Ahead of the first 2015 FFA Cup semi-final between Perth Glory and Melbourne City on Wednesday, it has been interesting to observe the game of musical chairs in deciding the venue for Hume City’s ‘home’ tie against A-League juggernaut Melbourne Victory.
The reasons for the move from Hume’s ABD Stadium were quite obvious, the small Broadmeadows-based suburban ground doesn’t have the capacity to even come close to catering for Victory’s core fan-base – which just ticked over 26,049 members at the time of writing – let alone cater for neutral event goers.
As Michael Lynch observed shortly after the draw, Hume City then naturally went about exploring their options to cash in on “the biggest game in their history”.
This exploration of options initially led to the cavernous Etihad Stadium of all places being unilaterally announced as the venue by Hume City.
The fact that the official FFA Cup website maintained the TBC or ‘to be confirmed’ abbreviation next to the ‘venue’ section of the match schedule told the story that this wasn’t a done deal.
And so it wasn’t a huge shock that the common sense option of AAMI Park was eventually the announced venue for the fixture.
Common sense in terms of size of course. The commercial return that may be gleaned from hosting the venue at AAMI Park may be another matter however, given the leasing costs for Etihad presumably represented a much better deal financially.
This episode raises some questions about what the fraternity wants from the fledgeling competition, and represents some natural teething issues that require addressing.
For example, the FFA have (justifiably in my opinion) operated an engineered draw geared to ensure a ‘grassroots’, or more likely a semi-professional team would get a home tie at the semi-final stage to ensure an element of romance.
This worked quite excellently in the inaugural version of the competition when Victorian side Bentleigh Greens managed to make a dream run and gain a home semi-final tie against Perth Glory. They sold-out their suburban ground with an attendance of 4000.
While I don’t agree with Mike Cockerill much of the time, he has written a good article outlining how the need for a change of fixture venue has eroded the romance of the fixture and defeated much of the purpose.
Considering the consequences of the tie at AAMI Park, the ticket prices are relatively expensive.
Unlike the case when Melbourne Victory hosted Adelaide United at AAMI Park, Victory members won’t be able to get a discount by applying their barcodes when purchasing tickets.
Both of these factors, when combined with the fact the match is midweek, may prove to be a substantial negative influence on the turnout. To the point where any financial windfall on its way to Hume may be significantly hampered once leasing costs are taken into account.
While more people will have the opportunity to see the tie, if the financial gain ends up being lower than a lower ticket price sellout at the rent neutral ABD system it will naturally raise questions.
In the case of this game specifically, the attendance for the tie may be saved by the fact that the match scheduled for October 28 sits perfectly in between a gap in Melbourne Victory’s home fixtures on the October 17 and November 2.
Secondly, the fact that unlike the earlier rounds the match is being played during the competitive A-League season, there is a reasonable chance the fixture will be held in higher regard than a glorified pre-season friendly and so will hold higher appeal.
Looking ahead though, there is a risk of a loss making disaster on the horizon and so a precedent needs to be set whereby the dilemma of large A-League fan-bases is resolved.
The solution lies in adopting the principle of the ‘neutral’ venue at semi-final stage for such fixtures, as is often used in the English FA Cup for example.
This is less of a problem for Western Sydney given the plethora of rectangular suburban stadiums littered around Sydney that are used to host NRL games.
Victory represents a bit more of a dilemma, however a memorandum of understanding whereby such fixtures will be moved to one of either Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne south, or Olympic Village in Melbourne’s north or even Somers Street, the home ground of Melbourne Knights, should be established.
These grounds can adequately cater for demand while at the same time they meet the minimum standards for a professional team.
While not large enough to accommodate the membership base in its entirety, they are large enough to accommodate a sizeable degree of particularly keen fans willing to snap up tickets quickly.
Indeed the sense of scarcity can be useful in bringing a sense of value to the fixture.
The negligible leasing costs involved means both ticket prices can be lower and useful trickle down profit still guaranteed. The romance of a swelled suburban grassroots venue with all the iconography that comes with it could therefore still be maintained.
