The AFL has broken attendance records at Perth’s Optus Stadium with the highest attended sporting event in Western Australia’s history.
West Coast Eagles faced Geelong at Perth’s all-new, state-of-the-art stadium yesterday (Sunday 8 April), making history for sport in the state.
A whopping 54,535 fans attended the game at Optus Stadium to witness the Eagles secure a 15-point win over Geelong on home soil.
“I think relief comes to mind,” said Eagles coach Adam Simpson after the game.
“There were really good signs for our resilience as well. I thought clearly we got outplayed in that third quarter and, gee, Geelong were brave.
“But we stuck to it and we couldn’t stop that momentum in the third quarter. There were a few structural things but they probably just wanted it a bit more than us.
“We were really challenged at three-quarter time but I thought we stood tall in the last 10 minutes.”
Optus Stadium also welcomed its 500,000th fan through the turnstiles on Saturday (7 April).
Optus Stadium opened to the public in January, when 53,781 fans attended the Gillette One-Day International (then the highest-attended match of the series).
With a capacity of 60,000, Optus Stadium is a milestone development for the live entertainment industry in WA.
