The Tigers had officially requested the clash be moved to Etihad Stadium, which is vacant on the day (Sunday, April 22), given the fact the Cats’ home ground is currently undergoing a redevelopment and can accommodate only about 26,500 spectators.
With Richmond’s 2012 membership approaching 47,000, and the Club attracting a crowd of nearly 80,000 to its season-opener against Carlton, CEO, Brendon Gale, put the case to AFL officials and his Geelong counterpart, Brian Cook, that the vast majority of Tiger members would be unable to gain access to the ground for the match.
“I’ve got a responsibility on behalf of our members to push to get them into venues where as few as possible miss out,” Gale told ‘The Age’.
“One of the guiding principles of the AFL fixture is to maximise attendances and we’ve got a situation here where 20,000 to 25,000 of our members are going to miss experiencing the game live.
“Etihad Stadium is vacant on the day in question and we’re talking about a ground with double the current capacity of Simonds. For all those reasons, we’ve requested the shift.”
The AFL, however, has stated the match will remain at Simonds Stadium.blog comments powered by Disqus
