WHAT a way to launch the new Hyundai A-League season!
WHAT a way to launch the new Hyundai A-League season!
A record single-round crowd of 93,500 fans attended games across the five venues including a mammoth 42,000 at the Melbourne derby between Heart and Victory. The average gate was 18,700.
Our closest rivals, Newcastle, attracted a very healthy gate of around 14,500 for their season opener against Adelaide.
The highest single-round crowd prior to last weekend was round three last season with 87, 508 attending games.
The bums on seats also translated to a record television audience of 108,000 viewers per game – an increase of 35% on last season and the highest of all time for a single round. This was a massive boost to the league at a time when the new television rights deal is at a delicate stage.
And, now it-s our turn! The first home game of the season for us is a preliminary final repeat against Perth Glory on Sunday. The team that knocked us out on penalties a week shy of the grand final heads back to the Coast full of confidence after a 1-0 first round victory over Brisbane last weekend.
We will have to bring our A-game to Bluetongue Stadium as the Glory is in good nick early in the season. A solid pre-season has them strong and sharp but we took enough positives out of our draw with Western Sydney Wanderers to know we are also in good shape heading into what should be a fantastic game of football.
A highlight last Saturday night at Parramatta Stadium was the number of Mariners supporters who made the trek. It truly was uplifting for the players and coaching staff and added big time to what was an electric atmosphere on the night.
Three busloads of supporters made the trip down the F3 – two arranged by our support group Yellow Army – and many more made their own way to the game to witness history as WSW was officially birthed.
We have made no secret of our desire to break the 5,000 members mark this season and the club is working overtime to achieve that mark. We also have some 4,000 Ausgrid Mariners Mates Members – make sure you all get to Bluetongue on Sunday and bring your friends and family with you.
Training this week certainly has the squad ready for the battle with Perth – a game that always has that bit of extra spice given ex-Mariners Ian Ferguson, Danny Vukovic and Dean Heffernan are in the away dressing room!
The intensity on the training pitch this week suggests our boys were disappointed not to come away from Parramatta Stadium with maximum points so expect a reaction against the Glory!
They will be without Shane Smeltz as we are without Mikey McGlinchey – both away on international duty with New Zealand.
The boys will be decked out in a unique pink playing strip to promote Pink Ribbon Day and the fight against women-s cancer. Supporters are urged to wear pink to the ground and donate any spare change to the buckets being passed around during the match. Kick-off is at 5pm.
Central Coast Mariners vs. Perth Glory
Sunday 14 October, 2012 – Kick-off 5:00pm (local)
Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium
Tickets: Please CLICK HERE to purchase tickets to the match.
Twitter: Join the match conversation on Twitter. The official match hashtag is #CCMvPG
