The Game Future NRL Stadiums part II

[Canard]

We now say the same thing about Perth, (standards of week to week) and they aren't allowed pokie dens

Which just shows that RL is stuck in the 80s

 

[MugaB]

Which just shows that RL is stuck in the 80s

Its why we need to expand, ..too much insular Sydney bubble mentality.... hey!!! Once they are outnumbered things should change to suit all the clubs, not just the 9 in the centre of the RL universe

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Which just shows that RL is stuck in the 80s

It’s said that men tend to hang onto the haircut they had during the period of when they had the most sex, their happiest time. Rings true with RL being stuck in the 80s. Game goes professional, great TV ratings, Tina, easy pokie and ciggie money without moral judgement, no talk of corporate takeover and money in the bank. Happy times.

 

[Iamback]

The only way to get that capacity back is to build bigger stands where the hills were and that costs a lot of money.
Back in the day it really didn’t cost a lot to build a fairly high capacity ground, just put sizeable hills around it you were sorted. The record footy crowd for Henson Park is over 30,000 and the ground configuration would have been little different to now - just no way you’d allow anywhere near that number in there these days.

Leichardt has a huge Hill... Police won't allow it to be filled these days

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Leichardt has a huge Hill... Police won't allow it to be filled these days

Everything changedafter the Hillsborough disaster in England in the 80s. Crowd safety became much more of a concern and it started the move to all-seater stadiums.

 

[Suitman]

Everything changedafter the Hillsborough disaster in England in the 80s. Crowd safety became much more of a concern and it started the move to all-seater stadiums.

Modern day OH and S has also played a huge part.
Jamming 27000 people into Belmore or Brookvale never seemed to be an issue back in the day. People just dealt with it and actually enjoyed the intense atmosphere
There was rarely any trouble.
I hate this new politically correct world.

 

[beave]

Modern day OH and S has also played a huge part.
Jamming 27000 people into Belmore or Brookvale never seemed to be an issue back in the day. People just dealt with it and actually enjoyed the intense atmosphere
There was rarely any trouble.
I hate this new politically correct world.

They jammed 30k into the old DFS 3 times in the late 90's and that was with smaller stands on top of the N, E and S hills before they extended them in 2005. I've been there with 26k a few times in the newer config and it was crazy so I can't imagine how crammed the hills were those 3 nights with 30k.

 

[beave]

Actually, what timing, Fox 502 is currently showing the SL game where there was 30k at DFS, it looks mental on the hills.

 

[Diesel]

If you look at record crowds for most clubs, they’re set in the 80’s or pre-SL. Not saying the game is less popular, it’s the opposite. Mt Smart for example had 32k in 1995 Warriors v Steelers, same stadium now, 25k is a sell out.

 

[Wb1234]

I was of the belief when the Broncos and Giants joined in 1988, the original QRL proposal was for 2 Brisbane sides, one north and one South of the river.

Then the NSWRL overruled them and insisted a gold coast side... based in NSW in Tweed Heads.

I'd imagine if this was true and we went with two Brisbane sides, there'd be no SL war and GC would have expanded when they did ina natural timeline (i.e the same time as Titans)

No qrl backed bid lost to the bid by maranta Morgan etc that became broncos

arko did say their biggest mistake was not admitting two brisbane sides at once but they were really concerned about the club being competitive and didn’t want to dilute the talent

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Modern day OH and S has also played a huge part.
Jamming 27000 people into Belmore or Brookvale never seemed to be an issue back in the day. People just dealt with it and actually enjoyed the intense atmosphere
There was rarely any trouble.
I hate this new politically correct world.

Yep its a bit of a joke really. Now I'm not saying we should be packing 27K back into Brookvale but there's no reason 20K can't still fit in comfortably. It was only 5 years ago Kogarah had 20K inside it, yet for some reason this year they closed the gates at 17K. The hill wasn't even close to full.

I don't know what changed in 5 years but its pathetic.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Yep its a bit of a joke really. Now I'm not saying we should be packing 27K back into Brookvale but there's no reason 20K can't still fit in comfortably. It was only 5 years ago Kogarah had 20K inside it, yet for some reason this year they closed the gates at 17K. The hill wasn't even close to full.

I don't know what changed in 5 years but its pathetic.

Yeh, doesn’t make sense. Maybe there has since been a regulatory change on how quickly you can get a crowd out of a stadium safely which would determine said stadium’s capacity?

 

[mongoose]

No qrl backed bid lost to the bid by maranta Morgan etc that became broncos

arko did say their biggest mistake was not admitting two brisbane sides at once but they were really concerned about the club being competitive and didn’t want to dilute the talent

f**king hell the NSWRL are arrogant, imagine thinking a team with Lewis, Langer, Miles wouldn't be competitive lol Then after years of Raiders/Broncos dominance they did everything they could to make these clubs uncompetitive.

 

[Wb1234]

f**king hell the NSWRL are arrogant, imagine thinking a team with Lewis, Langer, Miles wouldn't be competitive lol Then after years of Raiders/Broncos dominance they did everything they could to make these clubs uncompetitive.

