Double-header plans plus some entry fees
FANS will have to buy tickets for the first time to watch several AFL Women’s games next year.
The league revealed yesterday that supporters would be asked to pay “a few dollars” to cover ticketing costs for big games at smaller venues such as Punt Rd Oval.
It would also charge $15 an adult for women’s games played before AFL pre-season fixtures, as well as a full AFL men’s entry fee for double-headers involving an AFL home-and-away match.
The competition committee decided against charging for all AFLW games for the 2020 season, but could introduce a competition-wide entry fee by 2021.
AFL head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone said yesterday that tickets would be introduced next year for certain games because of “operational needs”.
“We will consider ticketing, operationally, Punt Road because only 5000 [people] fit in there,” she said.
“We want to make sure that people don’t miss out.
“We’ll keep them really minimal — they’ll only be a couple of dollars … but there are a couple of venues that we’ll have to ticket for operational purposes.”
The release of the 2020 AFL Women’s fixture yesterday will see:
Three historic women’s and men’s double-headers for premiership points are pencilled in for the first fortnight of the AFL season as the women’s competition prepares to hit the road.
The men’s 2020 fixture is set to be finalised tomorrow but at the time the women’s fixture was announced at Moorabbin yesterday, three AFL/AFLW double-headers were set for the first two weeks of the men’s league.
Greater Western Sydney and Geelong will play at Giants Stadium — the first time AFL and AFLW games for premiership points will be on the same bill — in Round 7 of AFLW, with Carlton and Fremantle to face off at Docklands Stadium in Round 8 before the men’s teams play in their Round 2 clash.
Brisbane will host the Kangaroos that evening at the Gabba before the men’s teams play.
AFL head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone said double-headers had been embraced by clubs.
“We always want to be innovative … just to test and see what our audience is responding to,” Livingstone said.