22,902. That was the total attendance for last night’s sudden death final between Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory at Etihad Stadium.

Yet the stats that should be getting more attention is that 30457, or 57% of the seats, were empty.

That is more empty seats than the total capacity of AAMI Park. I am grateful that the game itself served to provide as much entertainment as it did as otherwise it could have been a very dull evening.

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It’s not exactly a pretty picture for our game.

So why on earth did Oxford St insist on the game being played at the despised venue?

Any fan worth their salt could have told you that Docklands, on a Friday night and against the AFL, would struggle to attract more than 30-odd thousand, even if the fixture had been against a rival such as Sydney.

AAMI Park is one of the best football stadiums in Australia, yet it will be unused until Monday for an NRL fixture.

A whole weekend was available there to strategically place the match into an already packed sports schedule in Melbourne, compared to Dockland’s sole availability on Friday.

One of football’s best assets is its unique atmosphere, atmosphere that is greatly enhanced when played in a suitably designed and sized stadium, something Docklands most certainly is not.



Surely by now, both the Melbourne and Sydney derbies have shown that crowd numbers are minor factors. When it comes to match-day atmosphere, crowds of nineteen to thirty thousand have put to shame AFL and NRL crowds two or three times the size.

Thus to under utilise both the selling point of atmosphere and one of football’s key pieces of infrastructure is unforgivable.

What truly baffles me is that the MLS, a similarly young league to our own yet with a larger population to take advantage of, plays its grand final with no such drama at football grounds with a capacity under 30,000.

Why is it so hard for us to do such a thing in Australia? We have the boutique stadiums, why not use them?