*arl

 

[SpaceMonkey]

If you look at record crowds for most clubs, they’re set in the 80’s or pre-SL. Not saying the game is less popular, it’s the opposite. Mt Smart for example had 32k in 1995 Warriors v Steelers, same stadium now, 25k is a sell out.

They used to pack thousands onto that steep northern hill at Mt Smart, no way that’d be allowed these days.

 

[The Great Dane]

No qrl backed bid lost to the bid by maranta Morgan etc that became broncos

arko did say their biggest mistake was not admitting two brisbane sides at once but they were really concerned about the club being competitive and didn’t want to dilute the talent

That's incorrect.

There were three major bids for the Brisbane license; Maranta/Morgan, Jeans West (the owners of Jeans West were the money behind the consortium), and what was referred to as the internationals bid which was backed by John Sattler and some of his mates.

There was a fourth bid that was headed by the coach of Redcliffe at the time which is probably the 'QRL backed bid' that you are thinking of, but it dropped out early once the financial realities of owning a NSWRL club became clear. It also wasn't ever officially endorsed by the QRL from memory, a lot of people just assumed that that bid had the QRL's support because of some of the people involved.

In the end it came down to what would become the Broncos and the Jeans West bid. Most NSWRL heavies preferred the Jeans West bid on paper, but Arko and Quayle wanted the new club to have the QRL's support and the QRL backed the Broncos over Jeans West because they were Queenslanders, as opposed to a consortium of interstate businessmen the most significant of whom were West Australian, and had made all sorts of promises and agreements with the QRL that disintegrated after they got the license because of petty nonsense.

Initially the NSWRL had only intended to expand by two clubs in 88, Newcastle and Brisbane, but the comp had an odd number of teams because of the Western Suburbs situation and the NSWRL was so impressed with the Jeans West bid that they decided to try and squeeze them in as well. The only problem was that as part of their licensing agreement the Broncos negotiated an exclusivity clause that meant they could be the only team in SEQ for 5 years.

In a classic RL lightbulb moment somebody came up with the work around of basing a "Gold Coast" side out of Tweed Heads as it technically wasn't in SEQ, and that was offered to the Jeans West bid who instantly turned it down. They said it was because they were only interested in the Brisbane license, but the stupidity of the idea probably influenced their decision as well if we're honest.

In a mystifying turn of events that nobody involved has ever been able to explain, the NSWRL then offered the Internationals bid the new "Gold Coast" license despite them having been turned down for the Brisbane license because of concerns about their financials and business acumen, and they formed the shitshow that was the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants.

 

[The Great Dane]

You can have an argument around clubs that should not have been admitted in the past like Cronulla, because St.George Dragons were already there. I could also have an argument around the 1988 expansion with the Broncos, Gold Coast and Newcastle. In hindsight, bringing in the Gold Coast was premature.

This was a Sydney comp from 1908 to 1981, until it expanded to non Sydney areas like Canberra and the Illawarra. It expanded because the code was naturally evolving. And the same thing happened in '88, and in '95 with Auckland, Western Reds, Nth Qld and Sth Qld admitted into the comp.

No doubt when it was a 20 team comp, there was clear "have" and "have nots". With the introduction of teams like the Broncos, it did make some Sydney teams look smaller overnight.

I think through the passage of time, there would've been natural attrition with tough decisions to be made on certain Sydney clubs.

However the worst thing that happened to the game was the Super League war. Poor decisions were made in a rush, simply because News Ltd wanted to help kick start a pay tv empire.

Poor decisions such as getting rid of the Reds, Crushers, and the three mergers that didn't make any sense at all. Even two of those mergers are finding it challenging to this day.

The NSWRL became a mainstay in the consciousness of Australian sport because it happened organically naturally. In the mid nineties, some men in suits decided to manufacture something in quick time, yet if they were patient, some of those Sydney clubs would've met their demise, just like Newtown, or tweak their identity in the form of mergers or relocations.

However, greed and power took over. And as a result, in the compromise, the game was part owned by a media company, where essentially, the code had one hand tied behind its back for 15 years, until it finally became independent in 2012.

All of this is totally irrelevant to the original point.

The history is what it is, but it doesn't change the fact that the Sydney market was, and frankly still is, over statured with NRL clubs and content, that there was, and still is, little sense to the way those clubs are spread throughout the city and applied in the market, and that replicating those mistakes in Brisbane makes zero sense whatsoever, especially considering that we can now recognise the mistakes that were made in Sydney and have the power to prevent them being repeated in Brisbane.

BTW, it's very difficult to argue that the NRL, let alone NSWRL for that matter, are or were a 'mainstay in the consciousness of Australian sport' when most of the population in half of the country still don't understand that RL and RU are two separate sports to this day, and likely couldn't accurately identify a single club, let alone player, in the competition. Don't allow your bubble in Sydney/NSW/the North East to trick you into deluding yourself about the position of the sport nationally.

