Western Bulldogs and the MCG factor

[Eastdog]

Don't think it will happen but here goes:

We play mostly at Marvel and yes I understand that is our home ground but it would be great if we could play much more at the MCG than we do given that's where all finals are played.

It would give us a chance to play in front of bigger crowds and get more used to the wide expanses of the MCG.

The Melbourne clubs who play mostly at Marvel and not at the G would have the same argument.

 

[Werewolf]

It would be nice to get 4-5 H&A games there every year. We can hope!

 

[In Repair]

Don't think it will happen but here goes:

We play mostly at Marvel and yes understand that is our home ground but it would be great if we could play much more at the MCG than we do given that's where all finals are played.

It would give us a chance to play in front of bigger crowds and get more used to the wide expanses of the MCG.

The Melbourne clubs who play mostly at Marvel and not at the G would have the same argument.

Please forgive me if this shows my absolute ignorance coming from a soccer background where different grounds have different lengths and widths but I think we should have explored making the the size of whitten oval similar to that of the G.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Firstly I’ll say that I believe all our home finals should be played at the MCG. We’ve also shown we are good enough to win interstate finals against Port Adelaide, Brisbane, GWS and West Coast to make our Grand Finals. If we’re good enough to win in those situations, then we should be good enough to win at the MCG. Plus Geelong have won 4 Premierships and made 2 other GFs without getting to play on their home ground for finals.

In saying that, it probably is a little stupid that we don’t get to play there more times during the year. If you’re going to enter an agreement that all Victorian teams play their home finals at the MCG for the next 50 years, you should probably have the courtesy of giving them 4 or 5 games at the venue instead of 1 or 2

 

[Prince Imperial]

Don't think it will happen but here goes:

We play mostly at Marvel and yes understand that is our home ground but it would be great if we could play much more at the MCG than we do given that's where all finals are played.

It would give us a chance to play in front of bigger crowds and get more used to the wide expanses of the MCG.

The Melbourne clubs who play mostly at Marvel and not at the G would have the same argument.

Our 2025 fixture request should include a photo of the Hawks' "Our House" banner from last night for our "home" final.

 

[BallaratBulldog]

We seem to always get Melbourne and Richmond at the G.

What we miss out on is Hawks playing us at tassie. Collingwood and Carlton have a home game at Marvel vs us. Geelong will always request us at KP.

It is doable to get two more.

 

[flamethrower]

Please forgive me if this shows my absolute ignorance coming from a soccer background where different grounds have different lengths and widths but I think we should have explored making the the size of whitten oval similar to that of the G.

No, Whitten Oval should be the same size as Docklands. Skinner Reserve should have been rebuilt to the same dimensions as the MCG.

But we should definitely dump the 2 home games at Ballarat for 2 home games at the MCG.

 

[lachy]

No, Whitten Oval should be the same size as Docklands. Skinner Reserve should have been rebuilt to the same dimensions as the MCG.

But we should definitely dump the 2 home games at Ballarat for 2 home games at the MCG.

Said this in the Ballarat thread.

Get rid of it. Play 2 home games at the G against any of the big clubs. Yes gives them more supporters, however prepares us for finals. Also no reason for our supporters not to turn up.

The Ballarat experiment is one for a club that does not want to genuinely grow

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[Eastdog]

It would be nice to get 4-5 H&A games there every year. We can hope!

That would be really good say 5-6 home games at Marvel and 4-5 home games at the G against the higher drawing Victorian sides.

Our fans would go for sure.

We need to keep our membership figures up.

 

[Munnez]

We play so much indoors I think it impacts us significantly when it's windy.
It would be nice to get a few more games at the G

 

[dogwatch]

AFL has contractual and commercial commitments which give them little latitude to equalise the fixturing.

To overcome that we'd want to have much better arguments than the ones I've seen so far.

Interstate clubs get only 2 away games on average at the MCG. So why should we get any more? This year Port and Sydney got 3 at the G and West Coast and Gold Coast got 1. The others each got 2.

It'd be nice to have a few more, but there are more pressing inequities in the fixturing than how few games we play at the G.

 

[Mutt]

AFL has contractual and commercial commitments which give them little latitude to equalise the fixturing.

To overcome that we'd want to have much better arguments than the ones I've seen so far.

Interstate clubs get only 2 away games on average at the MCG. So why should we get any more? This year Port and Sydney got 3 at the G and West Coast and Gold Coast got 1. The others each got 2.

It'd be nice to have a few more, but there are more pressing inequities in the fixturing than how few games we play at the G.

OK. If the Marvel stadium is our exclusive home ground, then the argument should be that we play all home finals except the Grand Final at Marvel.

 

[dogwatch]

OK. If the Marvel stadium is our exclusive home ground, then the argument should be that we play all home finals except the Grand Final at Marvel.

Love to. But again the AFL has contractual and commercial commitments that prevent it. One is obviously to maximise revenue (the mission statement of the AFL). And IINM the other is a contractual commitment with the MCG Trust or the Vic Govt (or both) to play Victorian finals at the MCG. However I'm sketchy on the details so I might not have that 100% correct.

