There will be a bigger venue when the visiting Philippine Women’s National Football Team battle the home squad Australia Matildas for the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifiers.
A crowd of at least 50,000 is expected to fill the mammoth Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia.
Reflecting soaring demand for fans to cheer on the CommBank Matildas play against the Philippines, more football fans will now have the opportunity to do so this October as Football Australia and the Western Australian Government announced that Match Day 2 of the AFC Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Paris 2024 Asian Qualifiers Round 2 (Asian Qualifiers) on Sunday, 29 October will be moved to Optus Stadium in Perth.
Drawn in Group A alongside Chinese Taipei, the Philippines and IR Iran, the crucial Match Day 2 schedule will see Australia take on fellow FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 participant, the Philippines (3.00pm AWST / 6.00pm AEDT), followed by IR Iran and Chinese Taipei (6.00pm AWST / 9.00pm AEDT).
The shift of the Sunday, 29 October 2023 matches from HBF Park to the 60,000-capacity Optus Stadium follows the exhaustion of allocated tickets for all three Group A match days at the FIFA Women’s World Cup venue.
All existing ticket holders for Match Day 2 and those who purchased a 3-Day Pass have received an email about this venue change and will receive further correspondence prior to 24 September 2023, with instructions on accessing an exclusive window to select new seats in the same category at no charge for the Optus Stadium Match Day.
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This exclusive window will commence at 10.00am AWST on Tuesday, 26 September 2023 and run until 5.00pm AWST Monday, 9 October 2023 via Ticketmaster.
Remaining tickets for this Optus Stadium Match Day will go on Pre-Sale at 2.00pm AWST on Tuesday, 26 September with General Public On-Sale at 2.00pm AWST on Thursday, 28 September.
Football Australia CEO James Johnson stated that the move reiterated the strong appeal and fan fervour for the CommBank Matildas following a historic FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign.
“Leading into and during the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup, we have witnessed the enormous drawing power the CommBank Matildas, with almost 450,000 supporters attending the team’s Send-Off Match and World Cup fixtures,” Johnson said.
“The CommBank 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.
“We thank Premier Roger Cook, the Western Australian Government and Tourism Western Australia for their co-operation in ensuring a significantly greater number of fans can not only watch the team live, but also be a part of the journey towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Premier of Western Australia, Roger Cook, said: “We could not be more thrilled to bring the Matildas to Western Australia following their heroic performance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was a roaring success in WA with our hospitality precincts and the dedicated FIFA Fan site experiencing bumper crowds and spectators.
“The football fanfare has been overwhelming, and to ensure we give more Western Australians and travelling fans the opportunity to experience the Matildas play in our great State we’ve partnered with Football Australia to transfer the Sunday match day to Optus Stadium.”
“Although the rectangle 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.
“My government is proud to secure this week of football events and I thank all parties involved in making this a reality and ensuring it will be a huge success for football and our local economy,” the Premier concluded.
