Liverpool Commercial Dir Olly Dale Recalls Impact Of Club's '13 Visit To Melbourne

Liverpool's visit to Melbourne in '13 "flabbergasted" organizers and "helped change the way overseas clubs viewed the Australian market," according to the AAP. Liverpool Commercial Dir Olly Dale believes the club's match at a sold-out Melbourne Cricket Ground "made some of the world's biggest clubs take notice of Australia." This year, "an unprecedented off-season looms with Liverpool, Real Madrid, Manchester City and AS Roma all coming in July." Dale said that Liverpool's clash with A-League side Melbourne Victory in front of 100,000 fans is "partly responsible for the new wave of interest from abroad." Dale: "We took our lead from the people in Melbourne who knew the events marketplace well. Their expectations were that we would sell between 50,000 and 70,000 seats. They were pretty flabbergasted when 100,000 tickets melted off the screen in a matter of hours" (AAP, 2/18).