Fans flock Optus Stadium for AFL fixture

Article posted by Coliseum, May 5^th, 2021

Image: Optus Stadium & Greg Sleigh

A humongous crowd (54,159 fans) gathered at Optus Stadium (Australia) for the recent Australian Football League (AFL) encounter between the West Coast Eagles and the Collingwood Football Club.

Greg Sleigh, General Manager (Commercial) at Optus Stadium at VenuesLive stated in his LinkedIn post that it was the highest attended Australian Football League (AFL) match since the 2019 Grand Final and “by our count the highest attended sporting event in the Southern Hemisphere since the COVID-19 broke out in March 2020”.

The 60,000-capacity Perth Stadium, also known by naming rights sponsorship as Optus Stadium, is a multipurpose stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Burswood. It was completed in late 2017 and officially opened on January 21^st, 2018.

The West Coast Eagles is a professional Australian rules football club based in the inner-Perth suburb of Lathlain, Western Australia.

The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, that was formed in 1892 in the suburb of Collingwood in Victoria (Australia).

The Australian Football League is the pre-eminent and only fully professional men’s competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport’s governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the game.

Sleigh stated, “Not just a celebration of the long-awaited return to 100 percent capacity but a demonstration of community confidence in the health conditions in Western Australia. Still so far to go for our industry, particularly from a live music viewpoint, but fantastic to walk the precinct to see people checking into hotels, pubs and restaurants heaving and of course the sea of West Coast colors on their walk to the stadium. Even better when it culminates in a home team win!”

West Coast beat Collingwood by four goals and the fixture was attended by the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, who was not very well-received by the crowd.

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