AAMI Park (Melbourne) thread

[KissKiss]

A lot of times the sell outs at AAMI only get 26k because of people not allowing the club to resell their ticket if they are not going or corporates not attending.

The Wellington game last week had upwards of 2000 people denied entry and the crowd was only 24k. Something needs to be sorted out with that,

The whole ticket stub system used in the US would be fantastic for this sort of thing

 

[Hawker81]

A lot of times the sell outs at AAMI only get 26k because of people not allowing the club to resell their ticket if they are not going or corporates not attending.

The Wellington game last week had upwards of 2000 people denied entry and the crowd was only 24k. Something needs to be sorted out with that,

Can't people sell their ticket, or give their membership to someone else to use? Point is, if a game is big enough then people will beg, steal or borrow to get a ticket. So if those 2000 people really wanted to go, then they still could have got in somehow, and people with tickets would have seen a market in selling them.

 

[Aucklander]

What kind of attendance do the Storm and Rebels get to home games at AAMI?

The Storm had their 2nd highest home average this year. 14894. The Rebels averaged 11396.

In 1997 that average was zero for both teams.

Fantastic venue which generates an amazing atmosphere and sound. Reminds me of my younger days down at Carlaw Pk in Auckland.

 

[WagonBang]

For every team except Melbourne Victory its perfect.
Melb Victory v Wellington Cup Eve match last week was an official Sell Out with 23,800. To reach 30k at Swan St you need every corporate box/seat and all members to show. So the 30k crowd at Etihad v Wanderers is about 6k more then they'd get across town.

Victory now have 23,400 members and increasing. If they do get constant sell outs I can see calls for expansion.

 

[muppet007]

The laying of the new turf is almost completed ahead of this Sundays game between Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners.

 

[bombersfan4000]

The laying of the new turf is almost completed ahead of this Sundays game between Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners.

its getting relaid already
in the cricket last nite, taylor and slater were crapping on that Stadium Australia is having the grass relaid for the first time since the 200 olympics

 

[WagonBang]

its getting relaid already
in the cricket last nite, taylor and slater were crapping on that Stadium Australia is having the grass relaid for the first time since the 200 olympics

All stadiums hosting Asain Cup matches in January are getting a new Surface.
Hunter and ANZ Stadiums cow paddocks finally getting re done with Hunter Stadiums completed last week. Swan St was completed today.
Not sure when Lang Parks Sand Pit is set to be re done.

 

[bombersfan4000]

All stadiums hosting Asain Cup matches in January are getting a new Surface.
Hunter and ANZ Stadiums cow paddocks finally getting re done with Hunter Stadiums completed last week. Swan St was completed today.
Not sure when Lang Parks Sand Pit is set to be re done.

ANZ stadium has always looked like a cow paddock! Hunter stadium gets used for what 13 games a year, it should have no excuse for looking crap

 

[Aucklander]

Hunter stadium gets used for what 13 games a year, it should have no excuse for looking crap

A lot more than 13.

 

[Speck]

Hunter stadium gets used for what 13 games a year, it should have no excuse for looking crap

That wasn't the problem though. It was so bad because it had been re-laid about 2 days prior due to the Asian Cup. It was more of a poor scheduling issue rather than a turf/stadium issue.

 

[WagonBang]

ANZ stadium has always looked like a cow paddock! Hunter stadium gets used for what 13 games a year, it should have no excuse for looking crap

The surface never recovered from a motor cross event held at the stadium in 2010 when they had to get government to fund $500k in emergency funding to fix the surface prior to Newcastle Jets match v LA Galaxy it was so bad. The stadium is only used for 11 NRL and 14 A-League games a year (excluding finals). Should be one of the best in the country. It is regularly voted worst pitch in the A-League.

Last weekend it was played on 23 hours after it was completed. Was always going to be a sluggish slow pitch.

 

[Aucklander]

The stadium is only used for 11 NRL and 14 A-League games a year (excluding finals).

No it isn't. You also have Holden Cup and NSW Cup games which are bound to have some effect on the ground long term.

 

[WagonBang]

No it isn't. You also have Holden Cup and NSW Cup games which are bound to have some effect on the ground long term.

I don't follow NRL/League so was unaware Youth Comp and Local comp get played on main stadiums. Still should be no where near that bad.
Not like they have Super Rugby on Friday, A-League Saturday and NRL/Holden Cup Sunday which Swan Street gets come March/April like earlier this year and still the ground holds up excellent

 

[The Coup]

The Storm had their 2nd highest home average this year. 14894. The Rebels averaged 11396.

In 1997 that average was zero for both teams.

Fantastic venue which generates an amazing atmosphere and sound. Reminds me of my younger days down at Carlaw Pk in Auckland.

Yeah I really can't talk it up enough. Love the atmosphere there.

