PFA been doing great work (e.g. on sports washing), and they get criticism, but also plenty of praise, which they deserve for the principled and tactful way in which they respond to the world around them.
2 Likes
Just got an email from CommBank stadium.
Subway Socceroos v Lebanon in
FIFA World Cup 2026™ Qualifier
Subway Socceroos v Lebanon
Thursday, March 21, 2023
CommBank Stadium, Parramatta
Kick-off: 8:00 pm AEDT
Tickets: Start from $20 Child, $25 Concession, $30 Adult, $80 Family
General Public On-Sale: Friday, December 8, 2023, at 3:00 pm AEDT.
Pre-sale ticket access, available from 3:00 pm today.
1 Like
They didn’t fancy taking it to ANZ? Wouldn’t surprise me if a fairly big Lebanese contingent are keen to go to this.
Maybe it at least generates some FOMO, though, which is a welcome change.
SFS would have been perfect for this game.
Yep
Much better to watch a full Parra game than a probably not full Homebush I guess.
NRL have a game there the following day, so playing there isn’t an option.
My mum and I turning up full of Nowruz cheer
Hang on, so it’s fine for A-League teams to play a day after a league or union team have played a game, with the turf covered in advertising paint and rugby field markings, but an NRL team - sorry - Nick Politis can’t have the chookies playing after a football game.
I can only assume that is the reason they didn’t get Allianz for this game. If they just didn’t ask for it at all, I think that’s a mistake.
We’ve played them at Homebush 5-7 years ago and it really wasn’t anywhere near full. Combank makes sense.
It’s never a mistake to avoid Homebush for any game that isn’t a guaranteed sell out.
3 Likes
Considering the absolute soulless pit that ANZ is, I’d say it’s the perfect choice. They really can’t win though, the play at ANZ people get angry they don’t play at a proper football stadium, they play in a proper football stadium, people question why they didn’t try to maximise ticket sales in a soulless pit of death.
It’s also not a do-or-die game which will more than likely get a lot less interest and like it’s been said before, creating a perceived scarcity of tickets is generally a good way to get a lot more people to come to the next game. Sell out an Commbank Stadium sounds so much better than half the capacity filled at ANZ
Fixed that for you
Eh, i think that for important-enough games the extra 40k in attendance adds enough to the magnitude of the occasion enough to warrant the trade offs.
No guarantee on the 40k though. Had a really quick look over the past 2 years of Australian football home games and there’s only been a single game (against Japan) that had 41k. The rest have been averaging (give or take) 20-25k
I mean important-enough like Uruguay, Asian Cup final, Matildas WWC. Normal WCQ should always be elsewhere.
As long as it’s not in Melbourne… They really should ban all games from Victoria until their government sorts out the complete bullshit behaviour from the AFL.
3 Likes
Thanks for that stat. That is something that’s really crept up on me, to be honest. The drop-off in crowds has happened gradually enough over the last 10-15 years that its not really been that noticeable. It’s certainly not going to be helped now there’s more qualifying spots for Asia, and the Socceroos have a very good chance of qualifying at least second in the later groups, no matter the draw.
I mean, to be fair, FIFA itself has a requirement that there has to be at least a full day free at a stadium before any qualifying game. That’s why that one Victory away game was moved to the 25th to accommodate a 27th of Jan qualifier. Whether the AL has such a requirement or not is not really the NRL’s problem.