I think it's more that the Parra Stadium diehards just want to create an atmosphere by keeping opposition fans away. They'd rather 17k Eels fans at Parra than 35k Eels fans and 15k opposition fans at Homebush. They don't give a f**k about any merkin but themselves.
Fish,
I only touched on a part of what i believe our strategy to be regarding upgrading the stadium when I mentioned the fact that playing to 30k+ crowds at Homebush is part of that strategy.
From what I understand, the club wants more people at Pirtek and wants an upgrade to 30k-35k. They have implemented (with the help of the NRL) a number of things that they are hoping will convince the government and VenuesNSW to upgrade Pirtek.
One of those things is the seat warmer program where STH's can advise they are not attending a home game and seats can be re-sold to the public. Part of this is because they can only count attendance as bodies on seats, not sold seats. Apparently the barcode needs to be scanned to count on the days attendance not just the fact the seat was sold.
I reckon the strategy is to fill Parra Stadium as much as possible, get 30+ to Homebush a couple of times a year, get memberships to exceed ground capacity for Pirtek so there are turnaways and use all of these facts to lobby hard for an increase.
Local Goverment is already on-board, winning games will bring crowds and increase memberships and demand for tickets - the only stopping points are $$ and the Parramatta Park Trust (as always).
We have contracts for 2 games a year at Homebush for at least another year, maybe 2 but the games that are played there are ours to choose. I hear there are plans afoot to bring the Bulldogs game back to Pirtek next year and to pick another game for Homebush. Hard to argue with taking the Tigers game away from Homebush, especially if they can get another Easter game and crack 50,000 again.
That's a big assumption to make. Especially for someone who says he doesn't care where the Eels play because he lives outside the state.
We have contracts for 2 games a year at Homebush for at least another year, maybe 2 but the games that are played there are ours to choose. I hear there are plans afoot to bring the Bulldogs game back to Pirtek next year and to pick another game for Homebush. Hard to argue with taking the Tigers game away from Homebush, especially if they can get another Easter game and crack 50,000 again.
I would love to get to play the Bulldogs at Parra again, but I'm not sure swapping that game at Homebush for another is the right way to go.
if the team had there boots on and kicked some goals we would be in the top 4 right now.
Although we have lost games because of goal kicking, I am not sure we would have won any more games across a season.
Every win or loss changes the course of a season and changes the mentality and how desperate a team is to win each week. Had we beaten Manly for instance in Round 3, I'm still not sure we would've won all of the next 3 games, including the Roosters.
Had we been in the top 4 now, I doubt we would've beaten Manly last week. We won last week because we needed the win more than Manly at the end of the day.
Agree 100%
We won last week because we needed the win more