2018 Finals Scheduling

[Perth Red]

Why put it on Friday then? According to the NRL's social media posts the Storm game is "Preliminary Final 2", why would you put it before game 1 and purposefully clash with the only AFL game in Melbourne? Shouldn't the Roosters (if they win) also have the longest rest before the GF since they were Minor Premiers?

The only other reasons I can think of are:
1 - the NRL grew some balls and is actually actively trying to compete with the AFL
2- the NRL have no clue what so ever how to schedule games

I think option 2 is a safer bet!

 

[age.s]

Good thing the Panthers played their final at a venue capable of holding all the people who wanted to go.

 

[Version 6]

The NRL made it clear several years ago that those two venues are the only ones available for finals. I don't understand how people continue to make this argument anymore, it's not negotiable on the NRL's end apart from between the two grounds.

It's actually not hard at all to understand at all.

The NRL scrapped boutique home finals (rightly) because Parramatta fans were locked out of St George's home final at Kogarah in 2009. The NRL's edict was the fans shouldn't be locked out of such a big occassion.

So, if we accept that as sound rationale - doesn't it also logically follow that a whole bunch of fans (conservatively, 15,000 - 20,000) shouldn't be locked out of a Souths/Dragons v Roosters prelim?

 

[Springs09]

It's actually not hard at all to understand at all.

The NRL scrapped boutique home finals (rightly) because Parramatta fans were locked out of St George's home final at Kogarah in 2009. The NRL's edict was the fans shouldn't be locked out of such a big occassion.

So, if we accept that as sound rationale - doesn't it also logically follow that a whole bunch of fans (conservatively, 15,000 - 20,000) shouldn't be locked out of a Souths/Dragons v Roosters prelim?

2011 was the first season the compulsory week 1 at SFS/ANZ was used, which also saw the Tigers v Dragons week 1 game moved to ANZ even though Tigers home ground was the SFS at the time.

 

[Version 6]

2011 was the first season the compulsory week 1 at SFS/ANZ was used, which also saw the Tigers v Dragons week 1 game moved to ANZ even though Tigers home ground was the SFS at the time.

Yep. I recall that the Dragons hosted Manly at Kogarah in 2010 - but it was the Dragons v Parra game in 09 that really started the debate.

 

[Timmah]

It's actually not hard at all to understand at all.

The NRL scrapped boutique home finals (rightly) because Parramatta fans were locked out of St George's home final at Kogarah in 2009. The NRL's edict was the fans shouldn't be locked out of such a big occassion.

So, if we accept that as sound rationale - doesn't it also logically follow that a whole bunch of fans (conservatively, 15,000 - 20,000) shouldn't be locked out of a Souths/Dragons v Roosters prelim?

Using the same logic, you'd be asking the Storm to move their prelims from AAMI to Etihad in recent years but that hasn't happened.

While I'd agree that ANZ should be considered for the Roosters prelim (particularly if Souths win) I'm not as fussed by it being at Allianz given it already has 45k capacity. If it was 25k or less I'd probably be concerned.

 

[Version 6]

Using the same logic, you'd be asking the Storm to move their prelims from AAMI to Etihad in recent years but that hasn't happened.

While I'd agree that ANZ should be considered for the Roosters prelim (particularly if Souths win) I'm not as fussed by it being at Allianz given it already has 45k capacity. If it was 25k or less I'd probably be concerned.

Well, I think it's something that needs to be considered on a case by case basis.

If all reasonable estimates say we'd be knocking back 25,000 paying customers - not moving the game is madness.

 

[Springs09]

Using the same logic, you'd be asking the Storm to move their prelims from AAMI to Etihad in recent years but that hasn't happened.

While I'd agree that ANZ should be considered for the Roosters prelim (particularly if Souths win) I'm not as fussed by it being at Allianz given it already has 45k capacity. If it was 25k or less I'd probably be concerned.

