The introduction of safe-standing at Melbourne's AAMI Park is a convenient, cheap and safe way to expand the ground's capacity that would enable the stadium to achieve its full potential by accommodating the individual choices of fans.
No one who was at last month's A-League grand final will ever forget it.
It is not an exaggeration to say that while the standard of football in Australia's national league places it firmly in the second tier of competitions globally, the atmosphere generated at the grand final would rival anywhere in the world.
The only negative was that only 29,843 fans were able to attend. The ground's intimacy provides an incomparable atmosphere, but a limited capacity. As a result, a grand final may never be staged at AAMI again — a fear expressed repeatedly on Melbourne Victory's internet fan forums since the match.
Safe standing offers a solution to this problem. Developed in Germany, safe standing consists of new technology involving additional railings and monitoring systems that enables football supporters to stand while watching the game, without the safety risks of the open, crumbling football terraces of yesteryear.
It is a classic example of a simple technological innovation enabling us to undertake activities previously thought unsafe. Indeed, moves to install safe standing are already underway at Western Sydney's Pirtek Stadium.
A safe standing area almost doubles the capacity of a previously seated area. If the sections behind each goal at AAMI Park were converted to safe standing an extra 10,000 could conceivably be added to the venue's 30,050 capacity.
This is primarily a matter of individual fan choice. The fact is, many fans prefer standing. Melbourne Victory has reached the bizarre situation where the memberships they sell to these parts of the ground have instructions printed on the tickets informing fans they are standing only areas, despite seats being present.
Thousands of fans standing in areas designed for seating is also a minor safety hazard. The row of seats in front of fans standing act as a dicey 30cm high trip wire, particularly during goal celebrations at the more raucous end of the spectrum. If these were converted to areas purpose-built for standing they would clearly be safer.
By recognising the individual choice of many fans to stand, AAMI Park would also be assisting those fans who wish to sit. Currently, many of this group are forced to stand as patrons in front of them stand up and block their view if they remain seated. This wouldn't be a problem if there were designated standing areas.
Safe standing is also the cheapest way to expand the capacity of AAMI Park. Australia spends an immoral amount of taxpayer money building and expanding sporting stadia. Converting seating areas to safe-standing comes at a fraction of the cost of fully-fledged redevelopment.
Indeed, safe standing is really the only option to increase the capacity of AAMI Park. Unfortunately, the uniquely designed roof of the stadium means that it is cheaper to demolish the whole stadium and start again rather than expand on what is already there. Victorian taxpayers will at some stage in the coming decades be faced with an exorbitant bill as the popularity of football and rugby grows steadily, unless something like safe standing is introduced.
And safe standing areas can be built to incorporate rail seats, meaning they can be turned back into seating areas at the turn of a key for events where fans prefer to sit.
A debate is currently underway in the UK about the merits of safe standing. Standing at top-flight football in England has been banned since the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989, where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death on an overcrowded terrace. Opponents of safe standing believe it could cause another tragedy in the future.
This is an emotional argument. Safe standing in no way resembles the 10-foot high fencing, tinder-box wooden stands, crumbling walls, death-trap staircases, not to mention wild west policing and hooliganism, that caused so many deaths at British and European football matches in the past.
And, like in Australia, many British football fans simply stand in front of their seats anyway.
There is no reason why safe standing couldn't be utilised in other grounds in the A-League which are fan favourites but possibly too small to hold the very largest of games. Adelaide's Coopers Stadium and Sydney's Allianz Stadium come to mind.
The A-League doesn't have to choose between small, atmospheric venues and deathly silent multi-purpose stadiums that are inappropriate for football, such as Etihad Stadium. They can have their cake and eat it too by honouring fan choice and technological innovation.
AAMI Park is the perfect venue to introduce safe standing so that the extraordinary atmosphere of last month's grand final isn't a once-off.
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