The record attendance for ANZ Stadium "could be set by a football friendly involving an A-League club and the current English Premier League champions," according to Dominic Bossi of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Chelsea's tour match in Sydney on June 2, "looks set to herald a record attendance at the venue, after extra temporary seating was installed to accomodate an incredible surge in demand for tickets, bringing the new capacity over the benchmark crowd figure of 83,883." With tickets already sold out, "extra seating has been made available, putting nearly 500 extra passes on sale at 11am on Tuesday." The additional seats "have been erected directly above the players tunnel on the bottom tier of the stadium as well as on level six, where advertising boards have been taken down to allow for unrestricted viewing." ANZ Stadium GM of Event & Business Development Greg Sleigh said, "This is a game that looms as one of those unique 'Where were you' sporting moments and the clubs and the stadium want to do everything we can to ensure as many fans as possible can come and see English Premier League champions Chelsea against Sydney FC on 2 June" (SMH, 5/26).
CIRCUS MATCHES: REUTERS reported a Malaysian fan group’s protest against Premier League clubs organizing lucrative friendly matches in the country "appears to have been effective, with only 19,000 tickets sold for Tottenham Hotspur’s fixture on Wednesday." The Ultras Malaya had labeled Spurs’ game against a Malaysian XI and the July 24 visit from Liverpool as "circus matches," and expressed anger at the disruption caused to their domestic league as well as the World Cup qualifying preparations. Organizers were hopeful that "they would be able to boost the attendance before kick-off at the 80,000-capacity Shah Alam Stadium." ProEvents Group CEO Julian Kam said, "I hope we will reach 30,000 by tomorrow. It will be a very entertaining game for the fans to enjoy the moments." However, a less-than-half-full stadium "will still be an unusual sight" for English clubs traveling to Malaysia. In recent years, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal "have all managed to attract over 80,000 fans for friendly matches in the country" (REUTERS, 5/26).
