The Game Future NRL Stadiums part II

[sempmrh]

Is it true that there was talk once about the Balmain Tigers possibly relocating to Melbourne? I'm sure I read that here but I've had a hard time finding an article or something else to back that up. I can't help but wonder how that would have worked as far as branding - there was already a Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and I'm sure the Richmond Tigers wouldn't have been happy about another Tigers team moving into the Melbourne market.

 

[horrie hastings]

Is it true that there was talk once about the Balmain Tigers possibly relocating to Melbourne? I'm sure I read that here but I've had a hard time finding an article or something else to back that up. I can't help but wonder how that would have worked as far as branding - there was already a Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and I'm sure the Richmond Tigers wouldn't have been happy about another Tigers team moving into the Melbourne market.

Weren't the Tigers once touted as going to Gosford and playing out of Graham Park sometime in the 80s ?

 

[Quicksilver]

Benny Elias wrote about moving the club to these places in his book. around about the time of his retirement.

Then his property development plans 20 years later gave it a good reason why it should have. In fact, they should have moved to Iceland to escape Balmain Benny.

 

[beave]

Is it true that there was talk once about the Balmain Tigers possibly relocating to Melbourne? I'm sure I read that here but I've had a hard time finding an article or something else to back that up. I can't help but wonder how that would have worked as far as branding - there was already a Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and I'm sure the Richmond Tigers wouldn't have been happy about another Tigers team moving into the Melbourne market.

i remember in 1994 Balmain taking a home game against a Brisbane down to Melbourne (Princess Park, Carltons old home game), was the Saturday ABC game. There was talk at the time they were testing the waters to see about taking more games down there but I don’t know if they were ever looking at moving down there permanetly.

You’re right though, the era before mainstream internet is hard to get info about.

 

[Perth Red]

Sydney rationalisation, or desire to, has been going on for 3 decades

1983 Jets and Magpies removed (Magpies winning way back in following legal battle)
1986 ARL Chairman proposes a new national comp with 4-5 Sydney clubs in it
1992 ARL commission Bradley report which proposes a reduction to 5 clubs in Sydney in order to accommodate national growth
1995 News Ltd proposes a new national comp with 4 new Sydney teams jointly owned by the existing clubs who would continue to play in a second division comp
1997 SL war saw Sydney's teams split between two comps (8ARL - 3SL)
1998 Peace with an agreement to reduce the comp to 14 clubs meaning a number of the 11 Sydney clubs would need to merge, relocate or be removed
1999 merger time for 5 Sydney clubs and Souths booted out, later to be reinstated
2002 Northern Eagles merger fails and NS Bears no longer in comp
2012-2018 A number of Sydney clubs find themselves in financial trouble, NRL comes to their aid with financial support to ensure their sustainability
2018 NRL club grant raised to $13million and Football cap introduced to support long term viability of all clubs.

So from a high of 12 Sydney clubs 35 years ago we are now sitting at 9 clubs.
Will we see any changes in this decade ahead? I suspect not unless the NRL gets leadership like it had in the 80's and we see an aggressive expansion plan with a need to keep the comp at 16 clubs.

 

[flippikat]

All the talk about pre-Superleague Sydney rationalization is fascinating, but it has kinda drifted this thread off topic.. maybe we need to start a new thread on this topic to sort out fact from fiction & rumour?

 

[Perth Red]

All the talk about pre-Superleague Sydney rationalization is fascinating, but it has kinda drifted this thread off topic.. maybe we need to start a new thread on this topic to sort out fact from fiction & rumour?

It has in true LU fashion lol. I guess the tenuous link is one of the clubs big concerns about moving to the centralised stadium strategy proposed by Smith and NSW Govt in 2015 was that they would lose their identities, relevance and it would make more mergers or culling easier in the long term.

 

[T-Boon]

All the talk about pre-Superleague Sydney rationalization is fascinating, but it has kinda drifted this thread off topic.. maybe we need to start a new thread on this topic to sort out fact from fiction & rumour?

