Geelong CEO Steve Hocking said Cats supporters will be the big winners after the club’s 2023 AFL fixture was released on the weekend.
Off the back of the 2022 premiership, the Cats have been granted a strong mix of days, venues, and timeslots, including earlier start times for MCG blockbusters against Collingwood in Round 1 and Richmond in Round 9 to cater for traveling supporters on a Friday night.
"We've been thinking about our members in the Geelong region and certainly right down through the western districts,” Hocking told geelongcats.com.au on Monday.
“Right down to Warrnambool and areas like that, as far as getting up to the MCG and being able to get home at a reasonable time and also back through all the regional areas, we've got a lot of supporters in those regions as well.
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“[Overall], if you have a look at the first 15 rounds, there's something there for everybody, from Thursday nights right through to Friday nights, right through to Saturday nights and Saturday afternoons. We've catered for families… just a range of different football followers that support Geelong Cats.
The Cats will unfurl their 2022 premiership in Round 6 against the Swans in Round 6 at GMHBA Stadium, but it will be the second half of the season when the stage 5 redevelopment is closer to completion that Geelong will be the centre of the football universe for Cats supporters, where the club will play five out of the final eight games on the run home.
Hocking said he and his team were pleased to have been able to work with the AFL to accommodate the club and its supporters as the new stadium comes online mid-way through the year.
“Two years running we've been able to work with the AFL to achieve that,” he said.
“I know in the past when other stages have been built as part of the redevelopment here we've found it hard to get seven or eight games locked in, so to have nine in 2022 and now back end nine for 2023, we're really pleased with how the AFL have accommodated that for us.
“It’s a good opportunity to get away to a strong start in Melbourne and then come down here and have a great mix of Victorian clubs down here as well with Essendon coming down.”
Geelong plays five of the first nine games at the MCG, including three of the first four against Collingwood, Carlton, and Hawthorn respectively.
Hocking said it was an opportunity for the club’s substantial supporter base in the Victorian capital and its surrounds to watch the Cats live next season, but also a chance for the club to continue to grow its engagement and financial footprint in the area through membership.
“The great thing for our members is our Melbourne supporters are going to a lot of their team in Melbourne, he said.
“We’ve been very fortunate to hit a membership record in 2022 and we're aiming for 85,000 members in 2023 and beyond that, we want to reach 100,000. We need to keep pace with Richmond and West Coast, those bigger clubs.
“We are a big club on the field and we want to be a big club off the field and so working through all of this, trying to land the right fixture, is all part of making sure we're providing for all of our people.”
