Melbourne's home average now 18,130 after 4 games. Same time last year it was 13,333. Great effort!
And this year's ANZAC day crowd was 5k higher, very good result. As others have said, I have no idea where the other 5000 people are supposed to sit at AAMI Park, it certainly didn't look like 15% of seats were empty.
Some Melbournites still go ape at the fact that the government built a rectangular ground with public money, but seriously, how many of the numerous stadiums that have been built or upgraded for AFL have (a) been filled and (b) been used by other sports on a regular basis?
Apart from the usual "let's never build anything new" argy-bargy I don't recall too many complaints about the cost of AAMI Park. Construction has directly benefited six sporting clubs, it's used frequently enough to justify the cost (minimum of about 50 games/year even if no tenant clubs host finals) and the building itself is aesthetically pleasing.
However, if the AFL want another "boutique" oval stadium down here they're pretty much going to have to pony up the cash themselves, I doubt there will be much government money going their way given we already have two excellent venues for that sort of thing.
