Duplicate the Adelaide Oval footbridge before someone gets hurt | Michael Mkoka-Nicholson

Forget the Britannia Roundabout, the Adelaide Oval footbridge is the city’s real death trap. Give it the Expressway treatment, writes Michael Mkoka-Nicholson.

Nothing brought me, a long suffering Crows supporter, more joy than seeing 48,000 Port fans trudging out of the Adelaide Oval on Saturday night as losers (even if it was to the old enemy Collingwood).

Better still when it’s by less than a kick.

Unfortunately basking in a back-to-back defeat for Port Adelaide starts and ends with the final siren as the mass exodus converging on the Adelaide Oval footbridge goes from being a point and laugh situation to a potential dangerous crush.

While the Crows sit on their lofty heights at number 13, crowd crushes week-in-week-out haven’t exactly been occurring on the same level for me this season, but every South Aussie footy supporter knows that impending dread of shuffling their way back to the CBD across the Torrens.

Jeepers pic.twitter.com/4dIe3vuZjt

— Jarrod Walsh (@jarrodwalsh) July 22, 2023

As much as it pains me to say, Port will be playing finals this year and big crowds like the one seen on Saturday (aka the bandwagon) will be heaving … as will the bridge.

The slow moving crowd was even spotted by Port’s own game day announcer Jarrod Walsh with a video tweet of the procession labelled nothing more than, “Jeepers.”

Others were not so kind, replying to Jarrod with far more scathing commentary.

“That bridge is definitely not built for blockbusters!” said Port supporter Vivienne.

“Absolute nightmare trying to get across the bridge tonight! Would have been faster to walk up King Will to get to the train station!” Jason chimed in.

“40 minutes to get across the bridge,” exclaimed Hayley.

“Scary dangerous” was all Loz could add.

Of course the Adelaide Oval redevelopment has been a resounding success since the first official season was played there in 2014 (let’s forget the first Showdown though).

But original plans for the footbridge included a much wider footprint and a more vastly spread entrance and exit that got the chop due to budgetary measures.

If we all have to do the entrance shuffle through the gates with Adelaide Oval staff letting punters enter in stages when it gets too busy, maybe there needs to be a similar system for the bridge at the conclusion of games.

Perhaps get the geniuses behind the Britannia Roundabout to fashion a system that will no doubt cause none of the South Aussie patrons any headaches leaving the Oval.

Another idea would be to look at the difference a two-way Southern Expressway made to driving down south and duplicate the footbridge, I’m sure the cost wouldn’t be prohibitive *cough cough*.

Or maybe we all just need to chill out, win, lose or draw and leave the ground in stages without causing the inevitable crush.

With Showdown 54 on this weekend, another sellout crowd will descend on the best footy ground in the country, sadly I wish that title could extend to the structure that will be taking me, hopefully a victor, safely back to the city to celebrate a Crows win. But if we lose, I’ll mostly just be crushed.

Michael Mkoka-Nicholson is The Advertiser’s Audience Development Editor and a long-suffering Crows supporter.