A deal has finally been reached for AFL Aussie rules football teams the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers to play at the soon-to-be-opened Perth Stadium from next year.
Following a lengthy period of negotiation, the West Australian government has reached a compromise with the AFL and the Western Australian Football Commission for the two teams to begin playing at the 60,000-capacity venue in 2018. The stadium will open in January.
The AFL had reportedly demanded that other sporting codes subsidise any shortfall generated by moving the two teams from Domain Stadium to Perth Stadium, and reports had suggested that the league had been prepared to remain at the former venue next year.
However, WAFC chairman Murray McHenry has denied that this was the case and he said, according to the WAtoday news website: “Who made the threat? It was only ever written in the paper – it was never said by the board at any stage.”
Under the terms of the agreement signed by the AFL, the WAFC will receive Aus$10.3m (£6.1m/€6.8m/$8m) per annum of league-generated income at the venue over 10 years. A second deal has been signed covering the Eagles’ and Dockers’ home and away games, as well as AFL Finals matches for 50 years from 2018.
Fifty thousand of the venue’s 60,000 seats will be made available for fans of the Eagles and Dockers on home game days. A further 6,000 will be given to non-members, while 1,385 memberships will be sold by stadium operator VenuesLive and 1,000 tickets reserved for tourism packages.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said in a statement: “We’ve been able to secure this historic agreement for Western Australian football fans after many years of negotiations. We inherited the negotiations from the previous government and have worked constructively for many months with the WAFC and AFL to come to an agreement.
“The West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers will now enjoy world-class facilities at the new stadium and funding for grassroots football has been secured as a result. Western Australians have invested at least Aus$1.46bn into this facility and football will be able to leverage off that investment and continue to grow into the future. Following the initial 10-year period, this deal prevents future governments from having to top-up funding, making this a fair deal for all Western Australians.”
Following the announcement, the Dockers revealed details of Virtual Perth Stadium, an online portal that will allow fans and members to sample 360-degree views of the venue.
The team’s general manager of business operations, David Pitts, said: “Virtual Perth Stadium is a state-of-the-art online portal that has been designed to provide all Fremantle members and fans the ability to see incredible 360-degree views from almost every section of the stadium.
“In the coming weeks Fremantle Dockers members will also start to receive their reserved seating allocation for the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership season. The club has committed to ensuring that there will also be more affordable reserved seating options available to our members at Perth Stadium, compared to the previous options at Domain Stadium.”
In other news, family-owned, Perth-based pie company Mrs Mac’s has won a tender to supply pies and pastries at the stadium. Mrs Mac’s saw off competition from eastern state companies to sign a five-year deal with venue operators.
Image: Perth Stadium
Share this