Soccer City, Johannesburg, South Africa (still under construction its where the 2010 World Cup final will be played) (capacity, 91,141):
Wall St was down 94 overnight, its biggest fall in a month, while the local market is down 66.
MCG vs. Stadium Australia: a FIFA World Cup final showdown
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At his press conference after beating Japan 2-1 last night Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek reiterated how great the Melbourne Cricket Ground is to play at. Whether the MCG is Verbeek’s favourite Australian ground is unknown, but should Australia be successful in its bid for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup the decision as to where the final is to be played will provide the mother of all headaches for the Football Federation of Australia. “If you play at home, at such a great stadium with so many fans coming to this game then you want to win this game,” Verbeek said. Indeed, the MCG is a brilliant and magical place to watch sport; but Sydney’s Stadium Australia has its fans too, given that Sydney is the FFA’s home and Australia’s marquee city, and is probably a better ground to watch a game of football. In the days leading up to Japan vs. Australia match, FFA CEO Ben Buckley urged Victorians to vote with their feet by attending the MCG showdown. The Herald Sun reported:
If Australia wins the right to host a World Cup — the whole Sydney vs. Melbourne thing will kick into overdrive as to who should host the World Cup final. But despite the love in the room for the G last night, there are serious questions over the suitability of the ground. As Greg Baum wrote in The Age today:
Baum has a point: the MCG is so big that to sit at the top of the Great Southern Stand would require the Hubble Telescope to follow the play. And while a World Cup final atmosphere would warrant the attendence alone, you would feel aggrieved at getting a ticket to the game only to watch it on the giant plasma inside the ground. It’s first and foremost an AFL and cricket venue. So let’s compare Stadium Australia and the MCG vs the great football stadiums in the world: The MCG, Melbourne, Australia (capacity: just over 100,000):
Stadium Australia, Sydney, Australia (capacity 83,500):
Nou Camp, Barcelona, Spain (capacity, 98,772):
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales (74,500):
The most obvious difference is that our grounds are oval and not custom built for a rectangle game. And if they MCG are to host the World Cup they may have to have a word to MCG security. At about half way through the first half last night I was removed, along with a Turkish journalist from Zaman, from my seat because the Zaman journalist was taking photos. He wasn’t wearing a “photographers bib” (he wasn’t aware of the MCG and FFA’s strict media guidelines) — and we were escorted by four burly security guards to the media centre while they checked our credentials. He had unknowingly done the wrong thing and was removed. I was escorted out by association. And as I checked the TV screen to watch the game, one guard told me I wasn’t allowed to watch. The FFA quickly and professionally sorted it out — we both returned to our seats in the second half — but I missed about 10 minutes of the game. But that didn’t dent a truly brilliant night. Australia was on top of the world (well at least five points clear on top of Asia) and South Africa beckons. |
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15 Comments
Leigh, is that your first visit to the G? Have you actually sat at the top of the Southern Stand before? The view is not that bad. And the Ponsford/Olympic Stands are actually higher up. Nice to see that media types are thinking about the punters in the cheap seats.
I don’t think that the G is any less suitable than Stadium Australia (hardly a boutique stadium)… neither is specifically designed for soccer. I went to the match last night, watched from an elevated position and the view was fine.
Cheers Luke. I have. Lots and lots of times. I guess I was trying to point out the custom built rectangular grounds provide a much better viewing platform for the spectaors ffor football (or League or union etc).
I watched the Australia vs. Greece friendly a fews years back at the G from the back of the Ponsford Stand. Great game, great atmosphere — just that the G is so massive you are so far back.
Anyway, a full house at either the ‘G or SA will be awesome (if our bid is successful and I hope to Cahill it is).
I have sat at the top of the Nou Camp, you are still miles away.
Now run that by me again, Leigh “we don’t play football at the MCG?” We invented the game of “football” in the Richmond Police paddocks where the MCG now stands. We have been playing it there since the 1840s when your soccer (short for AsSOCiationFootball) was just a dirty thought in Rugby’s mind. Get a grip!
G’day Terry.
I’m a big AFL fan too. Doesn’t mean I can’t love both games. And fighting over what is the correct name of football, soccer, AFL etc is semantics.
There’s enough love for all the sports to coexist.
Go Freo.
It’s got to be the G. The arguments above in favour of Homebush -
FFA headquartered in Sydney - totally irrelevant.
Sydney is Australia’s marquee city - agree that it is, but would you move the Aus Open tennis away from Melbourne for that reason? No. Even Adelaide hosted the Oz Grand Prix for many years. Were there murmurs that Adelaide was too un-marquee for such a task? No. End of the day, that status does not matter.
The only argument that works is that Homebush is a better ground to watch the game at. But really there’s not much in it. AFL and cricket are both played at Homebush, so it’s not that much smaller (I know some seats move a bit).
Arguments in favour of MCG -
1. 17,000 extra seats. A significant difference.
2. Sporting capital of the country. Not much of a factor.
3. Soccer capital of the country. This is a big factor. Melbourne A League crowds are WAY superior to Sydney’s, and similarly Socceroo crowds are also larger.
4. History of the stadium - birthplace of test cricket, AFL home, Olympics, Commonwealth Games, it’s done it all. Maybe not much of a factor apart from what it adds to the experience of the players and crowd, and that depends on the individual.