MelbCro
Guest
Olympic Village is council owned as well, which is the case for most NPL clubs across the country. In the case of Hume there would never have been a chance of them playing at Somers St. Few years back they used our venue as their home ground for a season or 2. They ended up doing a runner and not paying us what was owed. So as you can imagine that rules out any potential relationship. Just to point out our ground has already been used for an FFA cup match by another club. St Albans played Perth Glory there last year. So we are open to these things, but I get very wary when dealing with the FFA
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
No disagreement here, obvously it is a private venue so Knights can't be commanded by FFA or anyone else to hold the match Same with Heidelberg regarding Olympic Village? Lakeside is Council owned I think but South get a really low lease rate? Knights or Heidelberg though in this type of scenario have the prospect of making a bit of money for themselves with either leasing costs as a direct fee or negotiating a royalty cut out of each ticket, eg if there was a crowd of 10k paying $20 each as was the case of Heidelberg, and they argued for something as low as $2 for each ticket that is still $20,000 which is a handy enough sum
MelbCro
Guest
marty seems to be a tad confused lol
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
Exactly RBBA, it's easy to call Hume greedy...One thing that can be said for sure is that the FFA cup *is* giving back to grassroots.. Financially.. And that's a good thing.. But one can't blame Hume seeing this as potentially their one big pay day...such is the demeanor of the ostracized old soccer clubs.. Their fear is that they could be proverbially shunned by the governing body for another decade... So probably and justifiably the situation and general climate breeds a 'get it while u can' attitude..
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
"If clubs cannot play on their Home grounds in front of Their home Fans, I do not see interest in the FFA Cup surviving very long. " Says the guy who obviously doesn't follow any NPL teams... I mean logic should tell you that anyone involved in any NPL club in any way shape or form, salivates at the prospect of playing MVFC., even if it's at the local park with a couple of jumpers used as goal posts. As far as the cup becoming "a joke after less than 2 years"...well, some people are just nuggets. That is all.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
This is the magic of the cup. The club Hume city gets to play Melbourne Victory in a meaningful competition. They get to choose the venue and they get the chance to make some money out of the event. If you call a small club like Hume greedy for trying to make a buck from the FFA cup then there is something seriously wrong here. A lot of these clubs are run on the smell of an oily rag and a decent profit will go a long way to helping the club, its members and more importantly its footballers. Thats magic right there.
Paul
Guest
Was also disappointing to see Palm Beach Sharks forced to move their games to Robina, a ground with an already infamous history with our code. Surely the Mallawa Complex was good enough for the South Melbourne game.
Horto Magiko
Roar Rookie
"Semi Final in Perth drew 4,000. Any park will do with that sort of interest from followers" You're a nugget. That is all.
Martyn50
Guest
Semi Final in Perth drew 4,000. Any park will do with that sort of interest from followers
RBBAnonymous
Guest
You have described something which in itself is being engineered by the FFA. The fact that the FFA wants to have this "romance" around having a semi-final at an NPL's home ground is fine, unless of course the NPL team doesn't want to. If the stadium is up to par then it should really be left up to the individual club to make that decision. In this case both Etihad and AAMI are fine venues to hold a football match. Heaven forbid if an NPL team wants to make a genuine dollar out of the FFA cup and the FFA wont allow it simply because it doesn't fall in line with some romantic notion...................Pleaaaaaaaaaaaase.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"The FFA Cup has become a joke after less than 2 years." If you don't like - don't watch. I've bought 6 tickets to the Semi-Final next week in Melbourne. Everyone I know loves the FFA Cup concept. Is it perfect? No. Nothing in life is perfect.
Tired
Guest
The FFA Cup has become a joke after less than 2 years. The idea behind having a Cup is to allow Smaller clubs the opportunity to compete against the Bigger clubs, thus reuniting football fans around the country. By removing the home ground advantage from the smaller clubs, we will never see the upsets that are historic and common in the English FA Cup. I understand the commercial benefits of moving to a larger venue, but I see this as short term greed at the expense of the future uniqueness of the competition. To allocate Semi-Finals and Finals to larger venues is fine, but do it before the start of the competition so it is fair to all, you can't have Perth Glory getting their Home advantage yet take it away from Heidleberg. In Northern NSW very few teams get a home advantage, with many of the early round games being allocated to the associations ground, removing any club receiving home advantage or any chance of income from the games. Northern suggest this is to provide the best playing surface, but an artificial turf can hardly be better than grass. If clubs cannot play on their Home grounds in front of Their home Fans, I do not see interest in the FFA Cup surviving very long. Artificial draws and artificial ground allocations equals an artificial competition. If Foxtel are going to televise the Cup, let them do it from the home clubs ground. Technology is there to do it, it just requires a bit of commitment and of course the FFA growing a set. They need to remember that without lower level clubs and their fans, there not much left to govern.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Seems like AUS is not the only country facing these issues. Do you chase the dollars, or keep with tradition? FC United is the club formed by disgruntled ManUnited fans. When BBC TV asked them to move their FA Cup tie, FC United's response was: "No. Football is not a TV game show." Full story: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/fc-united-reject-bbc-request-6667241
MelbCro
Guest
"Victory represents a bit more of a dilemma, however a memorandum of understanding whereby such fixtures will be moved to one of either Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne south, or Olympic Village in Melbourne’s north or even Somers Street, the home ground of Melbourne Knights, should be established." Melbourne Knights aren't going to be dictated to by anyone on who should use our venue which we own. If a club uses our venue it will because we made that decision and we will be the ones dictating the cost of that agreement.
