BRISBANE LIONS members gave the new Brighton Homes Arena at Springfield 10 out of 10 after the venue was filled to near capacity last Thursday night for a trial match against defending premiers Geelong.
The fan’s love for the venue was no doubted boosted by the Lions’ 46-point routing of the Cats who in their defence were missing some of their big guns.
The traffic snarls and long queues were still partly evident, but overall the match proved another showcase for a venue that is getting hyped as the best AFL centre of excellence in the country.
Ipswich residents wanting to attend the match needed to be a Lions Club member with the 7500 allocated tickets offered out to the club’s huge membership base first.
The free tickets didn’t last long and while not all fans bothered to use them there was still a big house in attendance for the first major AFL match ever played in the district.
The rebuild of the Gabba for the 2030 Olympics in years to come will see the Lions men’s side without a home venue and that may open up opportunities to play more major games at Springfield.
The centre has been built with an option to expand capacity to 25,000 for just such a scenario. The match last week went live to thousands of homes with Foxtel doing an outside broadcast of the match.
Fans would have noted that the Lions will be in a force in season 2023 with the likes of new draft pick, Will Ashcroft, putting in a promising display. The next matches to be played at Lions Springfield will be for the VFL and the AFL women’s competition.
The Lions regular training sessions at Springfield are open to the public.
