Melbourne Loving their Victory

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Beaussie
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Melbourne Loving their Victory

Post by Beaussie »

The future looks bright for the Victory in Melbourne. Must admit I've been totally shocked by their successes in Melbourne, crowds wise and media interest etc.
Sketchy start turns into bold big picture
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Patrick Smith
February 17, 2007
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 70,00.html

SUCH has been the plight of soccer in Australia that not even the great Italian striker Michelangelo could have drawn a crowd. Not sculpt one, not paint one. Not even on the ceiling of the Telstra Chapel.

Yet a fastidious Scottish-born coach and his Australian opponent with a personality as colourful as any artist's palate are expected to draw 56,500 people to a Melbourne stadium tomorrow evening to watch the final of the domestic soccer competition.

Ernie Merrick, who played soccer in Scotland before being drawn to Australia by a tourism poster, will coach Melbourne Victory against John Kosmina, a former Socceroo captain, who will be in charge of Adelaide United.

If you had sketched this scenario two years ago kindly people would have walked you away from the public spotlight, snapped your crayons and suggested that you make what you can of a series of ink blots. They might also have plugged you into the local electricity grid. The sport was a collection of ethnic enclaves, inaccessible and hostile.

Soccer fans have been generated in great numbers in Melbourne. Support for Melbourne Victory became so big so quickly that Olympic Park, cosy home of the successful rugby league team Melbourne Storm, could not hold the fans nor contain their enthusiasm.

The 14,000-seat stadium was abandoned for Telstra Dome.

It is important to be wary of sporting crowd figures in Melbourne because they are not always the sum of their parts. When the British Lions played a rugby union Test against Australia at Telstra Dome in 2001, more than 56,600 people attended in what was described by witnesses and participants as one of the great sporting nights.

Yet three years later, Melbourne lost out to Perth for the new Super 14 franchise in rugby union. Melbourne rugby union officials are grateful now if a dog turns up for a match. Two men are considered a bonus and made honorary life members.

Last July, rugby league brought the State of Origin circus to Melbourne and a handful fewer than 55,000 people winkled their way into Telstra Dome for a breathtaking match. But interest in rugby league ebbed as quickly as the crowd drained from the stadium. League's presence in Melbourne is no more tangible now than when the Storm won the NRL premiership in 1999.

However, soccer is already a staple of Melbourne's sporting menu. The media treats it seriously and boldly. It is written about. It is viewed on television. It is talked about on radio. And it is watched by more and more people.

Melbourne Victory officials more than toyed with playing tomorrow's final at the 96,000-capacity MCG. The speed of the sale of tickets this week, the angst from those who missed out, suggests the city's biggest stadium might well have been overflowing.

In Melbourne, union and league peak for their 80 minutes of fame then pack up and return to their home bases. But soccer has been a central plank of sport coverage in the city, and nationally too, for the length of the summer season.

It is happening elsewhere, too. Crowds are up in Brisbane, Newcastle and the NSW central coast.

Overall attendance is up 18 per cent on the A-League's inaugural season and the television audience swells.

Melbourne radio has illustrated why soccer under the regime of Frank Lowy has not fouled out like every other administration before it.

Callers report that Australia's qualification for the World Cup, then its relative success and final heartbreak excited and inspired them. They watched, felt for, fell in love with Lucas Neill, Mark Schwarzer, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell, Scott Chipperfield, John Aloisi, Mark Viduka and Brett Emerton.

They could transfer that enthusiasm immediately to Melbourne Victory. Dads and mums took their kids, children took their folks, mates cajoled their buddies.

This was not a latent soccer interest reignited but new fans discovered. More than likely AFL fans who have adopted Melbourne Victory for their summer barracking. They loved what they experienced, first at Olympic Park and absolutely at Telstra Dome.

Importantly, there is a sense of ownership between Melbourne sports fans and their soccer team. Soccer the sleeping giant has become an insomniac.

Grand plans for a rectangular 25,000-seat stadium in Melbourne had been plotted and planned 18 months ago. It would be the home of union, league and soccer. It is now redundant for soccer because it would barely hold the Victory cheer squad. Yet it remains a couple of sizes too big for union and league.

The Victorian Government has stalled the project because to stick with the original specifications would be to build a matchbox to hold a semi-trailer.

All sports compete in an expanding market where aspiration, talent identification and recruitment are critical. Soccer is the new player and with it comes a confronting fresh dynamic for all other codes and games.

Soccer has won the hearts and minds of fans in the greatest sporting city in the nation. What if it was to win their limbs as well?
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Post by Pickles »

A whole lot of bandwagon jumpers i assume...personally, i don't mind soccer but the way the soccer fanatics carry on shits me.

They think everyone is against them and there sport when really most people don't care if soccer does well.

I came across some guy on another forum who thinks Victory should have there own 60k+ stadium :lol:

He has no idea... :roll:

GO UNITED!
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Post by Beaussie »

They could probably fill 60k+ for the grand final I reckon.

Are you serious with that last line re go united?

You're a Melbournian aren't you? [-X
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Post by Pickles »

Well i would like to see victory win but to be honest i won't be able to put up with all the crap that the supporters would be saying.

There so full of it when there are clearly a shiteload of bandwagon supporters there.
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