Sheeran’s concerts rock the scheduling boat
THE league’s Magic Round and an Ed Sheeran concert tour across Australia have caused fixturing headaches that will require the AFL to dodge Optus Stadium as a Round 1 venue next year.
English pop star Sheeran plays in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth across early March in a tour that requires venues to have at least eight days to replace enough turf to return them to an AFL-ready state.
The grounds believed they had that time under an AFL fixture on March 23 but approval for the round 5 Magic Round in Adelaide has changed those plans. The season will now start a week earlier, on March 16, to allow the league to slot in 24 home-andaway weeks plus finals.
It can be revealed Optus Stadium has told the AFL it will not be ready for a round 1 game given it will not have enough time to replace turf and bump out the Sheeran stage to ensure it was safe for AFL footballers.
Sheeran plays a one-off concert at Optus Stadium on Sunday 12 March, which means even a Sunday AFL clash in round 1 would see the venue coming up a day short of that eight-day requirement.
Melbourne’s MCG will replace some turf but given Sheeran plays at the ground on March 2 and 3 its grounds staff will have 13 days to get the ground into AFL shape.
The MCG expects three huge opening games – including a Thursday and Friday night game – and could even have a fourth game given the unavailability of Optus Stadium. “It will be fine. We will have to replace a bit of turf with it but we have done that plenty of times. We will be right to go,” MCC boss Stuart Fox said on Friday.
It is Sheeran’s vast stage down on the ground for multiple days that will require venues to replace turf.