Perth Glory will avoid spending almost the entire A-League Men season on the road after securing Macedonia Park in Stirling as a temporary home base.
Glory owner Tony Sage feared last month his club would be forced to spend the first five months of the season on the road due to a big delay in the $35 million upgrade to HBF Park.
Glory's home venue is being upgraded in time for next year's Women's World Cup, but the delay caused fixture chaos.
With Perth having few rectangular venues that would meet all the requirements of an ALM fixture, Glory were facing the very real prospect of playing all but three games interstate.
But State League venue Macedonia Park has now been approved for Glory to use, with the club to play 10 of their 13 home games there.
The remaining three will be played at HBF Park, beginning on March 10, once the stadium's upgrade has been completed.
Significant temporary infrastructure improvements will be made to render Macedonia Park fit for A-League action.
This includes the addition of temporary seating to build its capacity, pitch renovation, additional parking and a temporary lighting upgrade.
The WA Government has agreed to assist in implementing these improvements.
Macedonia Park has a current capacity of about 7000, but it's unclear what the capacity will be once the temporary seating is included.
Given it will take time to put in the temporary seating, Glory's first two home games that were originally scheduled for October 29 (against Central Coast) and November 13 (against Brisbane) will now be played at Macedonia Park later in the season.
Glory's first home game will now take place on December 10 against Western United.
The retention of the club's 13 home games is a huge relief for Glory, who have spent much of the past two seasons on the road due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have been confronted by a unique set of challenges caused by circumstances completely beyond our control," new Glory chief executive Anthony Radich said.
"Being informed so late in the piece of the unavailability of HBF Park for an additional six home games beyond the original four has severely delayed and thrown our season-planning into disarray.
"As well as needing a rectangular venue, we wanted to avoid having to play "home" fixtures on the east coast given that our members, partners and fans have been deprived of normality in terms of home games for the past two years."
Glory are set to be financially compensated by the WA State Government for the loss of income associated with having to move to a smaller venue.
