A-league finals

[gregrogers257]

Adelaide United have finished second on the ladder at the end of the minor round. They have won the last two games and are in good form.

They now play melbourne (over 2 legs). Melbourne are not in good form and have been struggling over the last few weeks. However one reason for this is because they've been resting players. If united beat melbourne then we will get a home grand final !

The question is should they play there finals at Hindmarsh which can only hold 17,000 ??

I don't think they could use adelaide oval because of the cricket being played there, but AAMI stadium is not being used at the moment.

I think if we were to get a grand final here in adelaide they should definitely play it at AAMI stadium. If they did this then they could get 50,000 there.... how good would that be !!!

[crawf]

Im pretty sure AAMI Statium is currently being redeveloped. And i dont think a soccer match here in Adelaide would get anywhere near 35k, let alone 50k.

[Redback20]

I've been to a number of Adelaide Utd home games this season and crowds have been excellent, especially the sellouts for games v Melbourne & Sydney where the official attendances appeared well under the actual mark given that all aisles and gangways were packed as well as the seats, almost to the point of severe overcrowding in the Labor day game v Sydney fc.

I think i'm right in saying the state govt has committed to increasing the capacity of hindmarsh if the reds can average around 14k. They can't be far off that already... 12-13k? especially if you include this sunday's game and a possible grand final.

The A-League has been a huge success and you only have to look over at the Vics, an AFL heartland now boasting a soccer team averaging 35k, highest gate 50k and surely a Telstra Dome sellout (55k?) for the return with the Reds on 4 Feb. Who would've predicted that.

Adelaide has a population with a similar (or even greater) percentage with european soccer heritage albeit in smaller numbers than VIC, but there are enough signs already to suggest Hindmarsh will be outgrown sooner rather than later. And should Adelaide Utd be in the position of hosting a final or grand final, 35k is well achievable IMO if we had the venue available - sadly Adl Oval is already slated for the A-Grade one day cricket final on 18 Feb so I can't see anywhere else other than Hindmarsh on this occasion but the future indeed looks rosy.

Go the reds!

[Algernon]

I've been to a number of Adelaide Utd home games this season and crowds have been excellent, especially the sellouts for games v Melbourne & Sydney where the official attendances appeared well under the actual mark given that all aisles and gangways were packed as well as the seats, almost to the point of severe overcrowding in the Labor day game v Sydney fc.

I think i'm right in saying the state govt has committed to increasing the capacity of hindmarsh if the reds can average around 14k. They can't be far off that already... 12-13k? especially if you include this sunday's game and a possible grand final.

The A-League has been a huge success and you only have to look over at the Vics, an AFL heartland now boasting a soccer team averaging 35k, highest gate 50k and surely a Telstra Dome sellout (55k?) for the return with the Reds on 4 Feb. Who would've predicted that.

Adelaide has a population with a similar (or even greater) percentage with european soccer heritage albeit in smaller numbers than VIC, but there are enough signs already to suggest Hindmarsh will be outgrown sooner rather than later. And should Adelaide Utd be in the position of hosting a final or grand final, 35k is well achievable IMO if we had the venue available - sadly Adl Oval is already slated for the A-Grade one day cricket final on 18 Feb so I can't see anywhere else other than Hindmarsh on this occasion but the future indeed looks rosy.

Go the reds!

We averaged 12,200 this season, up from 11,000 the year before, but down from 12,500 from the NSL season before that.

[stelaras]

I reckon if it is a home grand final, then AAMI should be the stadium of choice, and even if redeveloped it would still hold 30-35K...

If Adelaide wins through to the GF, which is a strong possibility then you would get the crowd...

Melbourne is suffering the same plight as Adelaide did last year, when they wrapt up the minor league title too early on, rested players and their form was second rate,which cost them a GF spot....

Melbourne will suffer the same plight....Adelaide just needs to win at Home by at least 2 Goals, and score at least 1 goal when they play at the dome...

And be warned the dome will be full to capacity, the return leg in melbourne will be sold out if it hasnt already sold out

[Pistol]

I think it is funny that a couple of years ago there was never ending controversy over Hindmarsh Stadium being a 'white elephant'. Yet now it is almost deemed too small and given the strong performances of Adelaide U over the last two seasons, there will be much pressure to extend Hindmarsh to perhaps 30k!

[Tyler_Durden]

The question is should they play there finals at Hindmarsh which can only hold 17,000 ??

Of course they should. Neither of Adelaide United's finals games last year sold out. They would not get close to filling AAMI or Adelaide Oval (which couldn't be used anyway because of the cricket pitch in the middle). The atmosphere would be lame at AAMI and would struggle to attract much more than 20,000.

