Not The same as being at the game. I agree with @JasonF … i know they do this kind of stuff for the Super Bowl in USA but the A-League isn’t big enough in this country yet for that. I think our World Cup performance has gone to their heads with this decision.
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Starting to think Paramount/10 isn’t the reason association football is dying a slow death in this country…
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Oh I was being facetious. It’s a dreadful decision!
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I think its a silly decision in having the A League Grand Final held in Sydney for the next 3 years. And i am from.Sydney.
What is wrong with having it at the home city of the number 1 team? It wasnt a broken system
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It’s a saleable commodity and the APL have opted for the money
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Do people hold the same view about the AFL final always being in Melbourne and NRL always in Sydney as they do about the A League?
The A-League doesn’t really have a spiritual home in that same sense.
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AFL is a hard one to compare to. While I personally don’t have an issue with the final moving around (either as a home game advantage for the highest-ranked team or a Super Bowl-style competitive round), I can very much see the point that the MCG holds ~40,000 more than equivalent stadiums elsewhere, and almost always sells out.
Even games featuring two interstate teams will get a 90,000+ crowd: 91k for 2005 (Swans v Eagles) and 97k in 2006 (ditto).
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There’s also a historical element to it for the NRL/AFL as well - the finals have moved rarely (and predominately to other venues in the same city until the Covid GFs). They also make some sense, there is a plurality of teams in Sydney and Melbourne for each comp, so it stands to reason that at least one of those “local” teams is likely to participate in the final.
Neither of these really work with the A-League
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Socceroos and Adelaide United star Craig Goodwin has also spoken out against the GF plan.
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If Tony Sage’s comments were right, then the APL made a premature decision to award the grand finals to NSW without going to a vote by club owners. Also did the APL consult the footballers’ union?
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Melbourne City and the Melbourne victory fans are planning to walk out in protest during the derby on Saturday. The walk out will happen at 20 mins in. Let’s see what actually happens on the day.
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Emergency APL board meeting scheduled for today.
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We do not support the Isuzu UTE A-League Men’s, Liberty A-League Women’s or the E-League Grand Finals being played in Sydney for the next three seasons.
Our Club isn’t represented on the APL board, and we weren’t consulted on the decision announced yesterday. While we are grateful to Destination NSW for wanting to support football financially and the APL’s efforts to increase its commercial revenue, the reaction of our fans over the last 24 hours speaks volumes.
Western United is a young club that is being built for the football fans in the west of Melbourne and Victoria. We strongly believe that they are entitled to attend a Grand Final in their home state should we be successful in earning the right to do so.
The emotion, togetherness, and unforgettable experience of winning our first A-League Men Championship earlier this year with our members, fans, and partners in the stands was nothing short of spectacular. To think that this would not be possible again for the next three seasons for most of our Western United family is disappointing.
From the beginning of our existence, we’ve engaged with our fans and partners as stakeholders of our club through dialogue and consultation, to grow a culture and club that represents the people of the west. Our fans’ voice speaks as loud as our voice and to remove the opportunity to host the pinnacle events of the season from our locality is disappointing.
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Even APL’s own masthead is critical.
The backlash has been huge. I expect the decision to be backflipped
Don’t be surprised if there is no backflip…
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Plus the AFL have shown in the absence of tradition, the AFLW Grand Final rotates, which is very fair - and I would expect similar outrage should the AFL ever choose to stop awarding it to the rightful host.
It can only do damage to the growth of Football - imagine if the City v Western Grand Final was in Sydney - you’d have 200 people there. Maybe they’ll get lucky and Sydney FC or WSW will make the GF and boost the crowds to something respectable - but two interstate sides and it’ll be a cavern.
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It would need to be a triple somersault backflip to get out of this debacle.