The AFLW Grand Final at Princes Park sold out within hours for the second year in a row, prompting calls from fans and the wider women's football community to move the event to a larger stadium to meet growing demand.

However, Docklands Stadium, which is owned by the AFL and has a capacity of over 53,000 just down the road, is not in contention to be utilised for the women's decider after it was already booked out for a major international sporting event.

The grand final rematch between North Melbourne and Brisbane is to be held on Saturday night at Carlton's home with a capacity crowd of 12,500. The record AFLW grand final attendance is 53,034 at Adelaide Oval in 2019.

The 2022 grand final also drew fan criticism after being held at Springfield after Brisbane earned hosting rights, which has a capacity of 7,500. The initial issue of 6,500 tickets sold out within minutes, followed by a second issue of tickets, which sold out just as quickly.

Despite fan disappointment at being locked out of the biggest games on the AFLW calendar year, AFL head of women's football Emma Moore said the league wouldn't consider a move to a bigger venue.

Speaking at the finals launch in early November, she said the AFL's position was it was beneficial to create an event with a high demand that people had to be quick to buy tickets for.

Moore added the change to a night game would hopefully bring in new audiences to TV viewership. The grand final starts at 7:45pm, a shift from the previous afternoon games.

"This will enable more people to watch the biggest game on the AFLW calendar, exposing more people to our great game and an unforgettable atmosphere to close the season," Moore said.

Furthermore, a spokesperson for the AFL said "[Docklands] is unavailable due to an international supercross event scheduled for Saturday night".

Notably in the AFLW, the grand final is played in the city of the team who finishes higher on the ladder, giving them home ground advantage. Had this been Brisbane or Adelaide, the grand final would have been played at Springfield or Norwood Oval respectively.

Many of the larger stadiums, including the MCG and Adelaide Oval have been fitted with cricket pitches following the conclusion of the men's AFL season.

'A missed opportunity'

Women's football pioneer and commentator Chyloe Kurdas said the pinnacle event in any competition is a great opportunity to attract new eyes to the game and get people involved who might have previously been sitting on the fence.

She gave the example of not growing up a massive soccer fan but finding herself in France for a holiday at the same time as the 2019 Women's World Cup and decided to go with some friends.

"I had a ball and I was like 'actually, this is awesome' and then last year was the World Cup [in Australia] and I went to everything… I became a convert," Kurdas said.

"So that's the opportunity with pinnacle events. You can attract the fence sitter to go, 'Yeah, actually, I'll go along because it's the grand final.' People who are bona fides are already going and they drag their mates along."

Moreover, as the AFLW is still in its infancy, it's important for kids to connect with the game, who will later turn into adult fans and continue family ties of fandom to clubs, said Kurdas.

"Limiting the ability for kids with who will grow up with the game, limiting their ability to have a touch point with the pinnacle event feels a bit counterproductive … we're limiting our future fan base," Kurdas said.

"And we're going to have to spend that money somewhere else trying to get those people to the game later on when it's much, much harder."

Kurdas said it was a "missed opportunity" that the venue provided for the marquee game doesn't have the capacity to service the demand. Especially, she added, when the Docklands venue has been used recently to hold Matildas friendlies, an event of a rival football code.

"So for me, that's really weird. Even if it's a financial decision, I feel like that's a financial hit that you can cop, because the impact of what that decision does in the hearts and minds of the players, the clubs that have worked so hard [and] the community of fans more broadly, says that we don't value our women as much as we value the Matildas.

"Or we don't value our women as much as we value motocross … I think you just take the financial hit and you prioritise your own people, and they haven't done that, and that's the disappointing thing."

Furthermore, new fans gained now will pay dividends down the track, the same as potential fans lost will end up costing the league more to convert them later on.

'Hard for the league to grow'

Simon Cumming, a Kangaroos fan of over 25 years, tried to buy tickets to the decider after attending North Melbourne's resounding 57-point win over Port Adelaide in the preliminary finals, but was too late.

"I watched us play so well that I was super excited and definite on getting grand final tickets … So Monday, after a busy work day, I logged on to check if tickets were on sale to find that it was already sold out, which was super sad," Cumming said.

The 35-year-old added that he loves Princes Park as a venue and remembers going to games there as a kid but feels as though the final should be put at bigger venues.

"It feels like it makes it hard for the league to grow if less people can attend the grand final than want to. The footy has been so good and it deserves a huge crowd," he said.

Some wider AFLW fans expressed online they purposely didn't buy tickets so as not to take them off North Melbourne or Brisbane supporters, but otherwise would have gone.

On the flip side, there's an argument that full smaller venues create better atmospheres than half-filled large stadiums.

North Melbourne veteran and star ruck Emma King said from a playing perspective, it was amazing to be able to hear the support from full stands at Princes Park.

"However, it is quite a light capacity at the moment … It would be nice, because it does fill up so quickly, that we could get at least a couple more thousand, possibly at a different venue," she said.

"But again, [Princes Park] does host and it is a really nice venue for AFLW games for the last couple of seasons."

'Old school Melbourne footy'

The inaugural AFLW game at Princes Park in 2017 between Carlton and Collingwood was played in front of a lockout crowd of 24,568.

However, since then, Carlton Football Club went through a redevelopment to upgrade their existing facilities, in part to better accommodate the women's team, through a Carlton, Australian Government, Victorian State Government and AFL-funded initiative.

While this upgrade included better AFLW match-day facilities, it also resulted in a reduced crowd capacity by around 10,000.

Similar to Cumming, Kurdas said the ground is a great place for a footy atmosphere and provides a good deck for quality games.

"It's a great size for the women's game. The fact that it's not super long but has beautiful, lovely, wide wings. I think that really lends itself well to the women's game, especially to 16 a-side," Kurdas said.

"It's a wonderful stadium. It's got a great history about it and it's right smack, bang in the middle of Princes Park, a picturesque location… It's old-school footy in Melbourne. It's our heritage.

"I guess that's the irony, isn't it? We've invested in women's facilities, but we've taken away from the fans to be able to access the game as a result."