Despite having shirked the Western Australian capital since 2005 – mainly as a result of WA government indifference – Football Federation Australia (FFA) are lining up a bid for the Socceroos to potentially play world powerhouses England or Brazil for the new venue’s first event.
However, the WA Football Commission believe that as West Coast and Fremantle will be the predominant tenants at the venue, a Western Derby clash would be the most appropriate way to kick things off.
WA Football Commission chief executive Gary Walton said in quotes from the West Australian: “The main content for the new stadium that keeps its viability - on a basis all these user agreements are sorted out properly - is going to be the week-in, week-out content of our two AFL clubs playing.
"International events come with a pretty significant up-front investment where a derby will, in my view, guarantee a capacity crowd and it'll come at no cost to the State."
Football West, meanwhile, has teamed up with the FFA to bring the Socceroos to Perth for a possible “Ashes” type clash against England.
World Champions Germany and Samba kings Brazil are other nations mentioned in what would be the Socceroos' first game in WA since they played against Indonesia at nib Stadium in 2005.
Perth Glory midfielder Richard Garcia, who was capped 18 times for the Socceroos, backed the idea of bringing the national team to Perth to launch the stadium.
“I think that would be fantastic. Perth hasn’t really seen something like that and something as big as an international match at a new stadium would be fantastic,” Garcia told the Perth Glory website.
“Not only for Australia but for WA. I’m sure you could probably sell a game like that three or four times over so it’d be fantastic for WA.”
An Ashes Test or a Twenty20 International have also been suggested as opening events for the stadium.
In other news from out west, the old Subiaco ground has been re-named once again and instead of being known as Patersons Stadium will become Domain Stadium.
