A-League Grand Final vs AFL Round 7 – Who Should Get Etihad Stadium?

Two of Australia’s largest sporting codes find themselves at loggerheads this week over a scheduling dispute. The AFL – the veteran heavyweight, still slugging away as undisputed champion after decades in the ring – and the A-League – the plucky young upstart rapidly climbing the ranks – find themselves butting heads over use of Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium, as one’s regular season continues to roll on, and the other approaches its’ premiere date.

With its win over cross-town rival City in Friday night’s semi-final, the Melbourne Victory earned the right to host the A-League Grand Final, which will be contested this coming Sunday against Sydney FC.

The biggest game of the year. But it won’t be held on the biggest stage.

Despite the semi-final drawing a practically sold-out crowd of 50,873 to Etihad Stadium, the Grand Final will only see an attendance of somewhere around 30,000.

Thanks to a bungle and some administrative stubbornness, the A-League Grand Final will be contested at the Victory’s regular home ground of AAMI Park, whilst Etihad Stadium will see the scheduled AFL round 7 clash between the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle go ahead as planned.

So who’s right and who’s wrong in this situation?

The AFL, it should be said, has a clear, long-standing first choice arrangement with the city’s premiere stadiums – Etihad and the MCG. In fact, in 2025 the league will take ownership of the roofed Docklands Stadium for the princely sum of $1. They call the shots with regards to scheduling. And it’s up to other organisations to work around that. The NRL, for example, did exactly that when scheduling the upcoming State of Origin clash at the MCG.

For the A-League to not have even put a speculative hold on a date for an Etihad Stadium Grand Final in the event that a Melbourne side earned the right to host seems ludicrous, particularly given their ability to schedule games at the venue at other points of the year.

It defies belief that the AFL would have scheduled the 2015 home and away season unaware of the A-League Grand Final’s date. That much is apparent in the scheduling of this weekend’s games – three fixtures at Etihad Stadium out of five in Melbourne in total, all in key time-slots, with heavyweight clashes between traditional Melbourne rivals dotted throughout. One of the more Victorian-centric rounds of the year.

The clash that prevents the A-League from hosting an Etihad Stadium Grand Final is not one of those blockbuster matches. At least in terms of projected attendance. The rising Western Bulldogs take on competition leaders Fremantle on Sunday afternoon. On the field, a highly interesting matchup. Attendance wise, however, it’s not going to break records.

The last time the Bulldogs took on the Dockers at Etihad Stadium – Sunday, June 1st of last year – a mere 14,913 people showed up. Non-Victorian clubs, particularly those from Western Australia, aren’t traditionally big crowd drawers when facing off with smaller Melbourne sides in Victoria.

The A-League is doing in Melbourne what Rugby League never could – gain a foothold in the market of rabid sports fans that the city houses. The Melbourne Victory in particular represents by far-and-away the league’s most watched side. Their average attendance of 27,087 is only a mere handful of people shy of the Bulldogs average which sits at 27,158.

But the Victory’s attendance is limited for the most part by their home ground. On multiple occasions the Victory have upgraded home games to Etihad Stadium with great success. 6 times this season alone the Victory have graced the Docklands turf, and for those games their average attendance spikes upwards to 35,612.

In the 2014 AFL season, the Western Bulldogs only drew above that number twice. Once against West Coast, and once against Melbourne. Neither were home games. Neither were contested at Etihad Stadium.

But still, it is the Bulldogs prerogative to maintain their home fixtures as the priority, as is the nature of the AFL’s grip on Australian sporting markets. And that’s what they have rightfully done.

That’s not to say there weren’t alternatives.

Thanks to the AFL’s blocked out scheduling of the round, moving the A-League Grand Final to a different date is out of the question. But in the future it could remain a last-resort option.

It was suggested that the Bulldogs move the game against Fremantle to Geelong’s Simonds Stadium. If the reports of compensation are to be believed, it would have provided a more-than-attractive option for the Dogs, who are among the league’s poorer clubs thanks in part to an unfavourable stadium deal with Etihad Stadium, that in all likelihood will deliver them minimal, in any, profit from Sunday’s game against the Purple Haze. Coaxing stubborn Bulldogs supporters down the Princes Freeway, however, is another issue altogether.

Even shifting the game to Fremantle’s home ground – Domain Stadium in Perth – isn’t entirely silly to suggest. The Bulldogs have not played the Dockers there since 2012, and the game would almost certainly draw bigger numbers in Perth than it would in Melbourne. With the right financial arrangement, it could prove beneficial to both clubs. Though the unscheduled travel and prospect of playing Fremantle at home remain hurdles that would inevitably prove unattractive.

Situations like this only further enhance the argument for a third, smaller, AFL-standard venue within the city of Melbourne. Talk of a refurbished Princes Park, or redeveloping Punt Rd into a 20,000-30,000 capacity “boutique” stadium remains on the cusp of conversation within the Melbourne bubble.

The romantic notion suggests that moving the game to the Dogs’ suburban home ground at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray could be the ideal solution – even if the facilities are not up to what is deemed to be “AFL standard.” Perhaps, though, this is an option that needs to be explored for the future – both as a means of avoiding bureaucratic nonsense like this, and as a way to truly reconnect with footy’s heartland.

But for this week, the Dogs will clash with the Dockers at an Etihad Stadium at less than half capacity. Meanwhile the Victory will vie for the A-League title against Sydney FC in front of a crowd that will only be about 50% of what it could have been.

The AFL remains well within their rights to not yield to the A-League’s short sighted stuff up. But the A-League is also valid in feeling blighted by the stubbornness of a omnipotent giant that likely fears them just a little bit.

The bottom line to all of this is simple.

No one can say they did not see this coming.