You should start that thread. I would be interested in a thread about rationalisation but also relocating teams within Sydney to other parts of Sydney. I don't think many of the locations make sense in light of the whole of North Sydney being vacant.

 

[beave]

 

[beave]

 

[Perth Red]

Massive improvement on the old place. I like the unique design as well. Hopefully they have a winning team to help fill it.

 

[Frailty]

Is this about the time that Easts and Canterbury changed their names to Sydney and Sydney City?

Balmain and Canterbury bother changed their names to 'Sydney' and played out of Parramatta Stadium in 1995. Bulldogs went back to Canterbury and return to Belmore for 1996. Tigers went back to Balmain and returned to Leichhardt in 1997.

Roosters changed from Eastern Suburbs to Sydney City. It was changed to the current 'Sydney Roosters' in 2000.

 

[Frailty]

Very unique design. Is there any design rationale for the weird extended U shape roof?

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Very unique design. Is there any design rationale for the weird extended U shape roof?

Horseshoe?

 

[Perth Red]

Was thinking air flow given the humidity up there?

 

[TheRam]

No, town planning is nothing like that at all.

NSW have always been poor planners, continues in 2020.

Time for a new toll road..............

OK lets try this so you slow people might grasp that horses for courses is that is needed here.

Just because you have buses servicing an area doesn't mean you shouldn't or don't build train systems to service the same area.

The need is for both. They serve different needs or even similar or overlapping needs. So both are the preferred model and are necessary to service all or as much as possible the needs of the public.

Same with stadiums. As much as possible, depending on the event, will dictate as to what facility will be used.

Yes Gov are terrible planners, but in this instance they got it 100% right.

 

[Perth Red]

OK lets try this so you slow people might grasp that horses for courses is that is needed here.

Just because you have buses servicing an area doesn't mean you shouldn't or don't build train systems to service the same area.

The need is for both. They serve different needs or even similar or overlapping needs. So both are the preferred model and are necessary to service all or as much as possible the needs of the public.

Same with stadiums. As much as possible, depending on the event, will dictate as to what facility will be used.

Yes Gov are terrible planners, but in this instance they got it 100% right.

Only if ANZ is no longer used for club games. Otherwise they clearly have built two stadiums serving largely the same purpose for most of their usage a few miles apart.

 

[TheRam]

Only if ANZ is no longer used for club games. Otherwise they clearly have built two stadiums serving largely the same purpose for most of their usage a few miles apart.

I think you will find that South Sydney will start to play some if not all of their games out of the new Eastern Stadium. They would be financially insane not to. As for the Dogs, if they aren't getting the financial gift inducement that they are currently guaranteed for playing there, watch how they too will start looking to find a better home.

 

[Perth Red]

I think you will find that South Sydney will start to play some if not all of their games out of the new Eastern Stadium. They would be financially insane not to. As for the Dogs, if they aren't getting the financial gift inducement that they are currently guaranteed for playing there, watch how they too will start looking to find a better home.

But none of that is known when the funding commitment and stadium strategy is underway. So in effect the NSW govt has built WSS for two clubs plus a few other club games and ANZ for two clubs plus a few other big games. Its no wonder they were trying to get clubs to commit to sharing stadiums before they committed to the strategy.

Ideally we'd have Eels, Bulldogs FT and Wests 8 games at WSS and Souths at Allianz with ANZ not used at all except for magic weekends and finals. I bet we still see Souths and Dogs rattling around in it and Wests will go with their 3 games wherever the best deal is. So in effect the NSW govt has spent over a billion $'s creating two club grounds a few miles apart in all likelihood.

 

[simmo05]

Massive improvement on the old place. I like the unique design as well. Hopefully they have a winning team to help fill it.

Drove past today, looks great. At least there is some shade here, and the prevailing wind from the north will blow through the joint and cool it down