AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan believes the 2022 season opener between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs could bring in the biggest home-and-away AFL crowd in history.
With the 2021 Grand Final between the two teams being played in Perth, McLachlan thinks the Wednesday night clash should be a sell-out due to the fact that the decider wasn’t played at its traditional venue.
The current biggest regular season crowd was in Round 10, 1958, when the Demons met the Magpies in front of 99,256 spectators at the MCG.
While that’ll be a hard number to go past, the CEO thinks it’s a “strong possibility” that the record will be beaten.
“I know there's a bit of pain for people, a bit of a loss, particularly for the Melbourne supporters, but also for the Bulldogs supporters, who didn't get to see the Grand Final (at the MCG),” McLachlan told reporters.
“The more we talked about it, starting with the Grand Final rematch made sense.
“We like the Carlton-Richmond slot on Thursday night, that's got its own tradition and momentum now after about 15 years.
“The feedback from Melbourne supporters is really strong and I reckon we're going to have huge games right the way through and we'll go close to selling out that Wednesday night.
“There's a chance I think we have the biggest home-and-away crowd we've ever had in Melbourne, I really feel that's a strong possibility.”
The anticipated match-up will be a celebration for Melbourne fans, with the 2021 premiership flag to be unveiled before the game.
Carlton will face Richmond the following night at the MCG in their traditional Thursday night Round 1 clash.