It's exactly the same for Penrith. How many people from Penrith or surrounding suburbs work in the City/Parramatta?
If they don't/can't knock off until 5pm they have no chance of getting back to Penrith unless they happen to have a private helicopter by 5pm. Let alone get back to Penrith wrangle the family and get to the game before 6pm. It's a joke of time slot and shows just how disconnected the hierarchy of the NRL and FOX are from reality.
Quite frankly I can't even see the time slot rating that well. I know when I finish at 5pm by the time I get to home get my shit together and get to sit down it's almost 7pm. The game will just about be over.
You're exactly right about Penrith experiencing the same problem. This situation has turned into a complete farce.
Look, I know I've said this before in other threads and may be labelled as a conspiracy theorist in what I'm about to say, but I don't know if this Friday 6pm timeslot is News Ltd's way of sabotaging the game further so they get Monday Night Football back. Their logic of fans being able to watch the game on tv after work also doesn't make sense as they will also be struggling to make either the pub or home in time. So, tv ratings aren't going to be crash hot, let alone crowd attendances.
When Monday Night Football was going to be scrapped as a result of Ch9 securing Thursday night games in the FTA component of the tv rights deal (as players didn't want 5 day rounds) in 2015, Sunday night (6-6:30pm) was the most logical timeslot for the Monday night game to be replaced with. IIRC, it was Slothfield who was the first person spruiking a Friday 6pm match and I thought it was just a bad joke, but when it did come to fruition and was confirmed by the NRL from 2017 onwards, I often wondered who the hell in the ARLC agreed to this ridiculous proposal from News Ltd. So much for the independent commission representing the fans.
And also, so much for Sydney teams being spared from hosting matches in this timeslot due to traffic, as was originally proposed:
http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/sport/nrl/news/2015/11/friday-6pm-timeslot-part-of-new-nrl-tv-deal/
Remember all the crapping on Gus Gould did circa 2010-12 about how the game absolutely needed the independent commission, and that the fans would get back the game they deserve.....I said this before and I'll say it again, it was a BAD decision for the ARLC to rush back to the negotiating table and quickly finalise the tv rights after Dave Smith resigned. It made the ARLC look desperate, and rank amateur.
