joffa, wish I'd known about that at the time, I would have backed you up. I hate the place. I've been there once, and that was mandatory, because my team were in the finals for the first time since 96. Even with the organisation going fairly smoothly, the queues were horrendous, especially on the concourse from Spencer Street. The much vaunted atmosphere was a beat up - way, way better at the MCG. The surface was the best it had been all year and it was still crap. They'd painted the grass green.
I don't want to pre-pay for tickets (well, being a club member it rarely comes up, I suppose), I don't like being told where to sit (at least in parts of the MCG you can still sit where you like), I don't know why the AFL want to go courting theatre-goers anyway, when the place can barely handle 20 000 supporters. I don't like being told every time the queues stretch to quarter time that it's the fans fault for turning up too late. And I don't like watching footy in a tv studio.
That arsehole early last year rabbiting on about educating the public in a new way of attending sport was just about the last straw. They can chuck all the cheap beer at me that they like, they can embark on publicity campaigns till their arses turn blue, they can do what they like. But until they learn to treat their supporters (the bloody people without whom there WOULD BE NO FOOTBALL, and the reason they can pay themselves so handsomely for screwing up the greatest game on earth) with respect, I won't be going to Docklands.
Unless Hawthorn play a final there. That's different.