Get to Etihad

[Age 401]

From what I know, every club has to play one home at that hole each year. As the club can't afford the loss of 8000 at a game, they requested we play a Victorian club there so as to try and not lose money. 

[Moonshadow 16,408]

Etihad: The half flush toilet pan of the AFL competition. 

Edited April 30, 2016 by Moonshadow

[Mazer Rackham 14,970]

I hope the players don't have the same attitude.

It's real, it's there, we have to learn to play on it.

Or give the oppo an automatic 4 points. Our choice.

[Moonshadow 16,408]

1 minute ago, Ted Fidge said:

I hope the players don't have the same attitude.

It's real, it's there, we have to learn to play on it.

Or give the oppo an automatic 4 points. Our choice.

Must've missed the bit about it being our home game....

[Mazer Rackham 14,970]

7 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Must've missed the bit about it being our home game....

What's that got to do with it?

[Moonshadow 16,408]

Just now, Ted Fidge said:

What's that got to do with it?

Playing our home game at Etihad is what many are questioning. We should learn to play our home games at our home ground, especially given it was vacant this afternoon.

[Mazer Rackham 14,970]

What do we do if it's an away game at Etihad? Forfeit the 4 points?

 

Home or away we must learn to play it. Because like it or not, the AFL schedule us to play games there. Home and away.

[Moonshadow 16,408]

7 minutes ago, Ted Fidge said:

What do we do if it's an away game at Etihad? Forfeit the 4 points?

 

Home or away we must learn to play it. Because like it or not, the AFL schedule us to play games there. Home and away.

Hyperbole to suggest forfeiting the points. 

It was not an away game, that's the point. Sure we must learn to play all AFL grounds, no one is denying that, but it's better to play our home games at our home ground. More likely to win the 4 points there, though judging by today still unlikely.

[titan_uranus 22,749]

2 hours ago, Age said:

From what I know, every club has to play one home at that hole each year. As the club can't afford the loss of 8000 at a game, they requested we play a Victorian club there so as to try and not lose money. 

I thought that was the rule too but Hawthorn doesn't have a home game at Etihad this year.

[mrtwister 650]

3 hours ago, Ted Fidge said:

What do we do if it's an away game at Etihad? Forfeit the 4 points?

 

Home or away we must learn to play it. Because like it or not, the AFL schedule us to play games there. Home and away.

Agreed we should aim to win anywhere. But at least schedule us there against a team that we only play once. To play the Saints at their home ground twice in the one season is a joke.

 

[boydie 653]

Hawthorn play home games at the MCG, Etihad and Launceston.... they've gone alright over the last couple of years from memory.

[Maple Demon 449]

8 minutes ago, boydie said:

Hawthorn play home games at the MCG, Etihad and Launceston.... they've gone alright over the last couple of years from memory.

True, but the only Victorian team not to have an Etihad home game this year, as one of the other posters said.

[Je Roos Salem 661]

48 minutes ago, boydie said:

Hawthorn play home games at the MCG, Etihad and Launceston.... they've gone alright over the last couple of years from memory.

They've only played 2 at Etihad in like the past 10 years. We had a few years off etihad home games but suddenly we find ourselves with one penciled in per year. I've said it before but a few years ago when we got fixtured the club was outwardly upset, but after we were given that cash handout we've probably willingly obliged to what the AFL serves us

[Je Roos Salem 661]

Etihad's good for actually viewing the game. Had great seats on lvl 2 today but lvl 3 wing is good too. On the other hand it's pretty depressing to sit under a roof on a fine day, and the way the area is planned out around the stadium is pretty shocking.

[Satyriconhome 10,010]

15 hours ago, Maple Demon said:

It bottlenecks like a mothertrucker at the end of game if you are heading towards Spencer Street Station. When the crowd is only 20,000. Quite simply, that isn't good enough.

The baseball stadium where I come from has 14 gates and there is never an issue with crowds getting to or leaving a game.

The bridge between Etihad and the station is too angled (when coming from Gates 4-7) and walkways too narrow in places.

Are you more than a metre wide?

[Gorgoroth 12,352]

It's simple.  If you're a top club getting big crowds you don't play there.  We aren't, we don't.  We play there. 

