Pre match games

[Bearinator]

Dear club.

In the previous "Can you open the gates early?" thread, you mentioned a possible curtain raiser game by Central Coast Lightning or Gladesville Spirit at a home Mariners game next comp. My question is, is there a possibility of a game between the supporters groups, like Dinamo Marinators and The Cove, as a curtain raiser. I believe this was done in Queensland between The Den and The Cove as a curtain raiser in the past and was quite successful.

[CCMariners]

Hello Bearinator!

Thank you for your suggestion!

The main issue with curtain raiser fixtures is best explained by our Executive Chairman, Lyall Gorman, on www.ccmariners.com.au recently:

"There might be occasions where it is possible to do that, what people need to understand in that regard are the tremendous costs that are involved in opening a venue two and a half hours earlier, because a Lightning game will take an hour and a half and then we’ve got to allow the time for warm ups and all the FFA regulations that are required to run a Hyundai A-League game – there are tremendous costs involved with that and history has proven that you don’t attract the crowds early on, which means more often than not you’re running at a loss from a financial point of view. That’s something we’ve got to look at and consider very carefully because we can’t afford to just open up our gates for the sake of it. If we can create a financial model that makes it worthwhile, it’s something that we’d certainly consider."

Certainly, if there was a way that we could achieve what Lyall is hoping for above, then curtain raiser fixtures between supporters groups could perhaps be on the agenda in the future.

Thank you again for your question!