In all likelihood, the fresh and new Bankwest Stadium in Sydney will host its final game of rugby league for 2019 this weekend.
What will follow stands to be a landmark moment in Australian sport. The sky-scraping posts will come down, NRL corporate signage removed and the stadium will be transformed into the home of the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Having been lucky enough to visit the Mariners’ home venue on the Central Coast of New South Wales and Coopers Stadium in the city of churches, like many others, I can probably claim to have experienced the most pleasant football facilities in the land for fans.
Appropriateness of size and proximity to the action are common criticisms when Australian football matches are played in cavernous venues in front of moderate crowds. Both Central Coast Stadium and Coopers provide the match day feel so often missing at larger venues.
With Australian football being the beggar rather than the chooser for so long, purpose built, fan friendly venues have been something of a pipe dream. For Australia’s most populated city, that dream now becomes a reality, and the Wanderers are just 30 days away from christening their new home.
As impressive as the stadium looks on television, seeing it first hand is an experience all in itself. However, as modern and state of the art as the facilities are, it is the safe standing section at the northern end that will attract most interest from football fans around the country.
Overzealous security, an ingrained anti-football bias and a small number of fools have torpedoed active support in Australian football during recent times. Anecdotal stories of fans being asked to remain seated and requested to tone down their barracking are common.
Wanderers’ active support group the RBB felt the full force of the heavy hand of fear and as the club traversed the state looking for a pitch on which to host matches, became somewhat dismantled.
Bankwest Stadium now looms as a potential repatriation for them and a watershed moment for football stadiums in Australia. Wanderers CEO John Tsatsimas and others championed the cause, lobbying for the inclusion of a safe standing area at Western Sydney’s new home ground, that would allow fans to support in football’s traditional style.
The safe standing rails were installed in June, undertook some small scale testing, before being successfully trialled when Leeds United took on the Wanderers the following month.
Things went well. However, the acid test will be the A-League competition, when the 1,260 standing spaces available will need to be occupied by Western Sydney Wanderers fans with a full comprehension of their role in the potential change in venue design and use in the future.
Wanderers’ manager Markus Babbel was blown away by the class of the facility, citing the standing section and viewing experience as being “absolute European top style, exactly what a soccer team needs.”
Such emotive reviews have been common place yet it will be a joyous safe standing section that provides a safe and raucous environment at the Wanderers’ home matches this season, that will truly catch the eye of the Australian sporting public.
Impressive television images of 25,000 plus enjoying the Wanderers homecoming and safe mayhem in the standing section will be the best advertisement for the league and the Australian game.
Seeing other venues experimenting with the concept would be the greatest testament to the work of Tsatsimas and those who passionately lobbied for something they hope will help differentiate football support from that of other codes and thus enhance the sense of ownership and belonging so desired by fans.
Australian football stadium design and the match day experience of supporters could be changed forever when the Western Sydney Wanderers face the Central Coast Mariners on the 12th of October in Round 1 of the A-League.
Fans managing to stand up and stay safe at the same time would be a great first step.
