AusLeisure

As a result of what Football Australia describes as "soaring demand" for tickets, the Matildas Olympic qualifying match against the Philippines on 29th October is to be moved from Perth’s HBF Parks to the 60,000 Optus Stadium.

Fresh from their fourth-placed finish at the FIFA Women's World Cup last month, at which they averaged crowds of more than 50,000, the Matildas are scheduled to play three qualifying matches in Perth in late October and early November for next year's Olympic Games in Paris.

The second of those games, against Philippines, will now be played at Optus Stadium, which has a capacity of 40,000 more fans that HBF Park.

The move follows the ticket allocation for all three matches of the Matildas home matches - which also includes games against Iran on 26th October and Chinese Taipei on 1st November - having already been exhausted, prompting Football Australia and the Western Australian Government to make the switch for the 29th October fixture.

The match forms part of a double-header, with Iran playing Taiwan at the same venue later in the day.

Advising that the ticket demand was a testament to the “enormous drawing power” of the Matildas, Football Australia Chief Executive, James Johnson stated “the Matildas are one of the strongest sporting brands in the country and it has become strongly evident that passionate support for this iconic team continues to grow and, for the second time in 12 months, because of the popularity of the CommBank Matildas, we need to relocate to a venue with a higher capacity to accommodate the demand.”

HBF Park is a rectangular venue used for football and rugby, while Optus Stadium is primarily an AFL and cricket ground, but Western Australian Premier, Roger Cook, said “on balance” it made sense to move one match day to Optus Stadium.

Premier Cook noted “although the rectangular stadium at HBF Park is best suited for football, given all three match days have sold out, on balance it made sense to move one to Optus Stadium, so that as many fans as possible could see the team.”

People who already bought tickets for the relocated Olympic qualifier will have access to repurchase those from Tuesday 26th September at 10am AWST.

The Matildas’ opening World Cup match against Ireland in July had to be moved from Sydney’s 45,000-seat Allianz Stadium to the 80,000-capacity Accor Stadium at Homebush to accommodate the huge demand for tickets. That, and each subsequent Matildas game at the tournament, sold out.

Images: Optus Stadium (top) and Matildas fans during the recent FIFA Women's World Cup (below).

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