SA ups ante in final bid
Adelaide hotel carrot
THE Adelaide’s Oval’s new boutique, 138-room Oval Hotel will on Wednesday form a major pillar of the South Australia’s pitch to snare the AFL Grand Final.
While Queensland remains in the box seat to secure the decider – slated to be played on October 24 – South Australia hasn’t given up hope and will highlight its excellent record in curbing the spread of COVID-19 to the league.
The submission was expected to include the lifting of the Adelaide Oval’s capacity from its current level of 10,000 to 25,000 for the event, with the Oval Hotel, due to open on September 25, offered as a safe venue to quarantine players and team officials.
The league will hear submissions from South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales in coming days, with a decision likely to be made by early next week.
Head of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld is overseeing the bidding process with league boss Gillon McLachlan and chairman Richard Goyder to make their recommendation to the AFL commission.
Queensland submitted its bid on Tuesday, with the sales pitch including plans to host glittering functions for the Brownlow Medal, Rising Star and All-Australian awards as well as the “Big Dance”.
Also going in Queensland’s favour is that it has hosted multiple AFL team hubs allowing the competition to proceed through the global pandemic.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk ruled out the possibility of a Grand Final parade should the state win the right to host the game, with contact tracing considered to be virtually impossible should a crowd of tens of thousands gather in the Brisbane CBD.
Palaszczuk said the state “absolutely” wanted to host the Brownlow Medal, and said the Gold Coast presented a prime option for a location with The Star casino having hosted television’s Logie Awards in recent years.
“Of course we want the Brownlow, and if that was to occur, we see enormous potential for the Gold Coast to host that,” she said.
SA Premier Steven Marshall said its multi-layered proposal would be handed to the AFL on Wednesday and he would speak with McLachlan on Thursday to shore up the pitch.