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AFL season opener could put the squeeze on fans
By Lyall Johnson, Emma Quayle
March 26 2003
With almost half the public seating already sold for Friday night's season opener between Collingwood and Richmond at the MCG, the AFL yesterday urged fans to pre-book tickets to avoid missing out.
While the AFL's football operations manager, Andrew Demetriou, was not expecting a sell-out, the Melbourne Cricket Club was more optimistic, with events manager Trevor Dohnt predicting "if the weather holds, we could go close".
The ground's capacity has been cut to 72,000 as a result of grandstand redevelopment work, with general public, MCC and AFL members areas all taking a pro-rata cut in capacity. As of yesterday, 18,000 of about 40,000 general public tickets had been pre-sold. The MCC and AFL reserve areas have a total of about 20,000 seats each.
"There's been real good momentum built up for the start of the season," Demetriou said.
"We have been blessed with a good weather forecast and we've got some really good games on, so all things being equal and with a bit of luck, it should be a really good weekend."
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In last year's Friday night season opener, Richmond and Collingwood attracted 65,350 fans.
The AFL said in the unlikely event of a sell-out, it would consider allowing the match to be televised live but a decision would not be made until later in the week.
Yesterday, the Tigers walked the ground to see how the changed conditions would affect their game.
Melbourne captain David Neitz admitted the changed wind conditions would add a degree of difficulty to scoring goals but said he would wait until the club trained there tomorrow for Sunday's game against Hawthorn before making a final assessment.
"It will make it very easy at the toss. But I reckon I'll go through the same routine, and kick true, and hope that it will go through the middle," said the 2002 Coleman medallist, who was at the MCG to announce Melbourne's new three-year sponsorship deal with BMW.
"It will be a little bit different. Depending on which way the wind's coming in, you'll have to be a lot more aware of the conditions and that's something that, at the 'G, where it's been very swirly in the past, is going to be different again.
"Most of the grounds are fairly well covered these days so you get a bit used to being sheltered from the wind, but this will probably add an extra element or degree of difficulty.
"We'll all have a look at the game on Friday night, and we train here Thursday, so we'll see how it is."
Recruits Chris Heffernan and Gary Moorcroft and rookie defender Ryan Ferguson are all in line for a round-one debut for their new club, according to coach Neale Daniher.
Guy Rigoni, whose back injury has kept him out of senior football since round 13, 2002, is also a strong a chance to restart his career.
By Lyall Johnson, Emma Quayle
March 26 2003
With almost half the public seating already sold for Friday night's season opener between Collingwood and Richmond at the MCG, the AFL yesterday urged fans to pre-book tickets to avoid missing out.
While the AFL's football operations manager, Andrew Demetriou, was not expecting a sell-out, the Melbourne Cricket Club was more optimistic, with events manager Trevor Dohnt predicting "if the weather holds, we could go close".
The ground's capacity has been cut to 72,000 as a result of grandstand redevelopment work, with general public, MCC and AFL members areas all taking a pro-rata cut in capacity. As of yesterday, 18,000 of about 40,000 general public tickets had been pre-sold. The MCC and AFL reserve areas have a total of about 20,000 seats each.
"There's been real good momentum built up for the start of the season," Demetriou said.
"We have been blessed with a good weather forecast and we've got some really good games on, so all things being equal and with a bit of luck, it should be a really good weekend."
advertisement
advertisement
In last year's Friday night season opener, Richmond and Collingwood attracted 65,350 fans.
The AFL said in the unlikely event of a sell-out, it would consider allowing the match to be televised live but a decision would not be made until later in the week.
Yesterday, the Tigers walked the ground to see how the changed conditions would affect their game.
Melbourne captain David Neitz admitted the changed wind conditions would add a degree of difficulty to scoring goals but said he would wait until the club trained there tomorrow for Sunday's game against Hawthorn before making a final assessment.
"It will make it very easy at the toss. But I reckon I'll go through the same routine, and kick true, and hope that it will go through the middle," said the 2002 Coleman medallist, who was at the MCG to announce Melbourne's new three-year sponsorship deal with BMW.
"It will be a little bit different. Depending on which way the wind's coming in, you'll have to be a lot more aware of the conditions and that's something that, at the 'G, where it's been very swirly in the past, is going to be different again.
"Most of the grounds are fairly well covered these days so you get a bit used to being sheltered from the wind, but this will probably add an extra element or degree of difficulty.
"We'll all have a look at the game on Friday night, and we train here Thursday, so we'll see how it is."
Recruits Chris Heffernan and Gary Moorcroft and rookie defender Ryan Ferguson are all in line for a round-one debut for their new club, according to coach Neale Daniher.
Guy Rigoni, whose back injury has kept him out of senior football since round 13, 2002, is also a strong a chance to restart his career.
