manicmagpie
A slice of fried gold
Whilst I get this and there’s lots of good arguments, the one thing not considered is Collingwood’s ‘role’ in supporting the success of the AFL’s $600M asset, Marvel Stadium.
There’s several clubs, Collingwood included that are playing their part in ensuring the venue is optimised via the Blockbuster quota the Stadium is contracted with the AFL to receive.
IMO the AFL had 2 main paths they could have gone down.
1. Stipulate that Melbourne has 2 stadiums and that they will schedule games at the appropriate one for all Vic teams.
This is mostly what they did for the first decade. Although they still let clubs sign deals with either stadium and crucially, reneged on their promise to move games that looked like exceeding Docklands’ capacity. All clubs except Hawthorn (courtesy of their Tassie games) and Melbourne (Gabba/Cararra/Canberra) played 3 or more home games and around 3 away games every year in that period. This actually worked pretty well - the average for the first 11 seasons of Docklands is 4-5k higher than the last 11 seasons. It's much harder to boycott games when you spend a quarter of your season playing there.
2. The second was to make every team have a home stadium that is used for all home games unless circumstances demand a change.
This is the method of most leagues around the world. It would work out a lot better with the AFL in charge of the stadium instead of a third party that needs to make money in a short space of time.
Unfortunately they've ended up with a hybrid that leaves few satisfied. The MCG tenants resent playing there and it is reflected in the attendances. The flow on effect in the fixturing is significant as I detailed above. Having Essendon and Carlton split their games was always going to lead to tensions and attempts to change the ratio.
As for playing a role in the asset, we can do that with more Away games there. We consistently bring more away fans than any other team.
The biggest impediment currently is the issue of the unused seating at 'sold out' games. You can't have a 55k stadium consistently getting no more than low 40s when there are people wanting to go that can't.