Over 61,000 attend College Football Sydney Cup at ANZ Stadium

Providing further proof that Sydneysiders love big events, a bumper crowd of 61,247 flocked to ANZ Stadium yesterday (27th August) to witness the University of California, Berkley beat University of Hawaii in the College Football Sydney Cup.

The resounding success of the first game of US college football in Australia, following on from the Major League Baseball Opening Series Sydney in 2014, shows that Sydney has an appetite for major US sport and suggests that an NFL fixture could be heading to the city in the coming years.

University of Hawaii Athletic Director David Matlin said the NFL was watching the event closely and believes a competitive fixture is on the cards for Sydney.

Matlin told Fairfax media "obviously (the NFL) are paying attention to this.

“You have the facilities and the sports enthusiasts, so it's a real good place for sporting events."

Matlin welcomed the way Sydney embraced American football, describing the event as "an incredible cultural experience for our student athletes and a lot of fun.”

Much of the pre match promotion for the four-hour-long event focussed on its American inspired food, including a two-foot long hot dog, with food and beverage a key part of the fan experience in American sport.

However, fans complained of lengthy queues at F&B outlets, with many taking to social media to complain that they missed most of the game while waiting in long lines at concessions.

Fan also complained that bars ran out of beer as of half time in the game, although ANZ Stadium’s social media managers took to twitter to deny this.

A spokesman for ANZ Stadium went on to tell Fairfax that the event “created an unprecedented demand for food and beverage offerings, resulting in unfortunate queues.

The spokesman added "we had more than 61,000 people walk into the venue just before lunchtime all wanting to eat and drink.

"This created long queues that took an extended period to service.The specific demand for American-style food products that took longer to prepare – such as the 2-foot hot dogs – added to the challenges."

Overall, 10,000 hot dogs were eaten and 70,000 cups of beer served., with the spokesman denied that the stadium ran out of beer, saying more food and drinks were consumed per hour than at last year's NRL grand final, the first State of Origin match or last week's Bledisloe Cup Test.

With the NSW Government having been criticised for backing Rugby League World Cup organisers in securing more Sydney-based fixtures for the 2017 tournament, Destination NSW's backing for this game, the season opener for the 2016 NCAA College Football Championships, shows how the State is looking for new major sporting events, rather than traditional competitions.

Images courtesy of Damian Briggs Photography.

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