AFL accused of ‘stagnating’ AFLW with decision to hold grand final at Ikon Park

Channel 7 commentator Kate McCarthy has again taken aim at the AFL for “stagnating” the women’s league.

The AFL announced Saturday night’s blockbuster AFLW grand final between North Melbourne and Brisbane at Ikon Park has sold out.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: AFLW grand final venue debate rages.

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It’s the third-straight year the premiership decider has been held at the venue, with the previous two also selling out.

Ikon Park’s capacity is listed at approximately 13,000, with over 12,000 attending the past two premiership deciders.

McCarthy has been vocal in her criticism of the league for holding the marquee game at the venue, instead of the AFL-owned Marvel Stadium.

Watch the AFLW grand final live and free on Seven and 7plus Sport

“For the third straight year, fans are being locked out of the AFLW grand final because the venue is too small,” she tweeted.

“Do better, AFL. This isn’t growth — it’s stagnation.”

North Melbourne president Sonja Hood previously said holding the game at a potentially half-full Marvel Stadium would be “deflating”.

“I’m probably of the view that they need to continue to create demand for this,” she said.

“I like the game at Ikon Park — but it’s not the long-term answer and it’s not the long-term answer for anybody.

“The atmosphere there is terrific and filling it is terrific. Half-filling Marvel Stadium, if that’s what we ended up doing, would just be deflating I think, and I don’t think that’s the answer.

“So, I’m probably happy for it to stay where it is for now.

“But what probably worries me is the lack of longer-term planning around what facilities and the game needs to look like.”

But McCarthy doesn’t subscribe to that theory.

“I think it’s interesting that Sonja Hood has made comments about a half-full Marvel, considering her club’s men’s side averaged 23,961 at their home games this year,” McCarthy said on the W Show.

“I would say if we had 23,000 at the AFLW grand final, that’s still more than the 12,000 we can have at Ikon Park.

“I would also argue the atmosphere of 23,000 at Marvel for a grand final would be very different to a Sunday four o’clock game, North Melbourne taking on whoever they are in the men’s competition.

“I don’t understand the thought around having more people at a game and how that’s not good.

“In a competition that’s growing, how do you not want more people at the game?”

McCarthy doesn’t think Marvel Stadium will sell out, but doesn’t understand why the league wouldn’t want more than 12,000 at the showpiece game.

“I’m not saying we’re going to get 50,000 at Marvel Stadium. Not at all. If we did, that would be amazing,” she continued.

“But why not have the opportunity to have more than 12,000 people at a game that’s sold out for two years in a row now in two hours? I just don’t see why we’re putting a ceiling on it.

“And the data that the AFLW have from AFLW attendances is that fans are casual fans that go on the day of the game. So if it’s sold out, how do you go on the day of the game? You can’t.

“But if there are tickets available and people decide, ‘Oh, that’s right, the AFLW final is on today, the grand final, let’s go to Docklands and let’s make a day of it and go watch, because we can, because there’s tickets available’.

“I just feel like we’re closing off a whole heap of people that could attend the game by having it at a venue that’s historically sold out.”

League general manager of AFLW Emma Moore previously said there were no plans to change the venue.

“We want to be able to sell out Marvel. We want to be able to create a huge moment around the grand final at Marvel. And when we have that as our problem, that will be the best problem that we can possibly have,” she said in October.

“We’re pretty clear that Ikon Park is where we’d have the grand final, should it be held in Melbourne. And we want to absolutely sell it out and create the best spectacle we can around a sold-out stadium experience for our players and our clubs and our fans.

“It’s a really big step from an Ikon Park to a sell-out at Marvel.

“And we want to make sure that when people turn up to a grand final for W, it is the absolutely best experience of a grand final that they will experience. Ikon is a premier stadium to hold it at, and it makes sense as a place to hold it with where we’re at now with the growth.”