The A-League's Docklands dilemma

Aren't we jumping the gun a tad saying Victory are hosting a grand final?

my mate james Yes AFL matches are scheduled across both WEEKENDS. It wasn't specifically for the Sunday - it was for the weekend of that date. How many Sunday arvo A-League Grand Finals have there been?? The AFL left Etihad free on the Friday night of the weekend of the 10th of May. North Melb plays a home game in Hobart so there are only 4 Melbourne home games that week. The next week there are again 5 Melbourne home games and Etihad is used all 3 days (Fri-Sun). The MCG used twice each week. The AFL can't be held responsible for the floating fixture of the A-League Grand Final. In reality this only becomes an issue if the Victory wins the right to host. It's a long way off. Unlike cricket and their floating Sheffield Shield final - soccer does NOT have any contractual right to first usage of most of the venues in question. For somewhere like AAMI Park - it's pretty well no concern - there's Storm/Rebels and for an A-League GF there'd be no real issue in having a slot over any particular weekend. However - with the A-League having expanded it's season - they've found that running into May in Melbourne gives them headaches that they perhaps hadn't foreseen (were Ben Buckley still there then perhaps so - but - surely D.Gallop in his time at the NRL understood the nature of Etihad and the AFL's rights there). Now the FFA knows. They'll be better prepared next time.

It's a lot closer than Sydney.

Strongly doubt that the Grand Final would be played down at Kardinia Park. It would be too far for the Victory/City supporters to travel.

Kardinia Park is still free on 17 May. If MV or MC qualify to host the GF, the easy option is to have the GF here. The harder but perhaps more logical option would be for the FFA to approach the Western Bulldogs and offer to underwrite the cost of moving their game to Geelong including covering stadium rent - given that the Dogs are likely to lose money on a game involving Freo at Docklands, they may be up for this but they'd have to placate their fan base and get the green light from Gil, neither of which are given. An A-League GF in Geelong would provide a unique opportunity to promote the game in new territory while boosting an economy reeling from closures. It's fairly easy to get there from Melbourne and interstate fans would have mo dramas travelling there.

Have to agree here - Melbourne is the sporting capital of Australia but way, way, WAY behind London and I can think of half-a-dozen cities that would argue that title with London, but Melbourne isn't one of them ...

AFL matches were scheduled at Etihad for both the 10th and 17th May. Picking up the phone would have been in vain. Pro-AFL posters routinely bring up the average crowd statistics but there's no denying that A-League Grand Finals have been a hit with the fans, including this year's sellout at Suncorp. The AFL is aware of this and has acted in the interests of preventing growth of a rival code. Fair enough, as long as they don't expect any favours in Western Sydney, where right now red and black pride must be at an all-time high.

Someone at FFA should be sacked becaue if there is a change surely you would notify the main tenant that is organising its draw that it has changed and what porting organisation 2 weeks b4 it starts its year not having a date for the GF in place

Perry Bridge, poor old AFL getting "unhelpful Headlines", gee Football and its fans dont know naything about that!

Ahmed - Great question. There was an article 2 years ago about the Canadian company that does the NFL, EPL, Super Rugby etc as well as the AFL. They say in a purely mathematical sense the AFL fixture is the hardest (by far). They start work on it around August each year. I gather from what AFL fixture guy Simon Lethlean indicated is he's at work on it in July. I gather he needs to finalise the 'parameters/rules' based on wishlists, requirements and preferences that need to be fed into the system. By October the fixture is finalised by virtue of the timeslots. What is interesting is this from the FFA's website - with a really unhelpful headline "FFA slams AFL over GF venue claims". If you read the article the FFA doesn't actually slam the AFL and what they say effectively supports the AFL. http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/article/ffa-slams-afl-over-gf-venue-claims/1p8kcva0dwihq1dq0fzoyds1ep That's because the FFA says they don't communicate with other codes - but - rather - they communicate with the venues. The AFL position is that they were in communication with Etihad and via Etihad and Melb Victory they were only communicated the weekend of May 10 in the first instance. So - what's the big deal? So - any public announcement by the FFA in mid/late September is totally irrelevant (esp as it's in the middle of AFL finals, Lethlean is probably hard at work with the Canadians on fixture permutations, and the Essendon ASADA saga was still going nowhere).