Not really the same as there's nothing to suggest the Storm would definitely get more at Etihad than at AAMI. Their last prelim at Etihad was 27k, and the most they ever got was 33k I believe.

Holding the Prelim at SFS instead of ANZ could lock out up to 25k fans, which is against why NRL changed it in the first place. As a TV viewer I'd rather the SFS go out with a packed Roosters v Souths/Dragons prelim, and I don't think holding the prelim at ANZ would crack 60k, but if the NRL are consistent then they would move it to ANZ. They moved that Tigers v Dragons 2011 game to ANZ and it only got 45k.

 

[Illawarra Tiger]

The tigers fans got a dud deal in their 2005 prelim final. The SFS was rocking that night and looked great tmm on the TV

 

[Captain Apollo]

Not really the same as there's nothing to suggest the Storm would definitely get more at Etihad than at AAMI. Their last prelim at Etihad was 27k, and the most they ever got was 33k I believe.

Holding the Prelim at SFS instead of ANZ could lock out up to 25k fans, which is against why NRL changed it in the first place. As a TV viewer I'd rather the SFS go out with a packed Roosters v Souths/Dragons prelim, and I don't think holding the prelim at ANZ would crack 60k, but if the NRL are consistent then they would move it to ANZ. They moved that Tigers v Dragons 2011 game to ANZ and it only got 45k.

Preliminary Finals crowds since 2010 -

2010
Titans v Roosters at Suncorp - 44,787
Dragons v Tigers at ANZ - 71,212.

2011
Sea Eagles v Broncos at SFS - 31,894
Storm v Warriors at AAMI - 28,580.

2012
Storm v Sea Eagles at AAMI - 25,543
Bulldogs v Souths at ANZ - 70,354.

2013
Rabbitohs v Sea Eagles at ANZ - 44,546
Roosters v Knights at SFS - 37,752.

2014
Rabbitohs v Roosters at ANZ - 52,592
Bulldogs v panthers at ANZ - 46,168.

2015
Broncos v Roosters at Suncorp - 51,826
Storm v Cowboys at AAMI - 29,315.

2016
Sharks v Cowboys at SFS - 36,717
Storm v Raiders at AAMI - 28,161.

2017
Storm v Broncos at AAMI - 28,821
Roosters v Cowboys at SFS - 28,108.

 

[Springs09]

Preliminary Finals crowds since 2010 -

2010
Titans v Roosters at Suncorp - 44,787
Dragons v Tigers at ANZ - 71,212.

2011
Sea Eagles v Broncos at SFS - 31,894
Storm v Warriors at AAMI - 28,580.

2012
Storm v Sea Eagles at AAMI - 25,543
Bulldogs v Souths at ANZ - 70,354.

2013
Rabbitohs v Sea Eagles at ANZ - 44,546
Roosters v Knights at SFS - 37,752.

2014
Rabbitohs v Roosters at ANZ - 52,592
Bulldogs v panthers at ANZ - 46,168.

2015
Broncos v Roosters at Suncorp - 51,826
Storm v Cowboys at AAMI - 29,315.

2016
Sharks v Cowboys at SFS - 36,717
Storm v Raiders at AAMI - 28,161.

2017
Storm v Broncos at AAMI - 28,821
Roosters v Cowboys at SFS - 28,108.

Point?

 

[Valheru]

If all reasonable estimates say we'd be knocking back 25,000 paying customers - not moving the game is madness.

No reasonable estimate suggests 25000 will be knocked back as per 2014 prelim crowd.

In the case of the dragons, ANZAC day gets 40k every year and no one complains.

 

[typicalfan]

Not really the same as there's nothing to suggest the Storm would definitely get more at Etihad than at AAMI. Their last prelim at Etihad was 27k, and the most they ever got was 33k I believe.

