Yesterday, I woke to find the AFL had posted on their web site a good news story for the code, in the form of yet another stadium getting an upgrade so more of our sports loving public can go and watch the greatest game on Earth in comfort.
With the recent completion of the Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, the near completion of the Skoda Stadium in Blacktown, the earlier announcement of the ‘Perth Stadium’ on the Burswood Peninsula due for completion in 2018 and the upgrades for the ‘Adelaide Oval’ with some fantastic looking facilities for the two AFL teams in SA, and on the 3rd of Jan, Julia Gillard and NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell proudly announced the iconic SCG will be in for an upgrade, improving seating capacity, better corporate facilities and better player resources.
Soon, every city in the country, and almost every AFL team by association, will have available to them an A-Grade, first rate stadium with state of the art resources. Great news! Exciting times! Another great win for Football!
But hang on. The team over at the Herald Sun grabbed the story. They looked closer. They read between the lines. They asked the hard questions. In the paper yesterday morning, the awful truth has come out.
Neil Cordy has played the part of town crier come out in the town square and decreed: “Hear ye! Hear ye! There comes a darkness! The storms of unjust tyranny are upon us! Woe betide this new stadium announcement! Hear ye Swans fans! For two turns of the Earth around the sun will you have to do battle with an unseemly construction site! And we have been forced under the spiked heel of the SCG Trust, to have our castles capacity reduced from 45,000 to a measly, paltry 34,000! (Albeit at the height of construction.) Townsfolk of Sydney! Friends of Aussie Rules! We only now see the bright streams of sunlight poke through those dark, dark days of 2007 and 2008, when we were forced through the disastrous construction of the Victor Trumper Stand. Have we not been good?! Have we not been fair?! Why have our AFL Gods of righteousness and truth forsaken us!! A plague AFL! A plague on all your AFL Houses!!”
OK, I’m paraphrasing, but the article went something like that. I’ll put aside the fact the Swans will need this for the betterment of their club for now. They’re not the only show in town anymore, and the fight to attract corporate sponsorship in a Rugby dominated town will only get more difficult. Attractive facilities can only assist. As well as state of the art area for players before and after games. AFL is the most professional team sport in the country, arguably. It deserves the best resources to match, particularly if AFL wants to continue to attract the best athletes in the land.
But I digress. The issue isn’t SHOULD it be done. We all agree it’s a good thing. The issue, it would seem, would be the limited capacity and the favoring of the cricket season over the AFL season.
Well it IS the Sydney CRICKET Ground, so credit where it’s due, we are kicking a footy around their stadium. And there are certain facts surrounding the seat capacity that would support their decision.
I would like to put Neil Cordy’s mind to rest, because it really feels like he’s taking this ‘limited capacity’ thing personally. Neil, I’ve got some good news for ya buddy. Here’s some facts I found after reading your article. I found them by using just my iPhone. While still lying in bed.
OK, the capacity will be limited to 34,000, “at the most disruptive stage of the project”. So it won’t be for 2 whole seasons, one can imagine. I wont speculate at what stage we could expect this. Could be in the off-season? Could be in the guts of the AFL season. Who knows? But we’ll work off the basis that we’ll have 2 seasons with a capacity of 34,000, for the sake of argument.
In Season 2011, the highest crowd at a game at the SCG was 33,136 vs. Hawthorn in Round 9.
In Season 2011, the average crowd numbers at the SCG was 25,200 from 8 games.
The last game to have a higher attendance of 34,000 (for a home & away game) at the SCG was 36,554 in Round 21 in 2010 (Barry Halls return to the SCG game).No other game in 2010 at the SCG managed over 34,000.
The highest crowd prior to this (again, home & away games only) was in 2005 Sydney vs. West Coast with 37,071.
In fact, the one and only season where the SCG has averaged a crowd over 34,000 was in 1997 when the SCG managed 35,818 average punters going through the turnstiles. And that was the year after their surprise Grand Final appearance and the great Tony Lockett was still in full force.
The swans have had a total of 7 (home and away) games in the 21st Century with a crowd of over 34,000 (8 if you include the 2000 season) from a possible 97 games (110 if you include the 2000 season) come through the gates of the SCG.
So Neil, I want you to rest easy mate. Be safe and comforted by the fact that y’know? I think the Swannies will be alright for the next few years.
(facts via the AFL Tables stats website: stats.rleague.com/afl/afl_index.html)
Side note: At 4:35Pm on 03/01/2012 the AFL posted their positive, upbeat “Swans, AFL hail upgrade” story on their website and replaced it at 10:35am on 04/01/2012 with the more negative, reactionary “Swans ruffled but happy” story in response to the Herald-Sun’s fear-mongering.
Evin Bryant
