The Australian Football League has officially announced this year’s grand final "will be played at Perth’s Optus Stadium," the second year in a row the event has been moved from the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The timeslot for the Sept. 25 match is set to be later than usual on Australia's east coast "due to the time difference" with Western Australia. With daily new coronavirus cases in Victoria still in the high double figures, the local government "made the call on Tuesday to move the grand final." AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is "adamant the grand final will be played in front of a crowd, even if Perth were to enter a snap lockdown close to the event" (THE AGE, 8/31).
Despite calls to forge ahead with a Sept. 18 grand final, McLachlan said that a pre-grand final bye "allowed all clubs to quarantine for 14 days and then be allowed out in the Perth community for at least a week." Still, the AFL would "not hesitate to push back its season decider into October" if new host city Perth is "locked down with a last-minute Covid outbreak." The AFL will "not disclose how much it has secured from the WA government for the right to host the game but Queensland was understood to have paid as much" as A$15M for grand final at The Gabba last year (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/31).
