Marvel Stadium has been in the headlines this week following Richmond’s apparent dislike for the venue.
Tigers CEO Brendon Gale made the comments late last week that playing home games away from the MCG minimises their crowds and costs the club “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.
On Saturday night following his side’s come-from-behind four-point win over GWS, coach Damien Hardwick added a little bit of fuel to the fire when he said he hates going to Marvel and that Richmond people simply don’t turn up at the venue.
In response, Gerard Whateley admits the venue is unloved by the vast majority of sport-loving Melburnians due to its lack of “distinguishing features”.
“It is such a pity that when our game built it’s new stadium, it built a stadium that people don’t love,” he said on SEN’s Whateley.
“Part of it is the architecture and part of it is the location, but it’s always been true.
“The ground has no distinguishing features whatsoever. It’s like the old casino, you wouldn’t bloody know what time it is, no matter what time it is.
“That’s a shame.
“I’ve had the great privilege of going to stadia that have done a great job, Optus Stadium is brilliant, they did such a superb job with the Adelaide Oval. You go overseas and when they build a new stadium the whole town is in on it.
“The people of Melbourne have always been vaguely down on Marvel Stadium in its various iterations.”
Whateley also feels the Tigers have now made a bed for themselves with their stance on home games.
“Brendon Gale mounted the campaign completely unexpectedly on the back page of Friday’s Herald Sun,” he added.
“It became self-fulfilling that Richmond people wouldn’t go. They are now acolytes for your home games should be at your home venue. You can’t read it any other way.
“Richmond home games should be at the MCG, Collingwood home games should be at the MCG, Bulldogs home games should be at Marvel, including their finals, and Geelong’s home games should be in Geelong.
“Presumably, Richmond have now volunteered that, ‘yes we play Geelong twice a year, we’re going down the highway because every team’s home game should be played on its home deck. This is what we believe in, at our core we believe in it’.”
North Melbourne great David King supports Whateley’s view, specifically touching on the surface of the venue which he feels is having a detrimental effect on players.
“Let’s get the ground right. It’s an ice rink at the moment. I don’t know why that’s the case,” he said.
“We’ve got to fix that. I watched the Essendon v Fremantle game and it was like players were going at 80 per cent speed because they knew if they went 100% they couldn’t cut and change direction and be diligent to tackle.
“Players are falling over everywhere. We’ve got to get this venue right.”
Since its inception back in 2000, the old Docklands ground has constantly been the subject of derision from footy fans, whether it be the surface, finding parking, the atmosphere or the location.
Following a trio of matches at Marvel across Round 9, there are two fixtures for this coming weekend between co-tenants Western Bulldogs and St Kilda on Saturday night and Essendon and North Melbourne on Sunday twilight.