6832 fans watched the Suns beat the Giants at Manuka Oval on April 27. Photo: Graham Tidy
The Greater Western Sydney board will consider ''spreading out'' games in Canberra and moving their visits to Manuka Oval to later in the season to help boost crowd numbers in Sydney.
Just 5830 fans turned up to Skoda Stadium on Sunday - the lowest crowd at a regular-season AFL match since Fitzroy's final year in 1996.
The 135-point defeat to Adelaide was the Giants' first match in Sydney since the opening round of the season on March 30.
As part of the Giants' $26 million, 10-year agreement with the ACT government, GWS played two ''home'' games at Manuka Oval on April 13 and 27.
The Giants will play their third premiership game in Canberra when they take on the Western Bulldogs on July 6.
Sheedy wants his team to play more matches in Sydney early in the season when the Giants aren't anchored to the bottom of the ladder and that could come at a cost for Canberra.
Canberra's representative on the Giants board, Peter Taylor, conceded matches at Manuka Oval could be moved to later in the season in the coming years.
''We've been talking for a little while about spreading out the games for Canberra a bit more and not having two games close together at the front [of the season],'' Taylor said.
''It's all part of the learning curve in the first couple of years and where we can go. [The cold weather in Canberra] has always been part of the consideration when we play our games, but as far as tweaking it to the right areas, we could probably [play] in Canberra up until the middle of May.''
The Giants' paltry turnout was worse than the 6832-strong crowd that watched them lose to the Suns at Manuka Oval last month.
But they won a cross-code battle with the NRL for the April 13 clash against St Kilda, with 11,092 watching the twilight fixture and just 9699 turning up to watch the Raiders.
ACT Sport Minister Andrew Barr said the government would begin negotiations in the coming months with the AFL and Giants about next year's fixture.
''The strong crowd for the night-time match against St Kilda demonstrates the value in having an early season clash against a high profile Melbourne club at Manuka early in the season,'' he said.
''We don't support night-time games in the middle of winter but twilight matches in early May could work.''
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