Preliminary Final Venue?

[mcs]

Flip flopping ground during finals is not the answer. I think we will get 60000 to the prelim. Every other one we have. We should be working to get 60000 min to any final.

Anyway, if it was a fine weekend, we would have got closer to 45k against freo.

Retreating back to the SCG is a backwards step in the growth of this club. We should be aiming for 50000 members next year

I'm not saying we shouldn't be aiming to get 60K+ to every final - but at the moment, I've seen no evidence to say that we are capable, at the current time, of drawing anywhere near that number in week 1 or week 2 of the finals at home. I think a large part of it really is ticket prices, as argued by many ad nauseum in this thread. If the AFL is going to continue with ridiculous pricing, then I see no reason why some finals, especially those early in the final series, could not be played at SCG.

Also you are wrong about PF's - we only got 57,500 odd for the Collingwood game in 2012. Whilst close to 60,000 that is not 60,000 - a bit like losing a GF by a point is almost being Premiers, but not quite. As I said, that game was well advertised, good weather and a big score to settle, against the biggest club (in membership terms) in the land. Our PF in two weeks time will be against a very well supported club (in Geelong) or one of the smaller supporter based Melbourne Teams in the Kangaroos. We will be very lucky to get >60K with the prices for tickets as they are.

I'm willing to bet $100 that we will not get 60,000 to the PF on Friday week - are you game to take me on? You should be happy to - after all, you don't have to pay ridiculous money to buy your PF ticket like the large majority of people do.

[barry]

Of course we should be looking to grow the Swans brand, but why is it unreasonable to expect that the Swans could not play some of their finals at the SCG?...
...

I'm not saying we shouldn't be aiming to get 60K+ to every final - but at the moment, Invest seen no evidence to say that we are capable, at the current time, of drawing anywhere near that number in week 1 of the finals at h.........

Splitting hairs. No other venue could hold 57,000.

I'm not betting you. I don't even know you FFS.

[mcs]

Splitting hairs. No other venue could hold 57,000.

I'm not betting you. I don't even know you FFS.

Awww Barry, what a shame. Was looking forward to a cashed up ANZ member helping to pay for my grand final ticket

And if you didn't realise it - I was being facetious.....

Just don't forget your tin hat for Friday week, in case of some grand RWO based conspiracy against ANZ members who may or may not be called Barry.....

[barry]

If I bet you, you'd go out of your way to lobby for a boycott of ANZ by swans members. I don't want to be seen to be encouraging your negativity toward the club in any way.

[mcs]

If I bet you, you'd go out of your way to lobby for a boycott of ANZ by swans members. I don't want to be seen to be encouraging your negativity toward the club in any way.

Yes you are right. I'd be so desperate to win $100 from you that I'd lobby fans to boycott my beloved Swans 2nd most important game of the season, where we need everyone we can to help them over the line.....

Just how am I negative towards the club? I look forward to your roll of evidence that extends outside my dislike of ANZ.

[annew]

[QUOTE=dimelb;654551]Can some mod please fix the thread title? It's giving me the irrits.
Thanks for correcting the thread title, I tried to edit as I realised straight away it was spelt incorrectly, however, it would not allow me to.

[Jewels]

Finals games in sydney will never draw the big crowds of melbourne if they dont adequately adjust prices to take into account differences between sydney and melbourne.

You have to remember a big boost to crowds at the mcg is the presence of both mcc members and afl members. Afl is the be all and end all of sport in melbourne at this time of year - whereas in sydney it is competing with nrl for air time and the casual fans.

If the afl was serious about getting good crowds to early finals in sydney, they'd lower prices significantly. I paid $57 for cat 3 tickets yesterday - which is fine by me, but is unaffordable for many, especially when there is a bigger game to come. Prelim final tickets are very expensive at the bottom end - if the afl wants a huge crowd, bottom category tickets should be $25 or something like that. But they are $72 - far too much to pay to sit up in the heavans for those 'casual' fans that really help build the crowd size up.

We will hopefully get 50-55k for the prelim, but if the afl did some tinkering with pricing at the bottom, they would probably get closer to 70-75k.

Can some mod please fix the thread title? It's giving me the irrits.

And I agree strongly with the comments about the pricing. The AFL is being greedy, or is infected with the corporate bug as the measure of what's possible, or both. The plain fact is that even in crude economic terms, Sydney is probably the toughest market in the land; the AFL needs to grasp the nettle and cut prices and insist they have very convincing arguments for doing so.

