Brisbane Roar insults fans by upping sticks to the Gold Coast for the Asian Champions League

Brisbane Roar announced yesterday on Twitter that due to a long standing Foo Fighters concert at Suncorp Stadium, and an obscure AFC competition rule, Brisbane will be playing their home Asian Champions League games on the Gold Coast.

Rule 19.3, if you’re interested, states that every home game in the competition has to be played at the same venue.

A couple of months ago, I wrote an article saying that taking home games away from home was a terrible idea, for various reasons.

I also wrote about the pitch at Wembley being not suitable for an England European Championship qualifier against Slovenia, due entirely to the multipurpose nature of the stadium and the fact that an NFL match was played six days before the vital game.

This ties in with the perceived lack of quality of the Suncorp Stadium pitch that blighted games hosted by Brisbane in the Asian Cup.

These two issues have come together in a nightmare scenario for Roar fans, which will result in Brisbane not playing a single Champions League game in front of their own fans this year.

The Roar confirmed yesterday that due to the fact that Suncorp Stadium is being used for a concert the day before an AFC Champions League game date, they are moving all three of their games down to the Gold Coast at Robina Stadium.

Before I start, I don’t know how much effort behind the scenes the Roar made to get special dispensation for the unfortunate set of circumstances they found themselves in, and I know that the Roar don’t own Suncorp and have little to no say in the scheduling.

However, as we know, the AFC can be flexible when it comes to stadiums. Western Sydney Wanderers were allowed to play the home leg of their Champions League final at Parramatta Stadium, despite reports to the contrary in the build up. So had the Roar been desperate to play at Suncorp, I’d guess that they could have been able to.

Instead Brisbane are sugarcoating the decision, with managing director Sean Dobson saying that this decision is part of “a broader commitment by the Roar to work with local communities and expand its footprint and fan-base across South East Queensland”.

Despite Dobson’s assertion, I see this as an astonishing affront to the loyal supporters of the Brisbane Roar, who have likely been looking forward to some continental light to help recharge a somewhat disappointingly dreary domestic season for some time now.

The fans are being told that to see their team play in this increasingly prestigious competition, they will have to travel more than an hour south of their homes, on a weeknight.

The club have said that free buses and trains will be offered to ticket holders, but this is simply a token statement in that it is no different to any other game. The Roar play at Suncorp, which already includes free transport to and from the ground with your match ticket.

Instead of mingling in the usual bars and restaurants around Caxton Street and Paddington, fans will endure a painfully dull bus or train trip of more than an hour – and that’s if the notorious Pacific Motorway car park is flowing well – to a stadium that rarely pulls a crowd at the best of times.

And that’s if they even bother making the journey at all.

We’ve all heard the arguments for the multi-use of stadiums, and how that’s how the money is brought in. And look, I’m sure the Foo Fighters gig is going to be excellent – and at $160 for general admission, you’d sure hope it would be. And if there were complaints about the pitch when it was specifically being prepared for football during the Asian Cup, after a gig the surface will undoubtably be horrendous, so if we ignore the obviously appalling scheduling, moving the game is the only alternative.

This should have been a wonderful opportunity to build upon the success that the Asian Cup generated in the country among football fans from around the continent.

And since Western Sydney’s incredible victory in this tournament last year, the Roar should have been trying to make inroads themselves, and build upon Australian football’s recent dominance across the continent.

But why would you choose to play your home games 100 kilometres away in an area that struggled to garner support when it hosted its own club, for a competition that has struggled to gain much support in Brisbane in the past?

Why not play at Ballymore? It’s local, and certainly big enough for the attendances that are likely on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. The Roar train there and are familiar with the ground, (and they will be doing their bit for charity by giving the Queensland Rugby Union some bonus revenue).

Even the Queensland Sports and Athletic Centre at Nathan would be a better bet, and much closer for fans than the Gold Coast.

I’m worried that the Roar risk a huge backlash from their fans over this, and even by offering tickets for next to nothing – $10 for adults and $5 for children I’ve seen reported – they risk playing in an unfamiliar venue in front of a couple of stewards and vast swathes of empty, sky-blue seats.

Winning the league and qualifying for the ACL should be a reward for both the club and the fans, not a huge inconvenience. Western Sydney’s accomplishment put the club and the entire A-League on the map, in what was one of football’s greatest feel-good stories of recent years. The Roar’s attitude to the competition, and their fans by comparison, unfortunately does not compare.

Or perhaps I’m being unfair. Perhaps this is the best way to deal with an unfortunate situation and gives fans on the Gold Coast a chance to see some AFC, international football. Let me know what you think.