An overwhelming demand for tickets has prompted organisers to move a Matildas’ Olympic qualifying match to Perth’s Optus Stadium to hold tens of thousands more fans.
The Matildas are scheduled to play three matches in Australia in October and November against the Philippines, Iran and Taiwan.
Football Australia has now moved the match against the Philippines from Perth Rectangular Stadiumat at HBF Park, which holds just over 20,000 people, to Optus Stadium which holds 60,000.
The tickets for all three matches at the 20,500-capacity HBF Park have already been exhausted.
The soaring demand for tickets comes off the back of the historic success of the Matildas at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which saw the Australian national team draw record-breaking crowds and televison viewership numbers.
Each match the Matildas played at the World Cup sold out, with their first match against Ireland in Sydney upgraded to a 80,000 capacity stadium.
“Leading into and during the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup, we have witnessed the enormous drawing power the Matildas, with almost 450,000 supporters attending the team’s Send-Off Match and World Cup fixtures,” Football Australia CEO James Johnson said.
“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.”
People who already bought tickets for the relocated Olympic qualifier will have access to repurchase on Tuesday, September 26 at 10am AWST. Remaining tickets for the Optus Stadium Match Day will go general public sale at 2.00pm AWST on Thursday, 28 September.
Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said he “could not be more thrilled” to host the Matildas in Western Australia.