Despite high demand for tickets, the AFL has decided against moving this Saturday’s all-Sydney qualifying final between the Swans and Giants from the SCG to the larger Accor Stadium.
Tuesday saw the sale of about 30,000 briefs; the AFL warned that there were only “very limited” tickets left, and they were anticipated to sell out on Wednesday.
“Playing at the Olympic Stadium is not in the cards,” one AFL representative informed this masthead.
Any thoughts of rescheduling the Swans-Giants match are compounded by the fact that the NRL round 27 match between Canterbury and North Queensland is planned for Accor Stadium at 5.30pm on the same day that this weekend is designated as a bye round ahead of the AFL finals.
The Sunday match between the fourth-place Giants and the first-place Swans would further cut into the loser’s recuperation period before the championship the following weekend. A week vacation will be given to the winner before to the preliminary final.
The last AFL game held at the 82,000-seat Accor Stadium took place in 2016, with over 60,000 spectators for the Giants vs. Swans qualifying final. Up until 2015, the Swans held three of their eleven home games at the SCG; however, the average attendance fell short of 30,000, which led the team to move all eleven regular season games to the SCG.
The main issue is that the Swans have grown too popular; throughout their 11 home games this season, they have averaged record attendance of about 39,000, setting a record for the regular season of more than 420,000.
The members’ sector has been under strain as a result. Having to pay $20 for a reserved seat in the finals instead than just swiping in with their membership card has irritated some SCG members. The remaining 8,000 seats are available to them and will go on sale this Thursday.
Filling up
On Tuesday, several members got in touch with this masthead.
The member, who gave his name but wished to remain anonymous, claimed that “Venues NSW have been whittling away members entitlements all year, by restricting use of the club cards and closing the membership reserve early as it reaches capacity.”
Venues NSW sells the seats in the members section twice—once to SCG members and once to Swans Red Zone members—which is why capacity is frequently reached.
Regarding the final, all SCG members received detailed instructions.
The email sent to SCG members stated, “Since this is an AFL finals match (as opposed to regular season games), standard membership entitlements do not apply.”
“Members must use the AXS ticketing portal to acquire a $20 reserved seat ticket. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday, August 29 at 10:00 a.m. Please be aware that members must have purchased a ticket in order to enter the SCG; walk-up seats and day passes will not be available.
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