Hindmarsh is the home of AU and that's where they should and will stay. The atmosphere will be rocking at Hindmarsh.

Go the Reds!

[stelaras]

not enough space there to bump up HS to 30k capacity.

Where would people park their cars...its hard enough to get parking there when there are 12k of people...

Anyway, Adelaide wont (during the regular season) get 17k per game. If one looks at it from a population base...There are 3 times as many people in Melbourne as there are in Adelaide, which means they would get 3 times as many people (loosely speaking) as adelaide will to a game....

If you compare the averages it fits that numbering system. As it stands presently AU gets about 12.5k people per game (on average) and MV gets about 30k people per game.... during the regular season! Which is why HS was built to a cpacity of 17k which meets and exceeds the expectations of the A-league/last season of the NSL.


Finals are however different....obviously the numbers of attendees will be higher, and the game might need to be played in another arena! but it will still follow a 3:1 ratio. I suspect that in the return match the people wanting to go to the match at TD would be in excess of 60k .

I suspect tyler and pistol are right in their assumptions on the numbers...but you would be hard pressed to extend HS to 30k at its present locatiion!


GO THE REDS.......IM GOING TO THE RETURN MATCH IN MELBOURNE FOR SURE

[gregrogers257]

Im pretty sure AAMI Statium is currently being redeveloped. And i dont think a soccer match here in Adelaide would get anywhere near 35k, let alone 50k.

How is AAMI stadium being re-developed....?

I am sure it isn't. I think they are planning to put a new video screen in
this year but that's all.

I think they could get at least 45 to 50k at AAMI if they played a GF there. Don't underestimate how popular soccer is in Aust now. The crowds at the A-league are a lot bigger this year then what they were last year. They had 32,000 to a regular season game up in Brisbane on the weekend.

United are in good form, if they beat melbourne over 2 legs then
a lot of people in adelaide will jump on the bandwagon. Also if they played a GF here it would most likely be against Melbourne and they have a massive following. I would say 10k to 15 k supporters would come over from melbourne !!

[Redback20]

mate in Melbourne (MV member) tells me they are even considering the G in the event of a grand final being hosted there, don't forget the Vics filled TD for a normal league game albeit vs sydney, and its nailed on to be sold out well in advance for the 2nd leg v the Reds.

I notice wikipedia mentions possibility of Hindmarsh having corners filled in, or the western stand built up to replicate the east, either of which would boost capacity to around 22k and considered feasible by the state govt... it sounds more realistic but I'm not sure how accurate that is or its source??
Good point stelaras about parking, clearly ignored when the place was rebuilt. Plenty of empty sites round there tho for a multi-storey.

Would there be politics involved with aami? wouldnt the SANFL get all defensive about a big soccer match potentially drawing bigger numbers than the crows at their HQ? it frustrates me why both codes can't flourish side by side, their seasons don't even overlap anymore fer chrissake but a lot of this stuff still goes on.

Burns and Djite too hot for the vics to handle!

[Tyler_Durden]

mate in Melbourne (MV member) tells me they are even considering the G in the event of a grand final being hosted there

1) The A-League aren't going to play on a ground that has a rock hard cricket pitch in the middle.

2) The MCG are not going to let soccer be played on the area that needs to be prepared for a cricket game a week later.

Would there be politics involved with aami?

No.

wouldnt the SANFL get all defensive about a big soccer match potentially drawing bigger numbers than the crows at their HQ?

AU will not get near a Crows sized crowd. Do you realise the Crows get 40,000 at minimum and sometimes up to 50,000? Adelaide united drew 11,000 to last year's home preliminary final.

it frustrates me why both codes can't flourish side by side, their seasons don't even overlap anymore fer chrissake but a lot of this stuff still goes on.

Really? Where does "this stuff" go on?

The sports do function well side by side.

[gregrogers257]

United did not get big crowds last year to the finals but I think they will this year for a couple of reasons :

1) there's a good chance they will play a grand final here.

2) There's a lot more interest in the A-league this season. This is especially the case in melbourne. If we played a GF here against melbourne I think we would get 10,000 + victory supporters.

[stelaras]

As can be seen by todays article on Adelade Now...Adelaide stems from losing the grand final game (assuming that we win through) because we dont have a stadium large enough to host the event..!

As the A-league officials have said, the team that wins through to the grand final game first will host the grand final! However, it also reserves the right to switch the game to any venue if they see they can get more people to the game.

in a recent game at TD Melbourne Victory got just over 50,000 people to a game and in the finals series last year 42,000 people saw Sydney FC play!

If Adelaide makes it to the grand final and the A-league officials can not come to some agreement with the SANFL and AAMI stadium, then the match WILL be shifted to either TD in melbourne or TS in sydney as a 17500 seat capacity is NOT deemed to be an ample sized stadium...

