The Australian Football League will need to do a bit of damage control after taking a heavy-handed approach to ownership of the AC/DC dates at Melbourne venue Etihad Stadium.
Yesterday, it was revealed that more than a month after the AC/DC dates were announced that the football league was claiming they had rights to the venue on the dates of the AC/DC Melbourne shows despite not having any matches scheduled.The AFL claims that it can put football matches on at the stadium if it wishes under the terms of their contract.
Although the football season does not even commence the following month, the AC/DC Melbourne dates overlap with pre-season matches that are yet to be even scheduled.
The entire debacle smells of a big publicity stunt or political play by the AFL.
For starters, this should have surfaced as soon as the AC/DC dates were made public. They chose not to.
Undercover has also be told an unconfirmed report that the AFL is taking Etihad Stadium to court over the fees charged for clubs to play matches at the venue. If true, this AC/DC complaint is merely a political play.
Pre-season matches are good for around 7,000 people generally, as opposed to the 180,000 who have bought tickets to see AC/DC. To accommodate 7,000 footie fans, the matches could be moved to any one of a number of venues.
Two days after the issue first surfaced the AFL has not changed its position.
Their pissing match looks set to continue into next week.
AC/DC will play Etihad Stadium on February 11, 13 and 15.