Also, I wasn't interested in having an argument about whether this or that club should or shouldn't have been admitted, I don't even have any issues with Cronulla either really. As I said before the history is what it is, and they had no real power over the decision in the first place anyway. But I am telling you outright that there is no debate; the reasons Cronulla were admitted into the NSWRL were an insanely unforgivable case of self sabotage on the level of the league and sport as a whole!

 

[The Great Dane]

Each of these cities and examples have their own unique characteristics. It is not cookie cutter like the post implies.

Like them, Brisbane too has its cultural and geographical quirks.

A potential 25k stadium for Ipswich is not as outrageous as being made out. Massive growth corridor with its own identity. Not currently served by a professional sports club. I could foresee it being filled every match day.

Brisbane is so unique that it's totally incomparable to (checks notes) all the cities with the largest derbies the world. . . Yeah nah, we couldn't possibly learn anything from some of the people who do it better than anybody else in the world, and a team playing out of what would inevitably end up as a tiny, dilapidated, suburban ground on the outskirts of the city in front of empty stands, will definitely fit Brisbane's "unique characteristics" better.

Some of you blokes are dangerously detached from reality LOL.

 

[Wb1234]

That's incorrect.

There were three major bids for the Brisbane license; Maranta/Morgan, Jeans West (the owners of Jeans West were the money behind the consortium), and what was referred to as the internationals bid which was backed by John Sattler and some of his mates.

There was a fourth bid that was headed by the coach of Redcliffe at the time which is probably the 'QRL backed bid' that you are thinking of, but it dropped out early once the financial realities of owning a NSWRL club became clear. It also wasn't ever officially endorsed by the QRL from memory, a lot of people just assumed that that bid had the QRL's support because of some of the people involved.

In the end it came down to what would become the Broncos and the Jeans West bid. Most NSWRL heavies preferred the Jeans West bid on paper, but Arko and Quayle wanted the new club to have the QRL's support and the QRL backed the Broncos over Jeans West because they were Queenslanders, as opposed to a consortium of interstate businessmen the most significant of whom were West Australian, and had made all sorts of promises and agreements with the QRL that disintegrated after they got the license because of petty nonsense.

Initially the NSWRL had only intended to expand by two clubs in 88, Newcastle and Brisbane, but the comp had an odd number of teams because of the Western Suburbs situation and the NSWRL was so impressed with the Jeans West bid that they decided to try and squeeze them in as well. The only problem was that as part of their licensing agreement the Broncos negotiated an exclusivity clause that meant they could be the only team in SEQ for 5 years.

In a classic RL lightbulb moment somebody came up with the work around of basing a "Gold Coast" side out of Tweed Heads as it technically wasn't in SEQ, and that was offered to the Jeans West bid who instantly turned it down. They said it was because they were only interested in the Brisbane license, but the stupidity of the idea probably influenced their decision as well if we're honest.

In a mystifying turn of events that nobody involved has ever been able to explain, the NSWRL then offered the Internationals bid the new "Gold Coast" license despite them having been turned down for the Brisbane license because of concerns about their financials and business acumen, and they formed the shitshow that was the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants.

Nope

the

That's incorrect.

There were three major bids for the Brisbane license; Maranta/Morgan, Jeans West (the owners of Jeans West were the money behind the consortium), and what was referred to as the internationals bid which was backed by John Sattler and some of his mates.

There was a fourth bid that was headed by the coach of Redcliffe at the time which is probably the 'QRL backed bid' that you are thinking of, but it dropped out early once the financial realities of owning a NSWRL club became clear. It also wasn't ever officially endorsed by the QRL from memory, a lot of people just assumed that that bid had the QRL's support because of some of the people involved.

In the end it came down to what would become the Broncos and the Jeans West bid. Most NSWRL heavies preferred the Jeans West bid on paper, but Arko and Quayle wanted the new club to have the QRL's support and the QRL backed the Broncos over Jeans West because they were Queenslanders, as opposed to a consortium of interstate businessmen the most significant of whom were West Australian, and had made all sorts of promises and agreements with the QRL that disintegrated after they got the license because of petty nonsense.

Initially the NSWRL had only intended to expand by two clubs in 88, Newcastle and Brisbane, but the comp had an odd number of teams because of the Western Suburbs situation and the NSWRL was so impressed with the Jeans West bid that they decided to try and squeeze them in as well. The only problem was that as part of their licensing agreement the Broncos negotiated an exclusivity clause that meant they could be the only team in SEQ for 5 years.

In a classic RL lightbulb moment somebody came up with the work around of basing a "Gold Coast" side out of Tweed Heads as it technically wasn't in SEQ, and that was offered to the Jeans West bid who instantly turned it down. They said it was because they were only interested in the Brisbane license, but the stupidity of the idea probably influenced their decision as well if we're honest.

In a mystifying turn of events that nobody involved has ever been able to explain, the NSWRL then offered the Internationals bid the new "Gold Coast" license despite them having been turned down for the Brisbane license because of concerns about their financials and business acumen, and they formed the shitshow that was the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants.

That’s not how arko explained it

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Lol, the great dork in his basement calling people detached from reality...