SEN broadcaster Gerard Whateley has taken the MCC to task over the poor crowd attendance numbers at Friday night's Preliminary Final.
Despite just under 95,000 of the seats taken by fans at the MCG on Friday, over 5,000 were left vacant, and most of those were in the MCC areas.
Given the outcry from supporters of both clubs claiming they couldn't get a ticket into the ground, Whateley has asked for the MCC to find a way to fill those seats, even if they are taken by fans who aren't MCC members.
โIs it time for the MCC to take some responsibility to ensure the ground is full when demand is so high and the conventions of the past that they have in place, itโs time to give those up and make sure those tickets are sold either first to your own or to the 50,000 people desperate to be in those last 5,000 seats,โ Whateley toldย SENโs Crunch Time.
โHow would you manage it? Thatโs for the MCC to decide.
โI think itโs time to rally their membership and say if you want a ticket to get to this game, you have absolute rights to it, but you must have bought them by 2pm Thursday afternoon.
โIf you havenโt, we will sell them to the rest of the fans. Itโs terrible last night to have 94,959 in and Margaret Court Arena is overflowing with Collingwood fans just wanting to be in the area and canโt occupy those seats.
โItโs a game that shouldโve had 100,000 people at it, it falls directly at the feet of the MCC and they have through convention kept this in place.
โItโs totally unacceptable. Those seats have to be filled. Itโs not too much to ask their members to commit by Thursday afternoon and then to let the rest of the people fill the last 5000.โ
The rest of the ground is jam packed - except the MCC members. This should not be allowed. #AFLTigersPies pic.twitter.com/h5JYtMzxGw
— Cheryl Critchley (@CherylCritchley) September 21, 2018
Itโs the usual norm,how many block buster, sold out games and fans of those clubs missing out just to look up and see empty seats in the MCC. We are told footy is the peopleโs game so how about letting them see it.
Thatโs the privilege of being a mcc member. We can choose to go or not to go thatโs why we pay the fees. Easy for Gerard to complain he gets a free seat every week
They are members of a cricket club that runs a cricket ground.
They pay their fees every year just like footy club members. Sorry but Collingwood and Richmond have 180,000 members between them. A lot of people miss out. The AFL own Marvel Stadium not the MCG.
What an arrogant dismissive attitude the MCC members have twds their ‘entitlement.’ As you say Luke, it’s a cricket club so when cricket is on at the G maybe then they can run it how they see fit. It’s a privilege to host these games, not an entitlement held by some old school club who think they’re better than everyone else. I hope they’re forced to sell the seats as Gerard has suggested and these ‘members’ are forced to rub shoulders with the unwashed public. Might be a reality check.
Itโs not going to happen. Iโm not a member but I know they have 3 tiers of memberships and the 3rd canโt attend finals. As soon as they lift that the 2,000 odd empty seats will go. This has been a massive beat up.