Who imagined this timeline?
What’s Melbourne’s loss is our gain as the AFL hierarchy has had to pull the plug on the AFL Grand Final being played at the MCG, the perennial home of Aussie Rules, and relocate the season decider to Perth’s Optus Stadium.
“It has become clear as we continue to navigate through these challenges that it wouldn’t be in the best interests of the community to host a grand final at the MCG in front of no crowd,” AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said.
The grand final will be played on Saturday 25 September. And while a time for the showpiece event has not yet been set, it is expected that the game will be played at twilight so as to allow the fixture to be broadcast at primetime on the east coast. This is the second successive year that the AFL Grand Final will be played outside of Victoria.
Optus Stadium is the third-largest stadium in Australia with a capacity to seat 60,000 people. And gee-whizz, is it beautiful when packed? It also looks pretty stunning at night from the outside. Take a look below and see what we mean.
1. Lighting up the night
2. It was designed by @hassell_studio, @coxarchitecture and @hksarchitects
3. Did you know…swipe right
4. Turns out that the season wasn’t over for the stadium
5. Symmetry
6. Our home
7. Light show
8. Down the middle
9. Saving the day
10. One question remains: Will we get a public holiday on Friday?
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