Victory will be playing their cut-throat Asian Champions League qualifier next February in Geelong. With the AFL at Etihad Stadium, and AAMI Park being rocked by Bruce Springsteen on the same day, Kevin Muscat’s team are taking their ACL playoff to Simonds Stadium.
Victory will be playing their cut-throat Asian Champions League qualifier next February in Geelong. With the AFL at Etihad Stadium, and AAMI Park being rocked by Bruce Springsteen on the same day, Kevin Muscat’s team are taking their ACL playoff to Simonds Stadium.
It’s a blessing in disguise for Victory, who have found previous ACL fixtures a tough sell to their otherwise fanatical support. ACL games in Melbourne have failed to excite the football public for a number of reasons.
A-League clubs are still struggling to sell the narrative around the Asian Champions League, and the status of the competition remains a mystery to all but the most devoted football nuts.
Despite the success of Adelaide United and Central Coast Mariners in recent campaigns the midweek, intermittent, and out of season, fixtures have been given the cold shoulder by fans.
By happenstance the change of venue gives Melbourne Victory a point of difference.
For the City of Geelong, the game presents an opportunity for it to put its case for a more permanent presence the Hyundai A-League.
Geelong has a rich football history and has produced Socceroos such as Josip Skoko, Steve Horvat and Matthew Spiranovic.
Many in the region would love to see an A-League team call Geelong home permanently. But Horvat doesn’t see this as a realistic short term prospect.
“I think the biggest hurdle will be sponsorship,” he says. “The Geelong Football Club in the AFL is so successful and well established it simply monsters the market. But the two sports could certainly coexist, particularly as the profile of the Socceroos increases. Participation in the game among kids is Geelong and the Surf Coast is huge. Long term, there’s definitely a future for an A-League team.”
With Melbourne Heart still battling to establish itself in a crowded market there have been some calls for the club to either relocate to Geelong, or take some fixtures there in order to open up a new market.
Heart have worked tirelessly in regional Victoria to spread their reach and brand awareness. However, the club remains steadfast in the conviction that their future remains in Melbourne. It’s determined it will live and die as a Melbourne-based club.
Horvat sees that as a wise move: “I’m not a fan of a Melbourne Heart relocation. Any club based in a region like this (Geelong) needs to evolve organically out of the local football community. For it to truly succeed it needs to be built on the back of the game in it’s own backyard, with a pathway system for local players. That way the community has ownership of the team.”
And according to the former Socceroos defender, Geelong may have to wait its turn.
“Other markets need to be a priority right now,” he says. “If the game is truly going to be national, to me a team in Tasmania needs to be top of the agenda.”
