Essendon is keen to play more home games at the MCG once their current contract with Marvel Stadium expires after the 2024 season.
The Bombers were a foundation tenant club at the Docklands venue when it opened in 2000, playing the first ever game for premiership points there – a 94-point demolition of Port Adelaide – and currently play seven games a year under the roof.
But as one of the bigger Victorian clubs they’re now hoping to move “one or two” more games a year to the MCG.
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In 2023, they averaged 71,977 fans for their eight games at the MCG (both home and away, including the Anzac Day game) with a low of 38,957 for a clash with Port Adelaide. They played eight games at Marvel Stadium (seven home, one away), averaging 36,470 attendees with a low of 28,815 against GWS.
Essendon CEO Craig Vozzo says the club is in conversation with the AFL about changing the current 7-4 split.
“At the moment, it is four at the ’G and seven at Marvel. We would love to play at least another one to two games (at the MCG),” Vozzo said at the club’s annual general meeting.
“We’re aiming to for one to two over the next period of time, and we need to keep pushing our case in a considered way to achieve that outcome, and that is what we are committed to doing.”
It’s possible the Bombers could host Hawthorn and/or North Melbourne at the MCG in future years once the latter clubs’ deals to host games in Tasmania expire, with those teams transitioning away from the Apple Isle due to the introduction of the 19th club there.
Essendon, Carlton, North Melbourne, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs have contracts as Marvel Stadium tenants and the Bombers have been agitating for a change since at least 2017.
They signed a long-term deal upon the stadium’s construction, having moved from Windy Hill to the MCG in 1992, and then to Marvel in 2000.
MCG tenants have won eight of the last 11 AFL premierships.
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