Just goes to show when the government builds something it actually tends to be a better product than what the private sector can manage (Etihad).

I'm just wondering what the next step is for soccer?

Surely Victory fans aren't too happy that due to their size they get sent to the inferior stadium? Can AAMI Park ever be expanded? I read years ago (from memory) that it would be really hard.

What's the next step? A bigger rectangle stadium right next to it would look silly, but where else would you put it? The location is perfect as is.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Etihad is great and the Victory aren't selling out every single game at AAMI. The big ones, derbies and finals, get shifted away to the bigger stadium. When there aren't seats left for matches against the Phoenix and Newcastle, the next step would be to concentrate on membership – so you have, say, 75% of seats only available if you pre-book and sign up. You'd end up operating the Victory much like Freo and West Coast are operated.

There's no way AAMI'll be upgraded, the roof has to be totally demolished and they'll only do that when 70+ percent of events are being sold out.

 

[Aucklander]

I'm just wondering what the next step is for soccer?

Surely Victory fans aren't too happy that due to their size they get sent to the inferior stadium? Can AAMI Park ever be expanded? I read years ago (from memory) that it would be really hard.

What's the next step? A bigger rectangle stadium right next to it would look silly, but where else would you put it? The location is perfect as is.

Probably have to roll with Etihad for the time being. The great pity is, they never used the retactable seating enough there. I always found games so much better with the seats out despite it seeming still kind of sterile.

 

[The Coup]

Etihad is great and the Victory aren't selling out every single game at AAMI. The big ones, derbies and finals, get shifted away to the bigger stadium. When there aren't seats left for matches against the Phoenix and Newcastle, the next step would be to concentrate on membership – so you have, say, 75% of seats only available if you pre-book and sign up. You'd end up operating the Victory much like Freo and West Coast are operated.

There's no way AAMI'll be upgraded, the roof has to be totally demolished and they'll only do that when 70+ percent of events are being sold out.

I see you're from WA, fair enough if you think Etihad is great by comparison.

To me and some other Melburnians I know, the whole precinct makes Etihad a bit of a joke, and whilst the view isn't bad (legitimately great actually) for AFL games it's hardly ideal for A-League or Rugby.

 

[The Coup]

It is a great stadium and exactly what Melbourne needed.

Although I'm sick of always reading that it is too small. For Storm and Rebels, if anything it is too big. For City it is also too big for all games bar the derby. For Victory it is a good size except for the derby, and the biggest matches. They only got 30K against WSW at Etihad, which would have been much better at AAMI park. Even if it meant that 1000 of those people could not get in, at least it then drives demand and makes getting a membership even more important. Im not sure what is with the obsession of being afraid of a game selling out at a stadium occasionally. It rarely happens now at AAMI.

Admittedly Victory may "outgrow" the stadium in the future, but I can't see the other 3 teams doing the same for a very long time, if at all.

City got 15k against Newcastle this year at home, that's a huge crowd for City.

Give it two or three years, they'll win an A-League title in that time I think, and they might be bigger than Victory in membership numbers.

 

[Hawker81]

City got 15k against Newcastle this year at home, that's a huge crowd for City.

Give it two or three years, they'll win an A-League title in that time I think, and they might be bigger than Victory in membership numbers.

They got fewer than 10,000 to the match on the weekend. I won't be holding my breath for them to be consistently selling out AAMI park.

They got 15k due to all the hype with david villa, and the man city buyout. Can't see them getting more than 15k again until they host victory.

 

[The Coup]

They got fewer than 10,000 to the match on the weekend. I won't be holding my breath for them to be consistently selling out AAMI park.

They got 15k due to all the hype with david villa, and the man city buyout. Can't see them getting more than 15k again until they host victory.

Sunday twilight is the worst timetable in sport for attendance.

Anywhere near 10k in that slot is massive for City. Looked great on TV.

 

[Speck]

City got 15k against Newcastle this year at home, that's a huge crowd for City.

Give it two or three years, they'll win an A-League title in that time I think, and they might be bigger than Victory in membership numbers.

Not a chance. The fact that the Victory have 23.4k members (their record) in a season where Heart were bought out by City and brought David Villa out (even if it was only for a month) speaks numbers, if people didn't jump ship this season they never will.

In terms of the Victory's stadium, it's a funny one. Ideally you'd love another 5k on top of AAMI Park but it seems that isn't possible (bar possible safe standing which I can't see happening). It's a delicate balancing act of supply v demand. The club already mucked it up first season at AAMI when it was all reserved seating, there needs to be GA but you run the risk of lockouts in that situation.

