The AFL will look for a midweek sellout of the Greater Western Sydney-Western Bulldogs preliminary final after disappointing sales to Giants members were balanced by a strong pick-up from the Melbourne club’s fans.
Dogs members snapped up 8100 seats at Spotless Stadium during the exclusive member sale period on Monday, compared to a disappointing 6200 purchased by Giants members.
The AFL said the remaining 4600 unsold member tickets then went into general admission availability for the 24,000-capacity venue.
At close of business on Monday the AFL said only another 1800 GA tickets were available for sale.
The sales on Monday and subsequent availability of more general admission tickets allay fears that scores of Bulldogs fans would miss out on the opportunity to see their side attempt to book a first grand-final berth since 1961.
The venue has been a contentious point, with the AFL defending its decision to schedule the match at the Giants’ home ground on Saturday rather than the much larger ANZ Stadium.
It was a happy ending for the league but the day did not start as smoothly, as slow Ticketmaster and Ticketek websites aggravated fans and “legalised scalping” dramatically inflated prices.
Category 1 seats initially priced at $179 were posted for re-sale on Ticketmaster at up to $401.
The AFL Fans’ Association called on the league to address the issue.
“This is taking advantage of desperate fans,” president Gerry Eeman said.
“It is legalised scalping which facilitates blatant profiteering.
“The AFL will need to do something about this in the off-season.”
Giants captain Callan Ward still believed the AFL had made the correct decision in granting his team the right to host at Spotless Stadium.
“I think it is (the right call),” Ward said.
“All our boys love playing at Spotless.
“When the fans get out there it’s a really good feeling.
“It’s a great ground to watch the game at, I think it was voted No.1 in Australia.”
The AFL said 21,100 public tickets were still available Friday night’s other preliminary final between Geelong and Sydney at the MCG.
harry houdini
Roar Rookie
Footscray fans certainly have wavered, the club has nearly gone under several times, held together by a small band of tin rattlers. A club with no success will whither on the vine, traditional Melbourne clubs are no more special than any other clubs in this regard.
Fuss2pointzero
Guest
josh we know you're actually from tassie so why do you continuously claim to speak for the whole of western Sydney. Be true to your rural tassie roots. Why have you appropriated this persona that you're an expert on something you're not. By the powers vested within me as fuss 2.0 from the soccer tab you revere my words!
Casper
Guest
It's awesome for the people of Greater Western Sydney that for once their area will be in the national spotlight for a good reason. The inclusion of the Giants has been fantastic for the AFL, but even better for the locals.
harry houdini
Roar Rookie
At the barest minimum there will be 6,200 GWS fans there - much better than last year and 6,200 better than 5 years ago. Let us see membership and attendance figures next year when Sydneysiders who are unaccustomed to buying memberships may consider it.
harry houdini
Roar Rookie
The reality of sport in Sydney seems to suggest RL is in a bit of trouble, particularly crowd support.
rasty
Guest
Yep you never comment on the AFL tab. Same as all of your mates that claim they also don't. ☺. Why the hatred for Australia's only indigenous code?
Republican
Guest
.......not exclusive to Sydney. This is a cultural phenomena of the day, i.e. consumers love a winner while supporters a'la the long suffering sort who bleed in this case red blue and white, having a solitary flag to their name since joining the VFL, have always been there for the long haul, marron. I know a smidgeon about this myself, having inherited the legacy that is St Kilda, while my Foot es cray cousins who number many, like us, have never wavered in their generational support, for the love of their proud but often unheralded club, who's existence has to mean more than simply making up and indeed crunching the numbers. These viruses seem to have endured in the case of my doggies family - perhaps, while GWS certainly cannot and should not be mentioned in the same breath as the true westies, historically speaking. The plastic westies will certainly need to sustain the winners tag in todays fickle market, especially as their identity is so contrived and their demographic so culturally alien but I suppose in todays world of trickle down economics, everything and anything is possible so in that context, the AFL together with multinationals in crime, Ch7, will ensure a long term profitable commercial outcome - to be sure.
marron
Guest
Just wait till they start winning. Then we'll see all of western Sydney jump on the bandwagon. Sydney loves a winner!
Sydneysider
Guest
"compared to a disappointing 6,200 purchased by Giants members." Wow.....
DB
Guest
How about western (small w) Sydney?
Josh
Guest
You're funny, completely out of touch with the reality of sport in Sydney but still funny.
Josh
Guest
You mean inner west not Western Sydney.
On the other hand
Guest
Will be interesting to see if the AFL outdraws the NRL even with a smaller capacity stadium. NRL seems to be in a lot of trouble. Maybe they could offer free beer to get people to attend.
Dave
Guest
You pay more for a superior product. Capitalism 101.
clipper
Guest
AFL finals tickets are often more than double the price, think they're too much in Sydney, who aren't used to paying that much, although I guess they don't want to have different prices for different states
Cat
Roar Guru
Or perhaps a lot didn't bother because they thought it would be too hard to get 'good' tickets.
Mitcher
Guest
Absolutely on point satire about those types who insist on finding any ol reason (however ridiculous) to complain about ticketing. Bravo sir!
BeMoreBulldog
Guest
My Cowboys mate living in Sydney purchased his for $25.
Cat
Roar Guru
How much do NRL prelim seats start at?
DB
Guest
Perhaps a lot Western Sydneysiders are used to paying low NRL prices for prelim finals.