ABOUT 30,000 soccer fans indirectly on Friday night told Adelaide Oval to “get stuffed’’.
Adelaide Oval is great when it’s almost full to the brim for a soccer match after the State Government did cricket and the AFL a huge favour by redeveloping a creaking venue at taxpayers expense.
Fans have seen the rejuvenated old lady that has had a $535 million facelift heaving for a soccer match only twice.
But fans turning their backs on the venue and Adelaide United on Friday night does need some perspective.
Anyone who predicted a decade ago that Australia’s men’s national soccer league would attract 19,416 fans to the Oval would have been asked to seek urgent medical help.
Soccer has come a long way in enticing fans to stadiums since the NSL died in 2004.
Adelaide United’s 2016 grand final drew 50,119 fans to the Oval last year; 53,008 — the venue’s fifth-best crowd since redevelopment — saw England’s Liverpool play the Reds in 2015.
But for all the money spent at the venue, it has been attacked brutally by soccer fans.
Many are using social media saying Adelaide Oval is unsuitable for soccer, especially when the stadium is about 60 per cent below its 53,500 capacity.
Adelaide Oval is also not FIFA compliant because in some parts it exceeds the maximum recommended 190m viewing distance between fans and the pitch.
And VIP security access is below international match standards although the Socceroos, despite the Oval not meeting FIFA recommendations, were allowed to play FIFA World Cup qualifiers there twice, after intervention from leaders at Asian Football Confederation House.
But the Reds making a decision to play at the Oval is perhaps driven by an agenda.
United — the only tenant of Hindmarsh Stadium — has financials proving it made a loss when 12,426 saw Adelaide face Victory at the stadium in January.
The club was charged more than $70,000 by its landlord — Adelaide Venue Management Corporation.
It’s a sorry state of affairs given the stadium, which soccer once owned, was given back to the State Government by soccer’s gatekeepers. They made an incredible mistake a decade ago.
Football Federation SA has stayed publicly silent on the Hindmarsh issue perhaps hushed by government funding for synthetic pitches.
But soccer fans have sent out a clear message to United, FFSA and to politicians five months before a state election.
They have boycotted Adelaide Oval for good reason. The game has not been treated respectfully — at any level.
Why soccer fans are boycotting Adelaide Oval | Adelaide Now