Thanks for proving my point re travel times, and very few freo fans live in fremantle, most are further south heading all the way to mandurah.
canterbury to central is a 19min train journey. We aren’t talking. Massive distances here lol
cronulla would be the outlier but no one is suggesting they should move all games there, just the ones with potential to draw more than 25k if ran right
Oh please, Central isn't where the Stadium is. They built it in the wrong place again, Moore Park. Sure the public transport is slightly better then it used to be but it is still a hassle and overall sh*t for most to do and time consuming for all but the locals. The commuters from further out suburbs will not put themselves through the hassle on a regular or even semi regular rate especially in the dead of winter and with kids in toe.
They blew it when they didn't even look at the over Central Station option. All they can ask for now long term(after the initial curiosity hype) is a slight bump in the average crowds of the Chooks and Rabbitohs who will be the two main tenants long term.
Sydney is a very lazy and unforgiving city. You either build it in the fans backyards or right next to a main line train station. Otherwise you will be building a white elephant more or less. Add to that you have way to many teams all vying for support, 9 RL teams and 2 AFL teams going head to head and a bunch of other teams(Union and Soccer) overlapping. We are very picky and set in our ways. The NRL has also dropped the ball in promoting the game as a fresh and exciting product. It feels stale to many now. All these little thing matter and are a great reason for a lazy only half interested fan base to decide to stay home and spend their cash else where.
The NRL needs to seduce its audience in Sydney more then in any other city in the country and instead the clubs in particular and the ARLC just give lip service but do very little collectively to work together with new ideas and innervation to bring excitement and fresh appeal back to the sport. The new stadiums and upgrades will certainly help somewhat, but don't expect massive bumps in crowds long term. It just won't happen unless there is a new mindset at the top of the game and all the execs running club land jump on board and learn that rowing together makes it much easier and effective to get to our desired destination.
In a perfect world we would have Manly engaging all of the North Shore and 2 less teams in Sydney either by extinction, merger or relocation(my preferred option). But again those sorts of decisions are way to professional and therefore hard for head office to even think of seriously let alone make them. We need a tyrant running the game that will do whatever it takes, but the clubs have seen to it that that never happens.
So we just limp along, hoping natural forces go our way.