How Football Was Meant to be Watched

I first went to the then Olympic Stadium at Homebush to watch a centenary match of Rugby Union between the Wallabies and England. I won the tickets in a competition and ended up sitting in what can only be described as the "reverse nose bleed seats". It could be described as the worst seat in the house. They couldn't give a ticket away to sit there, except to some poor fool who spent 55 cents in a phone competition.

A few years later I took the kids to a semi final to watch the beloved Sharkies go around. The seats were a bit better but they were in the 20/20 section. If you didn't have 20/20 vision you could not see the game.

All around the world , the stadiums are getting bigger, the fans are getting further away from the game and your average obese bum just doesn't fit in those plastic fold up seats.

It got me thinking about the good old days as a youngster where every second Sunday was spent at Seymour Shaw Park Miranda to watch all three grades of the Sutherland soccer team. Bench seats on one side, a small hill at either end and a bench seat grandstand on the other side. The crowds were never really what you could call huge but the place did have atmosphere.

My father took me to watch my then beloved Newtown play against St George at Kogarah Jubilee Oval and also the mighty Blue Bags whallop Parramatta at Henson Park. This is how footy should be watched. Atmosphere and a grassed area. I have sat with grass underneath me at the SCG. It too has now turned into a vast area of plastic bucket seats. Watching a game in such a place just isn't as good as it used to be.

I haven't been to Leichhardt Oval but everytime I see a game there on television the place seems to be alive. The heads of all the sporting codes keep telling teams what the public want. Well I'm the public and you haven't asked me yet.

"ANY GROUND THAT IS CALLED AN OVAL OR A PARK HAS A GOOD CHANCE OF BEING MY TYPE OF LOCATION"

I need some toilet paper available in case I need to go ( but this is only at half time as I am at the game to watch the match). I want a kiosk, not a restaurant or some fancy specialist eatery. The kiosk is to be run by a local group of women and men with all of the profits going to the club. I don't want to spend $20 on some gourmet style sandwich. I just want a pie or a sausage roll or a bucket of chips, maybe a chocolate heart or a golden gaytime (am I still allowed to say that). If I get change for my $10 I will be happy.

Most of all I want the opportunity to sit on grass if I want or to get a splinter in the grandstand while telling the ref he's an idiot without getting thrown out of the ground. You see I am an Australian and it is my God given right to watch a game that is not in some mega stadium. Any ground that is called an Oval or a Park has a good chance of being my type of location. Put on the word "stadium" and my interest wanes.

Have the big wigs out there ever wondered why you can jam pack 17000 into Leichhardt Oval while a similar match at The Olympic Stadium, sorry, Telstra Stadium, woops, ANZ Stadium fails to register on the Richter Scale.

Come on Australia let's get smaller, let's get back to the suburbs and let's enjoy the games like they were meant to be enjoyed.