By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG’S first AFL final in more than a century has positioned Simonds Stadium for more major national and international events, according to City Hall, the league and the Cats.
The match generated about $5 million for the city and bolstered the stadium’s case for T20 cricket, rugby, A-League soccer and other top-line sport clashes.
Cats chief Brian Cook said the final “would have raised an eyebrow of interest” among the other sports.
“There’s no doubt it was a spectacle. It was really high class, an outstanding event, and others will be watching with great interest.
“It puts us on the map, no doubt about it, and the social and economic impact was just enormous.
I’d say about $5 million was generated inside and outside the ground. From a social point of view, it was just amazing.’’
Acting mayor Bruce Harwood said hospitality venues, taxis, service stations and other businesses shared in the cash.
AFL boss Andrew Demetriou had complimented Geelong on its stadium and staging of the Cats-Dockers qualifying clash, Cr Harwood said.
“We had a record 32,500 crowd at Simonds Stadium and, okay, we didn’t win the game but from a purely economic and social aspect it was a huge success and Geelong should be pretty proud.”
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said the league was “extremely pleased” with the crowd result.
Fremantle members took up just over 50 per cent of their 4000 allocated tickets, Geelong members snaffled 85 per cent of their allocation and the general public bought the rest, he said.
Mr Keane said any future AFL finals in Geelong would depend on circumstances.
“The AFL’s position for this final was that we used the ground because the MCG was already hosting three finals.
“We did explore four finals at the MCG but ruled that out and therefore it was a decision of Simonds versus Etihad Stadium and we plumped for Simonds on the basis the crowd would be similar.
“Had Geelong been playing a bigger-drawing opponent or had there not been three other matches at the MCG we would not have played the game at Simonds.”
