By Chrissie Maus
CEO Fremantle Chamber of Commerce

THERE are some things in economic development you can plan for. 

Then there are the Fremantle Dockers making a Grand Final and turning an entire port city purple.

For Fremantle, this finals campaign has effectively delivered an unexpected mini festival season in September.

Every week the Dockers have progressed, the energy has built. 

More people in our pubs. More tables filled in our restaurants. More coffees poured. More purple merchandise walking out the door. More people simply choosing to spend their Saturday in Fremantle.

And now, after 13 very long years, we are heading into a Grand Final. You cannot manufacture this kind of atmosphere.

It is authentic, emotional and uniquely Fremantle. 

That is incredibly valuable for a destination and even more valuable for the small businesses that make our city what it is.

Hospitality is obviously front and centre. 

Our pubs, bars, restaurants and cafés showing the game are preparing for enormous crowds. 

But the economic benefit travels much further than the bar stool.

Footy brings people into the city but once they are here they grab breakfast, buy something purple, meet friends for lunch, wander through a shop, have a celebratory drink and hopefully stay for dinner. 

Hotels, retailers, tourism operators and countless small businesses all get a piece of the purple pie. 

And Fremantle businesses certainly haven’t needed much encouragement to join the party.

Across the city we are seeing extra staff rostered, special menus created, screens installed and purple food and drinks appearing in places nature never intended.

Through the Chamber and City of Fremantle’s Paint the Port Purple campaign, businesses were invited to embrace the moment. They took that invitation and ran a marathon with it. 

Walk through Fremantle today and you’ll see purple windows, flags, lights, bunting and Dockers colours absolutely everywhere.

Frankly, if something has stood still for more than five minutes, a Fremantle business owner has probably painted it purple. 

That matters beyond simply having some fun.

Major sporting moments create a reason to visit and an opportunity to introduce thousands of people to businesses and places they may not otherwise experience. 

One football game can create new customers who return long after the final siren.

We expect tens of thousands of people to move through Fremantle across Grand Final day and the celebrations surrounding it. 

I suspect 40,000 may prove conservative. 

What I can say with confidence is that Fremantle will be one of the places to be in WA on Saturday. 

This is the Dockers’ home city. It is only their second Grand Final and an entire generation of supporters has waited 13 years for this moment.

So our message to local businesses is very simple. Staff up. Stock up. Prepare for an enormous Saturday.

And our message to everyone else? Come to Fremantle. Catch public transport. Eat local. Drink local. Shop local. Celebrate responsibly and soak up something pretty special happening in our city.

Purple is proving to be a very good colour for the Fremantle economy.

And this is absolutely not the week for tasteful restraint.

Paint it purple, stock the fridges and get ready Fremantle. We’re throwing a party.