The argument is not about the various codes of “football” but your purile assertion the MCG is a square peg in a round hole. I was at the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and most of the statiums were round holes with a square peg in them. It’s all got to do with sightlines not semantics. Your selective graphics (you must be underworked at Crikey) did not include these examples from the last World Cup: Berlin Olymplastadion, the Allianz Arena in Munich, the Gottlieb-Damler stadium in Stutgart, the Zentral Stadium in Leipzig and the AWD Arena in Hanover. Only a box head would not understand the meaning of the word “arena”. BTW, the Sydney Olympic Stadium was reconfigured as an oval after the 2000 Games.
after the union trouble in south africa with the stewards should the ffa prepareas an emergency to replace south africa? Also why dont the socceroos just accept soccer. What is a kiwifruit in China? Does it make it any less a Kiwifruit or just more recognisable. Australia should own the term soccer. Yes the rest of the world calls it football, if the rest of the world jumped off a bridge…..
An idea for a future article “did the ffa err in selling the a-league rights before the world cup?”
I dont think australia has a snowballs chance myself but at least the ffa get to waste some registration money at the fifa trough.
Actually, the last three world cup finals were all held at oval stadia with athletics tracks around them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Stadium_(Berlin)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Stadium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stade_de_France
We indeed have no chance in ‘18 and possibly not much in ‘22, but we’ll host it before mid-century - and by then we’ll have a proper rectangular 80,000 seat football stadium somewhere - its just a matter of which State is smart enough to do it first.
Wherever it is I’ll be dragging my 60 or 70something carcass to it that’s for sure, while on the other hand even now i don’t bother going to the Olympic Stadium for football or rugby anymore because the view is appalling compared to the SFS - Its got to be a rectangle folks!
ANZ stadium is technically not an oval - the stands can be adjusted to suit oval or rectangular configuration. The picture that accompanies the article shows the stadium in oval setting - hence the cricket pitch in the middle. the ground actually seats a few thousand more in rectangular format.
However by 2018, ANZ will be 20 years old, so there would be pressure to give the place a facelift as befitting the world cup. The MCG would also have similar demand, with the Great Southern Stand almost 30 years by that point.
What I think is more concerning is the need to have 10 stadiums capable of seating at least 40,000 people. We’re a long way short of meeting that. Even regional venues home to pro teams like Gosford, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Townsville and the new soccer and leagues ground in Melbourne won’t meet these demands.
I don’t think people appreciate just how good our chances are of hosting in 2022. England or somewhere else in Europe will likely host 2018, but that means that a European country cannot host 2022. That only other bids are from…Mexico, USA, Qatar, Indonesia, Japan (if they get 2016 Olympics), South Korea. That’s it - someone on that list (or us) wins.
I won’t go into detail, but really I see a two horse race between Australia and the USA. If Mexico could get it’s law and order problems under control over the next 12 months they would be a contender.
The USA hosted in 1994, we have never hosted. People like us, the yanks…not so popular. Our chances are very, very good.
Dear Crikey,
Might I suggest that you employ someone who knows how to undertake basic research, as it is more than obvious that Leigh Josey does not.
Stadium Australia was a name used during the 2000 Olympics. Post the Games it was renamed Telstra Stadium as part of a sponsrship deal, which lasted until late 2007, at which time the sponsorship and naming rights changed to ANZ.
Thus today it is known as ANZ Stadium.
In addition, the statement “The most obvious difference is that our grounds are oval and not custom built for a rectangle game” further undermines the article’s credibility.
ANZ Stadium is fitted with sliding seats on both long sides of the ground, which slide out for Cricket and AFL, and inwards for Soccer, Rugby Union and Rugby League. This brings the opatrons closer to the action in the rectangular field games. It requires no alterations beyond flicking a switch, and takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Sloppy work such as this undermines an article which might otherwise have had some relevance, and calls into question how much else of this article is actually accurate.
Crikey Position Vacant ad; Wanted, a sports reporter who actually knows what they are talking about and how to do research.
LOL
no chance you work for either SOPA or ANZ is there Michael? and you obviously don’t listen to much ABC radio, where they’ve never given your dear sponsors naming rights either, or you’d be calling in non-stop to complain. Perhaps you do.
Personally I will always think of it as Homebush or even more correctly the White Elephant. To insert a bit of much needed logic into this, so what if they shuffle a few of the most expensive seats closer to the sidelines for a football match? I hate to break it to you, but they can’t slide the whole stadium in, so most people are still watching from miles away. Its a crap view, I can tell you from repeated personal experience, while on the other hand there isn’t a bad seat at the SFS.
It is simple logic that a stadium designed for a rectangular pitch will provide a better view for a rectangular game. the stands are much closer so EVERYONE gets a better view.
Position vacant: PR hack who doesn’t personally abuse every journo who hasn’t drunk the kool-aid
As great as the MCG is as a stadium it really is not suitable for football. The problem isn’t up in the nose bleed section it’s down on the ground section. If you look at the arial shot above you can see there’s a whole lot of space between the fence and the pitch. There’s no way people will be happy about coming all the way around the globe and paying premium prices to sit 50m from the nearest point of the pitch.
ANZ is also a bit far at the ends but that has been designed to accommodate cricket and AFL. The ends stands could be rebuilt, brought forward and bigger making it larger in capacity than the G anyway.
My question is what does the AFL do without the MCG? Considering FIFA don’t allow any sport to played on the ground for a time prior to the event. Will they suspend the season?