The VFL/AFL probably wouldn't have sold Waverley had they not been blocked by successive Vic state govts determined to keep footy and the finals (GF in particular) at the MCG. In the early 80s the VFL announced it was selling VFL Park memberships on the basis of transferring the Grand Final there from I think 1982. The plan was to complete an additional stage of development - as the original plans for the oval had the stadium able to hold about 150,000 seated and 166,000 all up. The Sir Kenneth Luke stand was pretty well what would have ringed it. But - the (and it pains me to say it) Labor John Cain (jnr) govt refused planning approval. This was continued by other govts and along with no govt keeping the original promises of setting up a PT link the venue through the 1990s was getting old and - I gather come the time of the Victoria Harbour (Docklands) Stadium discussions - the maintenance bill for VFL Park was around $30 million (thereabouts .... 'ball park'!). The AFL had by the 90s been drawn into the MCG - with the Great Southern Stand development that effectively AFL paid for. In the pre billion dollar TV rights days - the AFL couldn't really sustain Waverley anymore. The AFL probably had no real choice. The ground still exists out there as Hawthorns training venue - the Sir Kenneth Luke stand is still there - and the mural. But the surrounding land/car parking got sold off. What would be nice but won't happen is if the Vic State Govt helped the AFL buy out Etihad. It'd be some small consolation after all the gouging of the VFL/AFL over the years by Vic Govts. The insult of AAMI Park being a 100% Govt funded stadium for the outsider sports (and privately even corporately owned 'teams' as it was at the time). The AFL is self sustainable sport up against Govt propped up opposition which really should annoy AFL fans more than it does (and no doubt were we in Sydney the DT and NRL fan base would be rioting in the streets).

Only the most insular of Victorians genuinely believe Melbourne is anywhere close to being "sport capital of the world". London has everything on Melbourne. It hosts more major events and professional sports teams than anywhere else in the world, let alone having more sporting infrastructure than it knows what to do with. Melbourne has F1, a tennis open and a domestic final in a game that is of interest to half the country.

Im beginning to think that this was possibly the last straw for the AFL in regards to the FFA maneuvering. It is very obvious that the FFA has been posturing over various issues in order to get the AFL to back down, or to turn the tide of public opinion against the AFL and therefore football. From all the information that we currently have available the AFL are clearly in the right. Does anyone know anything about the dates as to when all the football fixtures have to be finalised from the AFL to the stadiums?

If a club actually did represent an area (rather than a sport) they would have no qualms about helping other sports out. We must not forget that fundamentally all the clubs in one region (be it Eastern Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane, or New York) are all aiming to bring glory to that community. Any community based club should be willing to help the rest of the community in any possible way.

Which places are you referring to as having a greater sporting pedigree than Melbourne? London has nothing on Melbourne.

I've had some polite email exchanges with a senior Fairfax soccer journo that ended with this summary of the Lowy bid "...an old man's vanity project which was never likely to get up. Few compelling reasons to put WC on in Australia " We also know the FFA at the time had no excuse of ignorance of the AFL contractual hold over venues in Melb (given Ben Buckley was A-League boss) - so, the FFA didn't pursue what they did by accident. And if that statement by Grocon - and they apparently said it on radio SEN as well during construction - someone had posted on Austadiums forum " I did hear on Melbourne radio yesterday that Grocon were saying the ground could indeed expand to over 40,000, which satisfies FIFA regulations... " But - perhaps whatever cost was going to be prohibitive - but, given there was also talk of reconfiguring the MCG or to put a roof over Homebush - then, one wonders where the 'too expensive' line was?? Was it too expensive to add 9000 seats to get to 40K? Or to go to 45 or 50K? And again - why wouldn't they have fought hard for dedicated rectangular legacy. (btw - with the email exchange using as my basis my collection of articles/coverage from the time the unnamed Fairfax journo commented : "all good points, and very interesting. do you work with or close to the AFL? I don't ask that disparagingly, just because you seem to be quite well briefed on it all." Not saying I'm right or wrong about all of it but I do have a pretty good handle on it compared to most.)

if that the case Perry, then it a major F up by FFA, and just plain dumb ...Docklands Stadium is always been AFL Stadium

Thanks perry bridge for the outline - it was a bit too difficult for Punter who only can discuss simple therories like AFL bad because the fairfax papers say so (Lowy money). Cockerill who used to cover and Bag AFL in the herald in the late 90s took a VR from the herald but is back now with his anti-AFL Saturdays SMH. He bizarrely memorably bagged the Townsville paper for the Fury failing yet somehow neglected that the News Ltd paper would hardly undermine a News Ltd pay TV offering...

Yes Can't believe Villa didn't come earlier to catch the AFL GF & stay for the boxing day test!!!! Does he know what he is missing out on. Thankfully he leaves after the Melbourne cup.

Yawn & double yawn, football thread, not your sports thread.