I've never been there to be honest. It's a bit out of my way. I was going on what Cowboys fans have said. But if it is better than Penrith (and be honest, have you ever been there and if so what is wrong with it?), why did you so badly need a new one? Because JT said so?
I’ve had the pleasure of living in sydney for 10 years of my 39, and spent many a saturday night at Penrith stadium as I lived a stones throw away, my last game there was 2 years ago on a work trip when the Cowbs played there. My issues with Penrith, capacity is ordinary for a city/area that size but it is what it is. The ends are in dire need of a revamp, the eastern corporate boxes are woefully inadequate, the western extension has made that side barely passable. Concession areas are okay but the few areas I went were pretty slow, there was not much automation with the beer pouring. I liked going to games there don’t get me wrong but not much has changed in 30 years there. Penrith fans are generally great though, was always good friendly bantering with them. I’m sure penrith fans would have many other gripes but not being a regular there, those are my observation of the joint as an outsider.
On NQ’s new situation. I’ll try to keep this brief but I grew up next to it and went to school next to it so I am aware of it’s history.
It was originally a harness racing track about 20kms west of the city. The state gov gave us the whole complex that had a grandstand and nothing else and told ‘build it yourselves’. The main stand where they film from and where the players run out from was never designed to hold 3700 people as it’s first version was only made to hold about 1500 people. The corporate area in there is woefully inadequate for a team this day and age, and the emergency/fire egress is borderline failing code from what I have been told by people in the know.
The players never originally ran out from that grandstand as there was no ‘tunnel’ or change room facilities in there so they cut through the concrete of the stand to make a tunnel (my old neighbours lost their seats due to the cutting of the stand) and they had to retro build change rooms during the 95/96 off season. I’ve been in there and they’re pretty small and cramped for todays standards.
The stadium was basically made on the cheap by locals who donated equipment and workers in exchange for season tickets for life. The toilets are atco huts bolted to the side of a hill, there is not enough female toilets, there’s honestly not enough toilets full stop. there is only roof coverage for about 15% of the 25.5k seats. A team located in the tropics, it has the potential to be torrential rain in the first 2 months of the season. Retro fitting a roof on the stands is out of the question as they were not designed to have a roof bolted on them and would be destroyed in a cyclone.
The location of 1300’s is shit, all the hotels are in the city and it can take 45mins or so on game night to get back into the city if the traffic is shit. The traffic gridlocks before and after games as the main road out the front is single lane, the area was never meant to have a 25k venue located in it.
There is nothing else around 1300’s of note for pre and after entertainment other than brothers leagues and a shitbox suburban pub called Finngans which is very ordinary.
The new one is going to have a roof covering the majority of people, the location is superb (in the middle of the city where all the accomodation and nightlife is) and will be modern, will have a bus depot 2 mins walk away, double laned roads all around to alleviate gridlocks before and after games, and overall is the catalyst for other development in the town. It’s struggling deluxe up there at the moment with jobs, I have an investment property up there as I intend to move back home one day and it has gone down in value big time.
It’s more than just a stadium, it’s about trying to get some shit going in the city.
It’s the location we should have had from the f**king start tbh.
Snide remarks about ‘JT said so’ and the fact you haven’t been up there for a game shows a bit of ignorance.
