Melbourne eagerly await return to John Cain Arena

Having pushed through seven straight road games across the end of December and month of January, Melbourne United will finally return home for a blockbuster Throwdown XXIV clash with the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday evening.

The anticipation for the game has been off the charts, with tickets selling out over two weeks prior to the contest.

Fuelled by their amazing fans, who have filled John Cain Arena at over 94% capacity across the course of the season, United boast one of the league’s best home records.

Speaking after Sunday’s game against Sydney, star forward Luke Travers touched on his excitement to get back in front of the MU faithful.

“It’s been really good at home, the fans have been unbelievable for us all year,” he said.

“We’re really looking forward to just being at home for a while and getting back into things.”

Head Coach Dean Vickerman echoed this, adding how important the crowd will be as Melbourne look to finish the season on top of the competition ladder.

“We look forward to getting some rest and a solid week of practice and getting back playing sold out games at John Cain Arena… We’re going to enjoy our fans and enjoy being home,” Vickerman said.

“We’re in the home stretch right now. We wanted to be consistent all year, we’re in the last quarter of the year and we’re 1-2… the goal is to try and be 5-2 if we could to finish the last quarter of the season and that means we’ve got to win every game to finish out the year and if we do that we get top spot so it’s a good challenge in front of us.”

With Saturday’s game sold out, as well as United’s matchup with New Zealand on February 11, fans will have their final chance to see Melbourne hit the court before the playoffs on Sunday 18 February against the Illawarra Hawks.

Tickets are available here.