Fremantle players and full season members can head into the 2022 AFL season with the confidence they have 11 home games to look forward to, according to CEO Simon Garlick.
In a Q&A with members, Garlick said the opening of WA’s border on 3 March made him ‘incredibly confident’ Fremantle would play 11 home games at Optus Stadium in 2022.
While more Fremantle fans attended football than any other Club in 2020, they were still restricted to seven games that year, and they lost a further two games in 2021 with the game against North Melbourne at Optus Stadium closed to the public and the home game against Carlton relocated to the MCG.
“I’m more confident than I’ve been for two years with the hard border coming down from 3 March. It gives surety around our fixture and that’s one thing we haven’t had as a Club (recently)," Garlick said.
“It’s just not going to happen now because the borders are open which is just fantastic. That’s one of the most exciting elements, not just for our members and fans, who can plan their year around the footy in that sense, but for the playing group, being able to play in front of an Optus Stadium full with the Purple Army is something we’re really excited about.”
Garlick said the Club would be able to look after full season members at both 50 per cent and 75 per cent crowd restrictions.
Optus Stadium’s capacity is currently capped at 75 per cent but the WA Government has flagged reducing this capacity to 50 per cent should Covid transmissions spike significantly.
“As it currently stands with the conditions of the state government, we’d be at 75 per cent capacity for games at Optus Stadium,” Garlick said.
“At 75 per cent, any reserve seat full season member would get to sit in their seat, they’re guaranteed both entry and sit in the seat they’re allocated as a part of their membership.
“It gets a bit more challenging if it goes down to 50 per cent, we don’t believe it’s going to be on a regular basis but in the instance it is, for a game or two during the year, our full season reserve seat members would be guaranteed entry.
“We wouldn’t be able to absolutely guarantee them their seat, we’d have to work through a ballot system but we’d be able to guarantee entry and then work on it from there.
“It’s slightly more challenging but it underlines the point that if you haven’t renewed yet, do so, because we want to make sure we get you into games at both 75 per cent and 50 per cent capacity restrictions.”
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