Big games clash

Normal, Sports
Source:

The National,Thursday March 17th, 2016

  By PETER PUSAL

 PORT Moresby sports fans will have to choose between two major events on Saturday, with the National Soccer League grand final and the PNG Hunters first home game three hours apart.

The NSL decider between Hekari United and Lae City Dwellers is scheduled to kick off at 3pm at the Sir John Guise Stadium (SJGS) in Wagani while over at the National Football Stadium (NFS) in Boroko, 3.5 kilometres away, the SP Papua New Guinea Hunters play the Tweed Heads Seagulls in their first home game of the Intrust Super Cup season.The clash in scheduling of big games is sure to test the drawing power of either sport but it is safe to assume that the Hunters round 3 fixture will have a better chance of selling out given rugby league’s popularity, if the full house organisers got for the pre-season match against the Penrith Panthers is anything to go by.

Meanwhile, the NSL final will be lucky to fill a third of the SJGS this Saturday, which has a 15,000 seating capacity. 

If soccer wanted to maximise its potential to fill a stadium, then this NSL final should have been played in either of the last two weekends when the Hunters were on the road.

The question that must be asked is could the clash in scheduling have been avoided? Why is a sport like soccer, which struggles for more mainstream acceptance and recognition from the general public, trying to compete with rugby league?

With ticket prices almost similar, the casual fan will almost certainly chose the Hunters over the NSL final. 

The NSL board should have foreseen the possible clash in scheduling last month when the Q-Cup draws were released and adjusted their top four playoff series, which in hindsight was a waste of time and resources as a simple semifinal format would have returned us the same finalists given the form Hekari and Lae were in. 

Instead football fans had to endure an extra four weeks of matches that accomplished little in the end.