Tickets up in level six of ANZ should be half the price of category three seats.
Ridiculous that the top level was so empty yesterday, if the AFL had sold tickets up there for $25 that would have been a great inducement to the casual AFL observer to come along and see what all the fuss is about.

[Beerandfooty]

I haven't been on this site for quiet a few years and it seem there has been some debate about the Homebush venue. I'd image there are various reasons for people not like it, for me it is more difficult to get to than the SCG, accommodation close to it is expensive and I am accustomed to the atmosphere of the SCG. ( I don't live in Sydney). I agree the finals ticket pricing is an issue and think the AFL is too greedy.

Still, had last nights game been held at the SCG we certainly would have been there and I know of another local family with similar sentiment. Makes me wonder what the crowd size would have been had this been the case.

Anyway, I do think we are GF bound and looking at packages I cant afford to go. (Went in 2006). So we are considering finding a nice venue in Sydney to enjoy it in.

[sidswan]

Anyway, I do think we are GF bound and looking at packages I cant afford to go. (Went in 2006). So we are considering finding a nice venue in Sydney to enjoy it in.[/QUOTE]

I'm also looking for family friendly places in Sydney's east to watch Grand Final (hopefully not getting ahead of ourselves)

[barry]

Yes you are right. I'd be so desperate to win $100 from you that I'd lobby fans to boycott my beloved Swans 2nd most important game of the season, where we need everyone we can to help them over the line.....

Just how am I negative towards the club? I look forward to your roll of evidence that extends outside my dislike of ANZ.

Whinging is a negative emotion. Youll cause another thread to be locked if you keeping going on and on and on..

[mcs]

Tickets up in level six of ANZ should be half the price of category three seats.
Ridiculous that the top level was so empty yesterday, if the AFL had sold tickets up there for $25 that would have been a great inducement to the casual AFL observer to come along and see what all the fuss is about.

Sadly Jewels I think its more about 'what level of monopoly pricing can we use to maximise profits' than 'what can we do to get the biggest crowd at the game'.

If we are going to continue to long term play finals at ANZ, then the AFL has to see that, if they want huge crowds at games, they are going to have to price it accordingly - or at very least look at other incentive mechanisms to get people to go to games.

[Zlatorog]

The AFL has confirmed that the game will start at 19:50 at ANZ Stadium. Here's the quote:
"Meanwhile the AFL has confirmed the first preliminary final hosted by the Swans will be played on the night of Friday 19 September at ANZ Stadium."
Ticket prices cut for members as Cats, Roos prepare to kick off semi-finals - AFL.com.au

[dimelb]

Sadly Jewels I think its more about 'what level of monopoly pricing can we use to maximise profits' than 'what can we do to get the biggest crowd at the game'.

If we are going to continue to long term play finals at ANZ, then the AFL has to see that, if they want huge crowds at games, they are going to have to price it accordingly - or at very least look at other incentive mechanisms to get people to go to games.

The average drug dealer is smarter than the AFL - entice people in with cut rates, then when they're hooked, raise the price. Not hard!

[mcs]

The AFL has confirmed that the game will start at 19:50 at ANZ Stadium. Here's the quote:
"Meanwhile the AFL has confirmed the first preliminary final hosted by the Swans will be played on the night of Friday 19 September at ANZ Stadium."
Ticket prices cut for members as Cats, Roos prepare to kick off semi-finals - AFL.com.au

That same article still has (subject to stadium availability) after ANZ in the 'fixture' section towards the bottom - so maybe its still up in the air somewhat, or the AFL is just too lazy to make things consistent.

- - - Updated - - -

The average drug dealer is smarter than the AFL - entice people in with cut rates, then when they're hooked, raise the price. Not hard!

Haha dimelb, that is a good analogy. I just don't get it - they are trying to build the game in a still developing market, but are pricing plenty of interested people completely out of being able to attend by setting ludicrous games.

Of course its reasonable to expect finals to have a premium price, but that doesn't stop the AFL setting an aggressive pricing structure to entice attendance. Will be interesting to see what sort of prices the NRL sets for its finals.

[ScottH]

That same article still has (subject to stadium availability) after ANZ in the 'fixture' section towards the bottom - so maybe its still up in the air somewhat, or the AFL is just too lazy to make things consistent.

When will they know the availability??
Will they know by the end of this weekend, or is dependent on next weeks games??