PORT ADELAIDE CEO Keith Thomas says the club is pleased with the blockbuster start to the season as it prepares to celebrate its 150th year.
The AFL on Thursday released the 2020 Premiership Season fixture which has Port Adelaide playing four home night games in the opening nine rounds - three Saturday and one Friday.
Thomas believes it provides the club with the perfect platform to kick-start the tribute to its celebratory year.
“The thing we asked from the AFL was that we wanted to get the year off to a big start,” Thomas told reporters at Alberton on Thursday morning.
“The things that stand out to us are the six Friday and Saturday night home games.
“They are significant in their own right but when you add that to the agenda we have for the 150th celebrations, they are really helpful.
“It turns it into a pretty big fixture for us in big timeslots.”
The chief executive officer said the first home game of the 2020 season against cross-town rivals Adelaide was significant for the club.
“To kick it off with the prison bars in round 2 is pretty significant,” Thomas said.
“The way that it’s set up with the first home Showdown in round 2 - we will be wearing the prison bars. We think that’s a fantastic opening for us in the 150th year.
“Then we go into Good Friday against West Coast - another big, big Friday night game.
“We didn’t lose the ANZAC game - we’ve done that for 15 or 16 years in a row. We are really happy we are able to play the Bulldogs there on Saturday night, on ANZAC Day, which will be a special event.”
Thomas said the club’s members and supporters were at the forefront of its fixture requests with the AFL, with discussions around the schedule going back two years.
He said Port Adelaide people had plenty to look forward to throughout next year’s celebratory season.
“We have the birthday game, where we will be wearing our birthday guernsey - that will be against Carlton,” he said.
“Then we’ve got the Lions, which all happen before we got to Shanghai. The game against the Lions gives us a chance to celebrate the 2004 premiership.
“If you look at the start of the season, we’ve got four or five blockbuster opportunities to reinforce the 150th.
“From a commercial and a membership point of view, we are really pleased with it. The AFL have worked really hard to accommodate our really important requests.”