MelbCro
Guest
"Hume FC home ground has a maximum capacity is 5,000 and I’d guess their average home game attendance is at very best 2,000-2,500 (they don’t publish stats). " 2500? At best they can get 100 people to your average NPL game, What a ridiculous estimate.
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Nice comment Yeah I think Hume will be fine this time which is good. Can see it being the dream for evey Vic side to draw MV and every Sydney/NSW side to draw WS Thing is I can see there being a scenario in a future year with some other team in the future where this sort of thing backfires perhaps because of scheduling or some other issue
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
From what I can tell the whole idea of the "engineered" draw is so there is a "grassroots" ground being used at Semi Final stage Eg Bentleigh Greens vs Perth If the NPL team has to move to Etihad or AAMI Park it seems to defeat the purpose Personally would have been happy to have Hume vs MV at Olympic Village for example. The leasing costs are negligible so Hume could make a fair bit of coin
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
NUFCMVFC, you have no need to worry about your comment ‘if the financial gain (at AAMI) being lower than a lower ticket price sellout at the rent neutral ABD system it will naturally raise questions.’ Hume holds only 5000 people. Assume and average ticket at $35 = $175,000. It may be nominally rent neutral but there is cost of security and associated event costs. AAMI should attract at least 10,000-12,000. Using the lower crowd figure at $35 that’s $350,000. I doubt if the rental cost would chew up the additional $175,000 that they can expect from ticket sales. Hume would have crunched their numbers. Either game will be a major financially windfall but AAMI is bound to be better. I’d also like to comment on the opening line of Mike Cockerill’s piece, ‘Everyone knows what the "magic" of the Cup really means.’ Clearly we don’t all know at all Mike because I for one disagree with the sentiments in his article. Is there more ‘magic’ in watching say Luton Town play Liverpool at Kenilworth Road in front of 10,356 in an FA Cup fixture or watching the same two teams in front of 80,000-90,000 at Wembley Stadium in the final. I’d choose the latter for my “magic” of what the cup really means. It’s slaying the giants that counts and if you can do it in a bigger venue, on a bigger stage, then all the better. So, let’s bring it closer to home and the Hume FC vs MVFC match. Hume FC home ground has a maximum capacity is 5,000 and I’d guess their average home game attendance is at very best 2,000-2,500 (they don’t publish stats). The players usually play in front of a small crowd, with very basic facilities for the players, the ground surface may be ok but it wouldn’t be AAMI standard. On Wed 28th the players get to take on the current A-League Premiers and Champions in an FFA cup semi-final. This will be the biggest game in their lives! For a rusted on Hume FC supporter it may be the biggest game they’ll ever get to watch. Their choices are: • Play at home in front of a maximum 5,000 - the regular fans probably outnumbered by MVFC fans - on an ok pitch in familiar surroundings – is there some magic in that? Maybe. • Play at Heidelburg FC’s ground on an ok pitch in front of 10,000-12,000 – there is no home game advantage – it’s the same familiar facilities for players – I’ve played here before – there will be a bigger crowd but Hume fans will definitely be outnumbered by MVFC fans - is there some magic in that? None at all for me. • Play on a perfect AAMI park - bright lights - great facilities for players – it’s all new and exciting - in front of say 10,000-13,000 people – a once in a lifetime opportunity for me as a player – is there some magic in that? Yes please! I don’t know about you, but if I was a player, or a spectator who closely follows Hume FC, I would choose the magic of a trip to AAMI over the other options without any hesitation at all.
marron
Roar Guru
I wasn't sure - just clarifying. I don't have any particular problem with having the "rigging" going on myself. Anyway - the end result there is that Hume City weren't able to choose really isn't it. They don't get their 150,000. To my mind, if the FFA want the "romance" of the semis, then they need to respect what the NPL side wants and what will be in their best interest.
nordster
Guest
Would love to see some de-engineering of many of those cups. Can see the reasoning, but they have lost the magic of true groups of death in the world cup and euro champs league for example. I like it for the dfb and ffa cups....especially giving the smaller team home advantage up until semis/final. Sport is becoming too over engineered, i think its a matter of being selectively applied. Football is better at this than most sports, given it allows for multi tier leagues that aren't engineered for competitive balance.;)