By Jake Niall
Three of Marvel Stadium’s tenant clubs – Essendon, Carlton and St Kilda – have asked the AFL to reduce their number of games at the stadium that is wholly owned by the league.
Essendon are asking that the Bombers’ long-standing split of seven games at Docklands and four at the MCG be changed to six and five in favour of the MCG. The Bombers have been the anchor tenant since the ground’s inception.
Marvel Stadium’s tenant clubs are pushing for more games at the MCG.Credit: Getty Images
Carlton, which have a six-five split between Marvel and the MCG, have requested just one more MCG game to cater for a leviathan fan base that, like Essendon’s, is coming out in large numbers and in full-throated support after decades of disappointment.
The Saints have been in discussions with the MCC and the AFL about their ambit claim, which would be to have a deal similar to Essendon’s current 4-7 divvy-up.
This proposal has Buckley’s hope of being accepted by the AFL, but St Kilda have asked the AFL for two MCG games in the near future – a more realistic claim.
St Kilda chief executive Carl Dilena’s pitch to the AFL is clever: give us more games at the MCG (St Kilda had one in 2023 and 2024 for special occasions) and we will happily accept less money from the AFL under the socialised funding model; the Saints have been the most heavily funded of the Victorian clubs in the decade up to 2022 and are tired of carrying the stigma of being a mendicant club.
The AFL is renegotiating deals with tenant clubs at Marvel Stadium for 2025 and beyond. It is a negotiation of some significance for the league and for the game, considering the state government just gave the AFL $225 million to renovate Marvel – funding that was a direct trade-off for keeping the grand final at the MCG until 2057.
Collingwood, who play two games at Marvel, are considering shifting one of those games to the Gold Coast in 2025.
Why do these clubs want fewer games at the stadium that, technically speaking, they co-own with 15 other clubs?
In the case of Essendon and Carlton, it is largely a matter of what they can make – and the capacity for growth – represented by the iconic MCG.
Essendon and St Kilda drew a big crowd to Marvel Stadium in round three.Credit: Getty Images
Judged solely on match returns, the MCG makes the clubs more money, despite Marvel being AFL-owned.
A crowd of 30,000 at the MCG still makes more money than the same attendance at Marvel and the dollars increase further as the crowds climb up. This doesn’t count membership entry or seasonal reserve seat sales, with the AFL noting that the MCG has more general admission that goes into match returns.
Essendon, though, have developed a home-crowd advantage at Marvel that coach Brad Scott has sold to his players. A crowd of 45,000 Bombers makes a hell of a din, due in part to the ground’s closed-in design, which creates a wall of sound.
It would not be lost on Carlton and Essendon, though, that their rival Collingwood have been pulling monstrous attendances at the MCG, on the back of success under Craig McRae. The Pies attracted more than 60,000 to all four home games against the Adelaide clubs in 2023 and this year, comfortably exceeding Marvel’s capacity.
Richmond, the other Victorian giant and whose fans are the least receptive to Marvel (besides the Demons), are experiencing hard times, but the Tigers certainly cashed in at the MCG and grew during the glory days of 2017-2020. They and Collingwood would not play any home games at Marvel if they had their druthers.
St Kilda’s motives, as enunciated by Dilena, are to unlock the sizeable latent part of their supporter base that will show up for events, such as “Spud’s Game” (commemorating the late Danny Frawley) this year against Collingwood, to reduce their unhealthy reliance on the AFL, and to grow their younger membership.
St Kilda’s smart pitch was ill-timed, however, given their drab offerings on the field in 2024, when their slumping fortunes led to a poor turnout of 18,000 at Marvel for their home game against Fremantle last round.
But if the on-field product is less than enticing, the Saints are also well aware that the AFL will be gaining eight games from Tasmania when the Devils enter the competition, and that both Marvel and the MCG should pick up the slack and gain games.
Essendon hosted Hawthorn at the MCG in their season-opening clash this year. Credit: AFL Photos
That the three tenants wish to play less often at Marvel underscores the AFL’s problem with their Docklands asset, which replaced Waverley Park and has also replaced the oft-maligned “Arctic Park” in the sense that it will always run second to the city’s Jolimont cathedral. The issue is not helped by the nature – or lack of it – of a concrete-heavy Docklands precinct that is more Soviet than Paris end of the CBD. There are no sparrows or possums on the walk to Marvel.
The AFL does not play finals at Marvel any longer due to the lesser (54,000) capacity, and it has not been willing to fixture AFLW games, either – too small for one, not large enough for the other. It can make a killing, however, with concerts and one-off events – from boxing to Robbie Williams – under the roof.
Arguably, the AFL has erred in persuading/compelling Essendon and Carlton, two of the biggest sporting clubs in the country, to play most of their games at the smaller-capacity stadium, which seldom breaks 50,000 due to the Medallion Club and no-shows by ticket holders.
If maximising attendances was paramount, the Bombers and Blues wouldn’t have Marvel-majority home-game fixtures.
Conversely, if the AFL loses a few Essendon and Carlton games and eventually replaces those games with ones that hold less box-office appeal, they will be reducing the marketability of their own asset – an asset, incidentally, which helped the AFL stay afloat during the 2020-21 pandemic (the league used the stadium as collateral for bank loans).
The choice, thus, isn’t an easy one: let the tenants have their wish – in the interests of fans – or make your own stadium less appealing.
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Tenants of the AFL-owned Docklands stadium are queuing up to ask for more games at the MCG. Read More