CEO Steven Trigg has encouraged South Australian football fans to flock to Saturday night’s NAB Cup Grand Final after the Club lobbied extensively to have the pre-season decider held at AAMI Stadium.
Despite sitting at the top of the NAB Cup ladder after three rounds, the Crows weren’t guaranteed a home Grand Final, with the AFL expressing concerns over crowd numbers at the current home of SA footy in recent rimes.
Adelaide argued strongly for the right to host the final, which starts at 7:10pm on Saturday, and Trigg said it was important the game was well supported.
“We’re really pleased to get the Grand Final,” Trigg said.
“We don’t benefit as a footy club necessarily financially from this fight to have the game here in South Australia.
“It’s an AFL gate. It’s an AFL-run game and we pretty much just turn up to play.
“The fight to have it here was because we felt like it was the right thing because we qualified the strongest, but there was a push from this club that all those things considered we felt like South Australia deserved to have the Grand Final.
“Yes, the AFL can have concerns about our ability to fill the place … the question mark I kept getting was, ‘will you really get a crowd?’”
“We’ve backed ourselves in to get a crowd … and we’re certainly going full bore to win a pre-season cup.
“I’m seriously saying that if we produce a poor crowd, there’s a very real chance that the AFL next time around - and it might not be us, it might be the other team in town (Port Adelaide) playing - say, ‘you know what? We’re not playing the game in Adelaide’, so let’s wipe that off the map with the AFL and say, ‘we can get a strong crowd any day of the week’.”
As an incentive to get fans to AAMI Stadium, the Crows will pick up the cost of junior members attending the Grand Final.
There will also be free car parking on AAMI Stadium grounds.
“We’ve talked to the AFL about some help with prices … but the AFL has decided they want to stay with that structure of prices,” Trigg said.
“We’ve worked with the SANFL to produce car-parking that is free.
“I know the SANFL are talking to bus companies about getting buses organised.
“We will, as a Club, cover the cost of junior members coming in on the day whether they’re Crows Nest members or Squadron-ticketed members.
“We’ll pay for it and, hopefully, it helps families to make a decision to come.”
Trigg said the AFL had knocked back a request to offer a discount for adult members.
Details for junior members wishing to take up the complimentary ticket offer
Junior season ticket holding members can scan their membership card at any public gate to gain general admission entry (includes Vic based members)
Junior AAMI Stadium members can scan their membership card for entry into the members’ reserve
Crows Nest members can present their membership card at the box office on match day to receive a free general admission ticket.