[CityDee 738]

Anyone have trouble getting in ? Reprted today it was under resourced and folks missed the start . Roof closed on carpet its not footy! 

[Satyriconhome 10,010]

1 minute ago, CityDee said:

Anyone have trouble getting in ? Reprted today it was under resourced and folks missed the start . Roof closed on carpet its not footy! 

The reason people miss the start is that they turn up at 1.40pm for a 1.45pm start without tickets and expect to get a ticket straight away and be in their seat within 5 minutes. Just out of interest by the way Geelong have a 'home' game at Etihad this year

[Maple Demon 449]

16 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

Are you more than a metre wide?

Really? If there is a crowd after a game, it isn't pleasant. And I am a smaller female, thanks.

[Satyriconhome 10,010]

Just now, Maple Demon said:

Really? If there is a crowd after a game, it isn't pleasant. And I am a smaller female, thanks.

I just get a bit bored with the general whingeing about Etihad, it is in the city precinct right next to a major transport hub, I got out of the ground and up to the top of Latrobe St in less than 15 minutes yesterday

[Moonshadow 16,408]

1 minute ago, Satyriconhome said:

The reason people miss the start is that they turn up at 1.40pm for a 1.45pm start without tickets and expect to get a ticket straight away and be in their seat within 5 minutes. Just out of interest by the way Geelong have a 'home' game at Etihad this year

BS. There were long queues at undermanned gates where plenty of people already had tickets. The body scanning man where I went in just waved people passed because he couldn't keep up. If it was that hard to manage a relatively small crowd, heaven help them in the event of an emergency.

 

17 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

Are you more than a metre wide?

It's clearly a slow and dangerous bottleneck regardless of anyone's size.

[Satyriconhome 10,010]

8 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

BS. There were long queues at undermanned gates where plenty of people already had tickets. The body scanning man where I went in just waved people passed because he couldn't keep up. If it was that hard to manage a relatively small crowd, heaven help them in the event of an emergency.

 

It's clearly a slow and dangerous bottleneck regardless of anyone's size.

Oh please, turn up in a reasonable time, and at the end the foot traffic was moving smoothly out up the footbridge towards Southern Coss and Bourke St, nitpicking to the extrem

[Maple Demon 449]

3 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

I just get a bit bored with the general whingeing about Etihad, it is in the city precinct right next to a major transport hub, I got out of the ground and up to the top of Latrobe St in less than 15 minutes yesterday

I'm not doing a general whinge, Saty. It was a statement of my personal experience every time I have been to a game there. I am also comparing it to other sporting venues I have been to, here and in North America. When I have had international visitors, they have noticed the same things after a game.

If you exit out the opposite side of the ground towards LaTrobe, there is less foot traffic so it empties quicker. But that isn't the way most of the crowd gets to a game at Etihad.

Although it isn't necessarily the worst sporting venue I have been to (from an overall perspective) , it is miles from the best.

[DeeZone 7,940]

I like the ground and 27,260 is a whole lot better than our last pathetic effort there when we set a new low crowd record. It certainly wasn't the ground that caused our playing group to not turn up switched on and how we put four OOB on the full from set shots and players running into an open goal can only be hazarded at, conditions were perfect if a bit humid . I drove in took the lift up to L1 and found a coffee and a seat in about 10 minutes flat. Getting out of the car park was another thing, mind you it was a lot quicker than getting out of the G last Sunday night but I was in a happy place then.

[Maple Demon 449]

9 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

Oh please, turn up in a reasonable time, and at the end the foot traffic was moving smoothly out up the footbridge towards Southern Coss and Bourke St, nitpicking to the extrem

I turned up an hour before the game and if you wanted to upgrade your MCG reserved seat membership to a reserved seat at Etihad, you were stuck in the 'shorter' ticket lines at Gate 5 for a good 20 minutes or more. And they only had half of the Gate 5 turnstiles open. They only opened the other half 15 minutes before the game.

None of this is the club's fault, rather it is that of the venue, the ticketing company, or both. It is an issue that needs addressing.  Surely it could be more efficient.