Holding the Prelim at SFS instead of ANZ could lock out up to 25k fans, which is against why NRL changed it in the first place. As a TV viewer I'd rather the SFS go out with a packed Roosters v Souths/Dragons prelim, and I don't think holding the prelim at ANZ would crack 60k, but if the NRL are consistent then they would move it to ANZ. They moved that Tigers v Dragons 2011 game to ANZ and it only got 45k.

As it stands they wouldnt because Allianz can be used. Im not endorsing either way but I think if the Roosters can use a stadium that is considered good enough that gives their fans better access to the game that would be more fair on them.

 

[Timmah]

Not really the same as there's nothing to suggest the Storm would definitely get more at Etihad than at AAMI. Their last prelim at Etihad was 27k, and the most they ever got was 33k I believe.

Holding the Prelim at SFS instead of ANZ could lock out up to 25k fans, which is against why NRL changed it in the first place. As a TV viewer I'd rather the SFS go out with a packed Roosters v Souths/Dragons prelim, and I don't think holding the prelim at ANZ would crack 60k, but if the NRL are consistent then they would move it to ANZ. They moved that Tigers v Dragons 2011 game to ANZ and it only got 45k.

The last prelim at Etihad was eons ago - it can be easily argued the Storm are more popular now than they were at that time and would comfortably get 35-40k at Etihad if they moved a game there. It would come down to how rusted-on hardcore fans are to AAMI as their ground.

 

[azza29]

The last prelim at Etihad was eons ago - it can be easily argued the Storm are more popular now than they were at that time and would comfortably get 35-40k at Etihad if they moved a game there. It would come down to how rusted-on hardcore fans are to AAMI as their ground.

Etihad is terrible for rectangular sports, worse than ANZ. I’ll happily pay for Cat 1 tickets at AAMI but would go the cheap seats at Etihad because the view is awful anyway.

 

[Springs09]

The last prelim at Etihad was eons ago - it can be easily argued the Storm are more popular now than they were at that time and would comfortably get 35-40k at Etihad if they moved a game there. It would come down to how rusted-on hardcore fans are to AAMI as their ground.

It could be argued that but 40k would be out there. Their week 1 finals crowds are still low and we don't hear reports every year that 10k fans are locked out of the prelim.

 

[Timmah]

It could be argued that but 40k would be out there. Their week 1 finals crowds are still low and we don't hear reports every year that 10k fans are locked out of the prelim.

Their week 1 finals crowd was low mainly because it was pitted directly against Melbourne v Geelong next door at the MCG - the city's primary sporting code with a team that hadn't played finals since 2006. By contrast the Storm have been there every year forever

 

[Springs09]

Their week 1 finals crowd was low mainly because it was pitted directly against Melbourne v Geelong next door at the MCG - the city's primary sporting code with a team that hadn't played finals since 2006. By contrast the Storm have been there every year forever

Yeah that's this year. They've held a finals game in week 1 or 2 nearly every year and the highest was 22k last year, helped by the fact it was the Eels first finals game in 8 years. Most of those games have had no AFL game in the city on that day either.

 

[Timmah]

Yeah that's this year. They've held a finals game in week 1 or 2 nearly every year and the highest was 22k last year, helped by the fact it was the Eels first finals game in 8 years. Most of those games have had no AFL game in the city on that day either.

I still don't see that as disproving the theory that well over 28k people want to attend prelims.

 

[Springs09]

I still don't see that as disproving the theory that well over 28k people want to attend prelims.

Melbourne have hosted prelims at AAMI numerous times and there's never been talk of locking 10,000 fans out. There was talk of moving it in 2015 but apparently Melbourne were contractually obliged to play at AAMI. That year was also their highest crowd, the last two years have been lower. If there was the possibility of locking out 25,000 supporters like there is with a possible Souths-Roosters prelim, then yeah it would be the same logic.

There's no point talking about moving a Storm prelim to Etihad on the suspicion that it might get a bigger crowd, but when thousands of people are definitely going to be locked out of an all-Sydney prelim, absolutely it's worth talking about moving it.