Anyone?

 

[hutchy31]

After watching how slow our entire group looked last night I’m not sure I want to see them again on that ground for a while.

But the overarching argument is correct. Melbourne teams are being disadvantaged by not playing at the MCG in the home and away and then expected to treat it as their home ground in finals. It’s ****ing ridiculous.

Some interstate teams have played at the G more than we have this year. We also played more games at the ****ing Adelaide Oval than we did at the G.

It’s ludicrous. But won’t change because equalisation isn’t a true objective of the AFL, it’s just a buzzword they use.

 

[The Inbetweener]

AFL has contractual and commercial commitments which give them little latitude to equalise the fixturing.

To overcome that we'd want to have much better arguments than the ones I've seen so far.

Interstate clubs get only 2 away games on average at the MCG. So why should we get any more? This year Port and Sydney got 3 at the G and West Coast and Gold Coast got 1. The others each got 2.

It'd be nice to have a few more, but there are more pressing inequities in the fixturing than how few games we play at the G.

It’s a bit difference for us vs interstate sides though. We are expected to play home finals there, they aren’t

 

[Eastdog]

It’s a bit difference for us vs interstate sides though. We are expected to play home finals there, they aren’t

Absolutely thus the arguement for playing more at the G. All Victorian sides should be playing a reasonable number of games at the G per season.

Playing at Marvel is fine but you want to get good exposure to the G.

 

[Mutt]

Love to. But again the AFL has contractual and commercial commitments that prevent it. One is obviously to maximise revenue (the mission statement of the AFL). And IINM the other is a contractual commitment with the MCG Trust or the Vic Govt (or both) to play Victorian finals at the MCG. However I'm sketchy on the details so I might not have that 100% correct.

Anyone?

You are correct - see the unfairness of the situation. The AFL is screwing Marvel tenants blind. It's largely the smaller clubs affected though, so who cares?

 

[dogwatch]

Absolutely thus the arguement for playing more at the G. All Victorian sides should be playing a reasonable number of games at the G per season.

Playing at Marvel is fine but you want to get good exposure to the G.

It’s a bit difference for us vs interstate sides though. We are expected to play home finals there, they aren’t

Again I agree it's a sound argument.

If there aren't contractual obstacles I'm all for it. I just fear we are snookered on this one.

 

[fred cook]

The fact that interstate sides play more games at Marvel also takes away a large home ground advantage to us.

 

[Prince Imperial]

The AFL is only contractually obliged to play 45 H&A matches at the MCG and have 10 of the 12 highest drawing games there. It is not required to give 7 Vic clubs the overwhelming bulk of H&A matches there and give the other 3 sweet FA.

The AFL controls where all Vic teams play and they blatantly favour 7 at the expense us, NM and StK with their fixturing. It hurts us commercially, in attracting players and come finals time.

https://www.footyindustry.com/afl/afl-stadiums/stadium-deals/

 

[lachy]

AFL has contractual and commercial commitments which give them little latitude to equalise the fixturing.

To overcome that we'd want to have much better arguments than the ones I've seen so far.

Interstate clubs get only 2 away games on average at the MCG. So why should we get any more? This year Port and Sydney got 3 at the G and West Coast and Gold Coast got 1. The others each got 2.

It'd be nice to have a few more, but there are more pressing inequities in the fixturing than how few games we play at the G.

We chose 2 Ballarat games

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[lachy]

Love to. But again the AFL has contractual and commercial commitments that prevent it. One is obviously to maximise revenue (the mission statement of the AFL). And IINM the other is a contractual commitment with the MCG Trust or the Vic Govt (or both) to play Victorian finals at the MCG. However I'm sketchy on the details so I might not have that 100% correct.

Anyone?

We chose 2 Ballarat games, all commitments are met if we play 2 home MCG games against the big 4

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[lachy]

The AFL is only contractually obliged to play 45 H&A matches at the MCG and have 10 of the 12 highest drawing games there. It is not required to give 7 Vic clubs the overwhelming bulk of H&A matches there and give the other 3 sweet FA.

The AFL controls where all Vic teams play and they blatantly favour 7 at the expense us, NM and StK with their fixturing. It hurts us commercially, in attracting players and come finals time.

https://www.footyindustry.com/afl/afl-stadiums/stadium-deals/

Yes the AFL has those commitments, we chose to play 2 home games at Ballarat, those could be at the MCG opening up greater opportunities for the AFL

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[Prince Imperial]

Yes the AFL has those commitments, we chose to play 2 home games at Ballarat, those could be at the MCG opening up greater opportunities for the AFL

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The Ballarat matches are against low drawing interstate teams which would be poor options for MCG games.

 

[lachy]

The Ballarat matches are against low drawing interstate teams which would be poor options for MCG games.

Yes but fine for Marvel where we would comfortably draw 20,000 plus which since the a
AFL took over the operations is fine


Why are we bedwetters with home games.

2 home games at the G against the big 4, 9 at Marvel and you know set up for those finals thingies

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