NORWOOD Oval may be the new home for Adelaide United’s men’s and women’s teams.
United bosses have been locked in talks with SANFL club Norwood chiefs over the prospect after the Redlegs were approached to host Adelaide’s A-League matches.
But Football Federation Australia has not yet rubber-stamped the 20,000 capacity venue, with the camber of the pitch and a lack of corporate facilities causing concern.
The cost of hiring Hindmarsh - which is about $80,000 per A-League match - is forcing United to consider Norwood Oval, which has potential to save United thousands of dollars a season.
Norwood chief executive James Fantasia confirmed his club’s interest in hosting Adelaide’s women’s matches at Norwood Oval for the new W-League season after talks of bringing A-League to The Parade kicked off last year.
“Our club really has a community focus,’’ Fantasia said.
“We’ve got a great venue, so why wouldn’t we look at every opportunity to use Norwood whether that would be football, soccer and other sports and for health education?
“We think The Parade is just an amazing place in terms of the shops and restaurants and the overspill, where fans can go to the game to see a good match and then venture along The Parade and make a good day or night out of it.
“The public transport here is very good and we’re five minutes from the city and we’ve got good floodlighting which caters for TV matches.”
Adelaide chairman Greg Griffin says playing women’s matches at Norwood Oval is an exciting concept, with the club also talking to Blue Eagles about W-League matches at Marden Sports Complex.
Adelaide is playing its round-of-32 FFA Cup match against Newcastle Jets at Marden on August 9.
“Why not (at Norwood)? The only problem we have is the surface,’’ Griffin said.
“But we are also down the track with playing W-League matches at Marden.”
The Reds women’s side played most of last season’s home matches at Angle Park, where the pitch is considerably smaller than FFA’s W-League standard 105m x 68m.
The synthetic pitch has also met with criticism from Professional Footballers Australia, the players’ union, with claims the turf is not as healthy for athletes as natural grass.
The Reds women’s team last season played two live-telecast matches at Hindmarsh in double-headers.
Norwood Oval hosted the AFLW’s Crows and Brisbane, attracting 12,108 and televised to a record audience in March.
Reds consider Norwood Oval move to cut costs of Hindmarsh | Adelaide Now