 

[Red Crow]

Welcome to the AAMI park thread, I searched and was surprised to see that this ground didn't already have a thread anyway: it is the home of Melbourne City fc, Melbourne Rebels and Melbourne Storm with a capacity of 30,050 and it's non sponsor name is Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

Did you deliberately leave Melbourne Victory out as a home tenant? Just because we play a few home matches at Etihad does not make AAMI any less of a home ground. Many people consider Etihad to be our home ground but either don't know or ignorantly dismiss the following:

- The split of games is 8 at AAMI and 5 at Etihad

- Our administration and training base is at the ground (City's isn't)

- Melbourne Heart (and Rebels for that matter) didn't even exist when the ground was announced to be built (not even in "bidding" or formative stages)

- The ground was actually built to its current size purely because of Victory. It was originally going to be only 20k, but Victory wouldn't sign on as it would be too small. With Storm being the only other tenant at the time it simply would not have been built. It was increased to 30k on the condition that Victory signed as a tenant.

So to dismiss this ground as not being the home of Melbourne Victory is grossly misguided.


FWIW, the ground will never be expanded. This despite the fact that foundations to expand to 50k were included in the construction. Because of the fancy roof, which is entirely self supported, it would be cheaper to bulldoze the whole place to the ground and start again from scratch.

I do fear slightly for the future of Melbourne Victory at the ground, though. The average crowd might only be low 20s, but the games this season have been "selling out". For this weekends game against Newcastle, all GA seats have been turned into Cat C reserved seats in a bid to boost attendances. Its hard with the small GA section - they need to have enough for all their GA members but also want some for walk-ups. Its a difficult balance. Having the whole stadium reserved isn't ideal either - it was a disaster in the first season there.

IMO, either the price of Cat A/B seats need to be reduced, or the sizes of those areas reduced. These are the seats that don't sell as well for single match-day tickets because they are too expensive for one-offs. They're mostly filled with members, and if they can't make it and try to re-sell their ticket they're unlikely to get picked up. Unfortunately the flip-side of this is that it would then affect the bottom line financially. We get a sweet financial deal from Etihad which could make up for it, but when the AFL takes over there it could change things. These ticketing issues coupled with low corporate box attendances affects the overall crowd averages.

Fantastic stadium though. Have never been for anything other than a Victory game, but the atmosphere is second-to-none!

 

[Red Crow]

Probably have to roll with Etihad for the time being. The great pity is, they never used the retactable seating enough there. I always found games so much better with the seats out despite it seeming still kind of sterile.

Its happening more and more though. Last season they did it for all home games except the derby, and this season they announced they would do it for all home games. Unfortunately due to "unforseen maintenance" they couldn't do it for the Sydney FC game a couple weeks ago.

It makes for a much better atmosphere, but its still nothing compared to AAMI.

 

[Cody_]

Did you deliberately leave Melbourne Victory out as a home tenant? Just because we play a few home matches at Etihad does not make AAMI any less of a home ground. Many people consider Etihad to be our home ground but either don't know or ignorantly dismiss the following:

- The split of games is 8 at AAMI and 5 at Etihad

- Our administration and training base is at the ground (City's isn't)

- Melbourne Heart (and Rebels for that matter) didn't even exist when the ground was announced to be built (not even in "bidding" or formative stages)

- The ground was actually built to its current size purely because of Victory. It was originally going to be only 20k, but Victory wouldn't sign on as it would be too small. With Storm being the only other tenant at the time it simply would not have been built. It was increased to 30k on the condition that Victory signed as a tenant.

So to dismiss this ground as not being the home of Melbourne Victory is grossly misguided.


FWIW, the ground will never be expanded. This despite the fact that foundations to expand to 50k were included in the construction. Because of the fancy roof, which is entirely self supported, it would be cheaper to bulldoze the whole place to the ground and start again from scratch.

I do fear slightly for the future of Melbourne Victory at the ground, though. The average crowd might only be low 20s, but the games this season have been "selling out". For this weekends game against Newcastle, all GA seats have been turned into Cat C reserved seats in a bid to boost attendances. Its hard with the small GA section - they need to have enough for all their GA members but also want some for walk-ups. Its a difficult balance. Having the whole stadium reserved isn't ideal either - it was a disaster in the first season there.

IMO, either the price of Cat A/B seats need to be reduced, or the sizes of those areas reduced. These are the seats that don't sell as well for single match-day tickets because they are too expensive for one-offs. They're mostly filled with members, and if they can't make it and try to re-sell their ticket they're unlikely to get picked up. Unfortunately the flip-side of this is that it would then affect the bottom line financially. We get a sweet financial deal from Etihad which could make up for it, but when the AFL takes over there it could change things. These ticketing issues coupled with low corporate box attendances affects the overall crowd averages.

Fantastic stadium though. Have never been for anything other than a Victory game, but the atmosphere is second-to-none!

Completely forgot about Victory will update this shortly thanks for that mate

 

[Cody_]

Anyone been to any of the Asian cup games at AAMI yet???