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South Fremantle CEO Cameron Britt says discussions are being held with the WA Football Commission in regard to extending the crowd capacity for this year’s 2020 WAFL Grand Final at Fremantle Oval.
Speaking on Sports Drive on Friday, Britt said getting as many people in to the showpiece WA football event of the year was paramount.
“At the moment 10,133 is the magic number for spectators at the Grand Final, however there is a piece of work to try and push that number to 12,000.
“I’m not involved in that particular piece, but that 10,133 is a number we should have a fair degree of comfort and confidence around. Anything further is probably a bonus and there is a fair bit of work being done to get there.” He said.
Since the announcement that Fremantle Oval would host the Grand Final two weeks ago there has been backlash from sections of the football supporting public in regards to the likelihood of fans being turned away from the game, due to both restrictions in capacity at the venue.
Britt said everything was done to maximise attendance on October 4 at the Port.
“We just need to look at how the broader precinct may be extended, whether that is through the closure of Parry Street or the Stan Reilly carpark behind our facility to include that as part of the precinct on the day in a fan zone area.
“We are working with square meterage at the moment in terms of the phase four COVID restrictions, we just need to find a possible model that passes muster and the comfort and appropriateness test with the various regulatory bodies.
“That’s the piece of work being done not being done by myself or my football club but by the City of Fremantle and the Football Commission. Everyone recognises we need to maximise capacity because it’s a day for the fans.” Britt said.
Reports surfaced this week that South Fremantle Football Club and the Fremantle Oval precinct have put on a bold bid to make the venue the permanent home for the WAFL Grand Final.
Despite the ambitiousness of the proposal, Britt was bullish about the bid.
“If we deliver a fantastic experience on Sunday October 4 regardless of who’s playing and what ultimate number we can get in to the ground, if there’s a really good fan experience and a great day and a way to really activate a city such as Fremantle, we would like to feel that could be a model that grips and could feature in to the longer term.
“Certainly we have some real aspirations around redevelopment at Fremantle Oval, and we know if we could create with a redevelopment a bit of a boutique venue that could really cater for something niche like a WAFL Grand Final and AFLW night games and broad host of various content that probably fits a boutique WAFL ground than the wonderful Optus Stadium then we want to be in that conversation.” He said.
The club was hoping for a possible redevelopment in the coming years to make the ground more accessible for fans.
The Bulldogs are in the box seat to play in this year’s decider, securing the minor premiership with their round 8 comeback win over East Perth.
IMAGE: South Fremantle website.