Sounds like this is exactly what they’re aiming for…
Maybe with some planning - particularly, with smarter scheduling where the final backs onto an international window - they could turn it into something?
Fri-Night/Sat-Morning flight into Sydney and check-in.
Saturday Night: All-Star game with Team Australia v Team International or something. Put it out at BankWest, throw together some kind of “open day” beforehand where fans of other teams can at least get their “all-star” players to sign autographs or whatever, and like a jumping castle and a futsal comp or something.
Sunday Arvo: A-League Men Grand Final at Allianz Stadium.
Monday: Some kind of sight-seeing day with included Bridge Climb/Taronga/Centrepoint/Blue Mountains/whatever.
Tuesday day: Socceroos open training session somewhere as they arrive from O/S for the international window.
In all seriousness, who, in the football world, gives a flying fuck about what people do before or after a grand final?. How many people can afford a week like that with 1-2 weeks notice? Or do you really think that football fans will book a weeks holiday around an event where their team may not even be playing? If you do, I question your sanity.
Its an absurd decision we can all agree, but i can see 3 reasons behind it.
AFL becoming increasingly hostile with booking stadiums. We saw what happened in 2015. FFA is trying to lock a venue in advance to avoid getting blocked at short notice.
FFA wants to turn the GF into an event like the FA Cup final or Superbowl where people come from around the country.
Sweet sweet $$$$$$$$ from the NSW Govt.
However anyone with a football brain and appreciates football in this country can see its a bad, bad idea. There are better ways to do this.
Booking a trip around an event where their team may not even be playing
How is that any different from what’s happening now with a moving grand final? This could allow anyone wanting to travel to pre-book or at least size up where they would stay without needing to wait to a week before the host is discovered.
My office is in The Rocks, and my lunchtime walks regularly take me past queues of thousands of people who’ve decided that their best way to spend a week is stuck on a boat going nowhere interesting with thousands of other bogans.
If that can find a market then I’m not going to say that this can’t.
It’s not any different to what happens now, except they seem to think that having a bunch of bullshit happening around the final will get people to do exactly that. They present it as a fan friendly decison when it’s absolutely not.
The only way it’s fan friendly, is the fact that it allows anyone from the 6 initial teams to start having a look at accommodation and plans, the first moment the finals series starts.
Apart from that, yes, it’s about the money. It would be interesting to see whether Victoria were given a chance to meet or beat the bid
So they can look at potential hotels weeks before they know whether they’re interested in actually booking and with no idea whether they’re going to be available when they actually need them because a bunch of other people are doing the same thing? Not really seeing that as a benefit.
I loved the tradition of booking your GF flight when you go 2 goals up with 10 to go.
They’ve gone ‘Sydney’ as likely if it’s say WU v Glory they’d push it to Bankwest.
It’s a dumb idea imo. One of the best things we have over other codes is the home GF. Having maybe 2 sets of fans travelling in this sort of climate is average. It also pushes away youngsters from going to a big game.
