How to Get Tickets to the 2021 AFL Grand Final

You don’t wanna miss this historical West Coast game.

In case you somehow missed it, thanks to another outbreak of COVID-19, this year’s AFL Grand Final between the Melbourne Demons and the Western Bulldogs will be held at Perth’s Optus Stadium in Western Australia.

This historical event is sure to get everyone in WA hyped, which means it’ll be a mad rush to get your hands on even just one of these highly sought-after tickets.

After 24,000-ish member tickets have been sold, only 10,205 seats remain for the general public, so let’s break down where to get tickets and your best chance at securing a spot.

 

 

 

 

 

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Where and when can I buy AFL Grand Final tickets?

With huge events like a once-in-a-lifetime AFL Grand Final, there’s—unfortunately—a high chance that ticket scalpers or scammers will be on the hunt to make some money off fans who are desperate for a ticket.

To avoid getting tricked by scalpers, you’ll want to only buy your tickets through the Ticketmaster website.

Gone are the days of camping out overnight and buying tickets at the gate. To keep things orderly (and COVID safe of course) all tickets will only be available on the Ticketmaster website via a Ticketmaster account.

Don’t stress if you don’t already have a Ticketmaster account. It’s free to sign up and you can do it in advance. If you do already have an account, make sure to check your login details and password in advance!

All tickets will go on sale at 10:00 am AWST this Thursday 16 September, but you can join the ‘pre-queue waiting room’ from 9:50 am AWST. Idk about you, but I’d be getting ready from 9 am.

Tickets to the event vary in price so you don’t have to be made of money to secure a spot. The starting price is $185 for the nose-bleed tickets way up the back, and range all the way up to $450 for a closer spot (concession tickets are also available).

Do not refresh! Stay in the queue.

Once you’ve logged into your Ticketmaster account on Thursday and have secured a spot in the pre-queue waiting room or the official 10 am virtual queue, do not refresh your browser! I repeat, do not refresh!

While a waiting room screen might look like it’s frozen, it’s definitely not. If you refresh your screen you will lose your spot in the queue and might miss out on tickets completely.

This also goes for anyone buying tickets on their smartphone or tablet device. Don’t let your phone ‘dim’ or lock as this will cause the same problem. You can turn off auto-lock functions in your smartphone’s settings for safety.

If you successfully make it to the shop section (remember there are only 10,000 tickets) you will then be prompted to select your tickets and checkout. Be quick and know what you want though, ‘cos you’re typically only given a 10-minute window to get it sorted.

Sorry to those who wanna bring their whole friend group and fam, each buyer is limited to a maximum of four tickets per person.

For each ticket, you will also need to provide the full name and mobile number of the person that will be using it. So, if you’re still a kiddo, get your ‘rents to chuck in their mobile number.

If you’re in need of wheelchair or accessible seating, there are prompts on the Ticketmaster website that will assist you ahead of the ticket sale time.

Why are there only 10,000 tickets?

If you’re thinking “Optus Stadium has a capacity of more than 60,000, why are there only 10,000 tickets available?” Well, it all comes down to member priority, unfortunately.

As it goes for every AFL Grand Final, members of the two final teams get priority spots to purchase tickets for the big game before the rest of the general public can have their turn.

While this year’s game is being played in the West with no home teams in the final, the Melbourne Demons and Western Bulldogs are two very popular teams with members spread nationwide.

Despite WA’s hard border with… Well, everywhere, members in other states around the country were permitted to give their details to friends and family in WA so that they could purchase first dibs tickets.

On Monday, Melbourne Demons members competed for 12,000 allocated tickets, and then the Western Bulldog members did the same on Tuesday.
Any unsold tickets from either allocation were set to be made available to the general public allocation but uh… they all sold out.

Other set-aside tickets went to AFL members and expenny corporate packages, so the rest of us are left with just 10,000.

Don’t worry if you miss out.

With such a small number of tickets available in such a capital city of keen AFL fans, it’s highly likely that the left-over tickets will sell out in a matter of minutes, and there will be many disappointed fans that miss out.

If you end up being one of these people, don’t worry too much. Getting a ticket to this year's Grand Final is very competitive and of course, not everyone in Perth can make it.

Instead, use the day to get together with your friends and fam that you would’ve taken with you to the game, have a BBQ, and watch the game on a big screen. Just ‘cos you aren’t there in person doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy it.

Header Image: Nathan Hurst via Unsplash