IIRC Ballarat was a very friendly Crows zone back in 97 and 98 a lot of Crows supporters traveling for the finals stayed there overnight. Bought a lot of business to the town.
Yes, it was - from memory Kryall Castle tried to cash in on it in a big way. [Great Western allegedly wasn't a friendly Crows zone on the same weekends - legend has it they set up radar going into town, in the middle of Great Western, and on the way back out - if true, a solid effort seeing as it's a barely a dot on the map].
The point stands though that the Bulldogs have 39,459 members, and Adelaide has a substantial number of Victorian members as part of their 63,000 plus total. Holding the match at a 13,000 seat venue to promote the game in Darwin, Alice Springs or Cairns makes some sense. Holding the match at a 13,000 seat venue when there's a perfectly adequate 56,000 seat venue that has traditionally hosted games between these two teams, and is just over an hour away makes no sense.
We're a big club, and we shouldn't be shuffled to the Bulldogs second ground. We draw more to Bulldogs games at Docklands than Port, Freo, GSW or Sydney, and most likely would outdraw Gold Coast if they played there. When we don't play Sunday twilight or Friday night against them, crowds are 25,000 plus at Docklands. Why you'd deliberately disenfranchise members and supporters is bizarre to me.