got to be sorted out).
However, it is not the other codes issue to address. They pay their ground hire fees, they get to use the ground.
There is no point getting all huffy with league and union if grounds start to become bumpy and of poor quality, because it need not happen.
AAMI Park seems to cope with the increased activity, and there is no reason save for really unfavourable weather that the other surfaces cannot be brought up to scratch.
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