Aussie Rules football (AFL) is the major sport in Victoria, thats the state at the bottom with Melbourne in. Its given a religious like status, its players gods, its major stadia churches.
Its a strange sport, played on cricket ovals (someone's got to use them in the winter) with similar rules to Gaelic Football (there's an International Rules game, a hybrid of the two played every few years). It has two sets of posts, so that if you don't score then at least you get a point for trying. Its a high scoring game and draws are rare, though they do happen, as it did in the Grand Final last year. It happens so rarely that they haven't really considered a protocol for what happens when it does, instead having an entire replay for the final match of the season. Again, this is no bad thing, the first Grand Final had just 25,000 tickets for fans of the two teams in a 100,000 seater stadium. Talk about corporate hospitality. Not even UEFA are that bad.
AFL commentators claim that a draw is the worst result for the players. In some ways thats ridiculous, surely losing is worse. But they have a point. The players look so confused when it happens, like they don't know what to do. They only know winning or losing (as such its a bit of an American sport) and any other outcome is just confusing. And bless them, its not as if they have many brain cells to try and figure it out. AFL is a bit of a brutal game, and the number of injuries took up about five minutes of the sports news on Sunday night.
But the thing about the AFL is that they're real assholes. They feel as if they're sport is under attack, that it must be protected at all costs, and damn anyone else, and any other sport. There will be no compromise, the AFL rules over all. When Australia were bidding for the 2022 Football World Cup, there were huge arguements over whether it would be possible to hold any matches in Victoria, as all the major stadia (such as the iconic MCG) would be being used by the AFL season. Would they consider altering their schedule, or rearranging games such that at least the MCG could be used. Not bloody likely.
This year the attendance for the Australian Grand Prix hit a new low, around 280,000 people, down from well over 400,000 in its first year. Blame this year lay firmly at the feet of AFL, who scheduled their opening weekend at the same time, taking 215,000 fans in five games played in Melbourne. That's over half a million sports fans attending events in Melbourne over the weekend (1/8th of the population were there no external fans). The organiser of the Grand Prix blamed the AFL and wondered if it might be possible to change the opening weekend of the AFL in future years since the grand prix's place on the calendar is fairly fixed. Asked if he thought this was likely, he laughed. This point was put to an AFL spokesman, his response "This is Melbourne mate". Arrogance?
The AFL holds sway down south, whether you like it or not.
Its a strange sport, played on cricket ovals (someone's got to use them in the winter) with similar rules to Gaelic Football (there's an International Rules game, a hybrid of the two played every few years). It has two sets of posts, so that if you don't score then at least you get a point for trying. Its a high scoring game and draws are rare, though they do happen, as it did in the Grand Final last year. It happens so rarely that they haven't really considered a protocol for what happens when it does, instead having an entire replay for the final match of the season. Again, this is no bad thing, the first Grand Final had just 25,000 tickets for fans of the two teams in a 100,000 seater stadium. Talk about corporate hospitality. Not even UEFA are that bad.
AFL commentators claim that a draw is the worst result for the players. In some ways thats ridiculous, surely losing is worse. But they have a point. The players look so confused when it happens, like they don't know what to do. They only know winning or losing (as such its a bit of an American sport) and any other outcome is just confusing. And bless them, its not as if they have many brain cells to try and figure it out. AFL is a bit of a brutal game, and the number of injuries took up about five minutes of the sports news on Sunday night.
But the thing about the AFL is that they're real assholes. They feel as if they're sport is under attack, that it must be protected at all costs, and damn anyone else, and any other sport. There will be no compromise, the AFL rules over all. When Australia were bidding for the 2022 Football World Cup, there were huge arguements over whether it would be possible to hold any matches in Victoria, as all the major stadia (such as the iconic MCG) would be being used by the AFL season. Would they consider altering their schedule, or rearranging games such that at least the MCG could be used. Not bloody likely.
This year the attendance for the Australian Grand Prix hit a new low, around 280,000 people, down from well over 400,000 in its first year. Blame this year lay firmly at the feet of AFL, who scheduled their opening weekend at the same time, taking 215,000 fans in five games played in Melbourne. That's over half a million sports fans attending events in Melbourne over the weekend (1/8th of the population were there no external fans). The organiser of the Grand Prix blamed the AFL and wondered if it might be possible to change the opening weekend of the AFL in future years since the grand prix's place on the calendar is fairly fixed. Asked if he thought this was likely, he laughed. This point was put to an AFL spokesman, his response "This is Melbourne mate". Arrogance?
The AFL holds sway down south, whether you like it or not.
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