farmdoc's blog post number 369

I don’t know when AFL (then VFL) football turned from a sport into a business. But I know the prime architect was a certain Mr Samuel (of whom I’ve previously written). As a lad I’d gone to many matches, with my Dad and his brothers. They were Carlton supporters, so we mostly went to Princes Park. Our possie was behind the goalposts at the Royal Parade end. We’d take a wooden fruit-box for me to stand on. And I ritually had a meat pie at half-time. A Collingwood-supporting family friend, Bruce Andrew, pitied me as a Collingwood supporter attending Carlton matches, so he took me to some Collingwood games, at Victoria Park, the holy-of-holies where opposition teams feared to tread. Carton played at Princes Park from 1897 to 2005, and Collingwood at Victoria Park from 1892 to 1999. Over a century of club history and pride, summarily ended by Mr Samuel. Now it’s emerging that the desertion of local club grounds for mega-stadia has been a financial disaster for the clubs. Surprise, surprise. For the very same corporatist, Mr Samuel, was prime mover of the 1996 decision to merge the Victoria State Opera into Opera Australia, which has proved an artistic and financial debacle. Thanks partly to him, I no longer attend the football or the opera. As Pete Seeger sings: ‘When will they ever learn?’ Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.