The profits from the GF being held in either sydney or melbourne would be in excess of 2million compared to $500,000 if it were to be played at hindmarsh stadium and every ticket that was sold was a category A ticket!...

This report highlights the stupidity of planners and developers which spent 20-30million dollars to re-develop Hindmarsh stadium, which according to my logic should never have been re-developed in the first place, as it is completely in the wrong spot!

This report also re-enforces the notion that Adelaide NEEDS to build a multi-purpose stadium (ie a TD or TS equivalent) so that it can compete against the bigger states..

In this case specifically, if Adelaide made it to the GF, which is a strong possibility, we stem not only to disadvantage Adelaide United by forcing them to play away from home, we disadvantage thousands of fans that would go to the GF, and more importantly the state LOSES OUT from 10-15,000 rival supporters which would spend their hard earned dollars in our gorgeous city!

1. Adelaide needs a purpose built stadium that is good for soccer/football/cricket

2. It needs to be build withing close walking distance to the city

3. We cant go on disadvantaging our states sporting sides because our city planners and governments cant put their ego's to one side and agree on whats good for Adelaide...

The way i see it.....SOME of our planners/developers and LOTS of our government representatives couldnt organise a root in a brothel!

[Redback20]

Well AFL is played on grounds with a cricket pitch in the middle every week, and the MCG (and Adl Oval) have hosted soccer a number of times before, so I don't think that would be a consideration. And I am assured, the MCG IS being considered as the vics filled TD for a normal league game, let alone a GF.

Re: crowd sizes I wasnt comparing crows/reds averages but pointing out that a grand final would, as many posters say, be well capable of attracting a full house to AAMI or TD or aussie or anywhere else. For such a game in Adl it feasibly could top a normal crows game, no question. Especially if as Greg says, Melbourne are the opposition.

Tyler, i wish you were right but are you seriously suggesting that the AFL, its clubs and the AFL-centric media doesn't have an agenda with soccer? Really????
You should've watched the footy show during the world cup for a prime example of what i'm talking about.

Where? melbourne for starters, they dummy spit over very use of the word 'football' and it only goes downhill from there. The Victory were even refused permission to advertise their home games at AFL matches at TD even though there was no clash or fixture conflict or anything. Reason given was it was a 'rival code' and therefore 'inappropriate'.

For some reason AFL sees soccer as a threat and its closest rival, i assume this is because of its global appeal but my point was... why? ... i'm pretty sure most fans don't care. You obviously don't and neither do I.

So there's no reason AAMI can't be used then, good. I hope you're proved correct and the SANFL are happy to host an AU - MV grand final... personally i won't hold my breath.

Stelaras - bang on the money there mate.

[Tyler_Durden]

Well AFL is played on grounds with a cricket pitch in the middle every week, and the MCG (and Adl Oval) have hosted soccer a number of times before, so I don't think that would be a consideration.

Not in cricket season though. The AFL don't get to use the MCG until late March every year. The curator needs time to prepare the oval for the different sports. Of course both sports can share the oval, but not at the same time of year, which is the issue.

And I am assured, the MCG IS being considered as the vics filled TD for a normal league game, let alone a GF.

I assure you it is not.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/soccer/bu ... 31772.html

Excerpt:
IF Adelaide defeats Melbourne and hosts the grand final, FFA could shift the February 18 decider from Hindmarsh Stadium to AAMI Stadium — especially if its grand final opponent ends up being Victory.

If Newcastle wins through to the play-off in any Adelaide grand final, the game would stay at the much smaller capacity Hindmarsh Stadium. No decision has been made on where Adelaide would host Sydney should the current champion win through to a decider in South Australia.

The only other venue where the game could take place is Telstra Dome if Victory wins the two-legged major semi-final which kicks off this weekend.


So there you have it. There are only 3 venue options for the Grand Final. Hindmarsh, AAMI or if Melbourne host it, Telstra Dome.

The MCG is not being considered for the reasons I've already mentioned. It was never an option and at this time of year, never will be.

Tyler, i wish you were right but are you seriously suggesting that the AFL, its clubs and the AFL-centric media doesn't have an agenda with soccer? Really????
You should've watched the footy show during the world cup for a prime example of what i'm talking about.

You mean the footy show that was hosted in Germany? With a World Cup flavour?

The SANFL would not disallow soccer the use of AAMI. The FFA have already confirmed it as an option. They wouldn't have done that without having already confirmed it's availablity with the SANFL.

I'll be disappointed if it is played at AAMI though. I'm not confident it can attract 30k. But I hope it fills AAMI, I really do.