Normal Wednesday is cancelled: Australia clears the decks to watch Matildas semi-final
Caught up in Matildas mania, Australians are abandoning everything from live gigs to restaurant bookings to watch the World Cup semi-final against England on Wednesday night.
For some it’s an economic boon but even many who have given up a night’s earnings have said they were happy to do so.
Sydney trivia night operator Meggs Fakoua estimated it would cost her “thousands” in cancelled bookings.
The operator of Q and A trivia and megamusic bingo said multiple Sydney pubs had cancelled events for the evening because they could make more money from people coming to watch the game.
But Fakoua said she had no hard feelings, comparing the sporting spectacle to the State of Origin, which already upstages her on Wednesday night three times a year.
“I think it’s a very exciting time for Australia. And let’s face it, over the last couple of years we haven’t had a lot to be excited over. And I think in this current financial crisis with the country, it’s something that we can just all finally cheer for.”
She said the loss was relatively mild compared with two years of lockdown – and the mother of three daughters thinks the match is about more than money.
“I just think that this is amazing for little girls of the future. And that’s what I love about it.”
The independent Glenbrook cinema in the Blue Mountains is another of hundreds of venues that have had to hurriedly change their plans thanks to the Matildas’ run.
It has cancelled a screening of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and will close early.
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“Due to the outstanding success of Matildas making the World Cup semifinal this Wednesday, this major world event will have a significant impact on the financial viability of our return screening,” the cinema said.
But the game will be a boon for the ex-serviceman’s club in the tiny Riverina
town of Lockhart.
Club manager, Bronwyn Anderson, said the bar was “five deep” and often dead silent watching Saturday night’s thriller against France – and the club is setting aside its normal trivia night so the town of 818 can watch on Wednesday night together.
“I reckon we’ll go off,” she said. “I think it’s fantastic for the country, because I wouldn’t sit down and watch soccer normally.”
Unsurprisingly, scores of football clubs have cancelled practice – or even games – to watch the Matildas.
Football NSW media manager, Mark Stavroulakis, said the state’s competition was approaching the pointy end of the season, with teams facing semifinals. But even the elite leagues were likely to be quiet this week, he said.
“Ninety per cent of the clubs, to be honest, would be looking forward to the night off and enjoying a massive night for the sport,” he said.
“To throw their full support behind the Matildas. They’ve won all our hearts regardless of the result.”
The president of Dulwich Hill football club in Sydney’s inner west, Ed Pessego, said the weekend’s game had been moved to accommodate the quarter-final against France, and the club would do the same for the England game.
Many of the squads would watch together.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of these kids to watch some of them games,” he said. “We don’t want them to miss out on it. A lot of them would have tickets to go to the game as well.”
Sydney theatre director Michelle St Anne has canned an entire show on Wednesday night – partly so she can watch the game herself.
The improv open-mic night with feminist themes is only in its second month at the Gladstone hotel, also in Sydney’s inner west. St Anne expected 13 or more performers to step up to the microphone, including her own character Ms Kitteridge.
Instead she hopes to be watching the Australian team defeat the Lionesses on Wednesday night.
“I’ll be at the Gladstone hotel sports bar dressed as Ms Kitteridge,” she said.
“I’m just going to be excited for the Tillies and I don’t care if they win or lose, because they won by bringing a nation together. If only politicians could do that.”
She sees a feminist message in the triumph of the women’s team over the traditional male space of the front bar.
“I’m 52. And when I was a young girl, I would never, in my dreams, have had the thought that a woman, a girl, would play soccer [professionally],” she said.
“I just think it’s really beautiful that women can now see that they can be elite sportspeople.”