The Game Future NRL Stadiums part II

[taipan]

The Roosters are 2nd most followed team in the Hills area.

The Hills are alive with the sound of crowing.Ok I'll git my coat.

 

[Captain Apollo]

You can’t talk about Sydney stadiums without talking about NSO because it’s a great conversation/debate. It would be a perfect place for a stadium but there are huge obstacles like there isn’t a team to play there, but there should be.

No it isn't. North Sydney Ovals is a terrible ground to watch rugby league at, worse than the SCG in fact. It has all the viewing angle problems that the SCG has, namely you are on weird angles to the game, and can feel like you are miles away from the action, but with little of the elevated viewing possible at the SCG.

Further its amenities are sparse and antiquated to boot. In some respects it makes Leichhardt Oval seem like a mecca of modern standards by comparison.

 

[Perth Red]

No it isn't. North Sydney Ovals is a terrible ground to watch rugby league at, worse than the SCG in fact. It has all the viewing angle problems that the SCG has, namely you are on weird angles to the game, and can feel like you are miles away from the action, but with little of the elevated viewing possible at the SCG.

Further its amenities are sparse and antiquated to boot. In some respects it makes Leichhardt Oval seem like a mecca of modern standards by comparison.

Went for a walk around the Optus stadium precinct yesterday. Makes me laugh AFL are rplaying in 60k state of the art stadiums like that while some NRL fans are suggesting that someone should play at NSO, our ambition knows no bounds lol.

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Went for a walk around the Optus stadium precinct yesterday. Makes me laugh AFL are rplaying in 60k state of the art stadiums like that while some NRL fans are suggesting that someone should play at NSO, our ambition knows no bounds lol.

There is a place for NSO if used judiciously. Ambition is good but I’d argue 10k fans in a 30/50k stadium does nothing to bring crowds in. In fact it does the opposite cos it makes a day out at the footy look pretty lame. I was looking forward to the Roosters playing a game there this year which would’ve done a lot in regards to good will and hoped it would attract fans over to the Roosters. But I do get your sentiment.

 

[flippikat]

No it isn't. North Sydney Ovals is a terrible ground to watch rugby league at, worse than the SCG in fact. It has all the viewing angle problems that the SCG has, namely you are on weird angles to the game, and can feel like you are miles away from the action, but with little of the elevated viewing possible at the SCG.

Further its amenities are sparse and antiquated to boot. In some respects it makes Leichhardt Oval seem like a mecca of modern standards by comparison.

To be fair, he did say "it would be the perfect PLACE for a stadium", not "it IS the perfect stadium".. why not a new boutique rectangular stadium *next to* North Sydney Oval - for use by league, union & soccer?

Then you'd have the core of a decent sports hub for ALL residents north of the harbour.

 

[forby]

Why is it that people here want a stadium to cater for every other sport, but decry a stadium in the best RL nursery In the world because the area doesn’t support other codes?

 

[TheEroticGamer]

mate we all know how other posters will respond to that, pointless going through it a 17th time lol

 

[unforgiven]

Why is it that people here want a stadium to cater for every other sport, but decry a stadium in the best RL nursery In the world because the area doesn’t support other codes?

I'm happy for Penrith to have a new stadium, just don't believe it should be funded by the NSW government as it will not be used enough to be a wise use of funds.

 

[Quicksilver]

Went for a walk around the Optus stadium precinct yesterday. Makes me laugh AFL are rplaying in 60k state of the art stadiums like that while some NRL fans are suggesting that someone should play at NSO, our ambition knows no bounds lol.

Or maybe we just have our own culture and our own way of doing things?

European cities don’t just take out bulldozers to knock down heritage buildings so they can put up a shitty Meriton Tower.

There are different values to different things and they can coexist.

 

[TheEroticGamer]

Honestly only one stadium should have been state funded and that was ANZ’s original billion dollar plan. Retractable roof, great rake, club mode, connected by west metro line. Souths, Dogs, Parra and Tigers all could have used it considering the transportation link. Burwood North is just 200m away from Tigers’ 50m centre and cafe area that’s being built and like Parra only two stops off ANZ and five minutes away. But instead we built in Parra for the Eels and a dying aleague club and now clubs like Tigers and Dogs are coming out with cap in hand asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium infrastructure all because they didn’t get a centralised stadium. If the state government follows through with what V’landys wants we’re gonna be spending the same amount of money but be much poorer when it comes to quality of stadia and ability to host major events. Absolutely tragic outcome that.

 

[Perth Red]

Honestly only one stadium should have been state funded and that was ANZ’s original billion dollar plan. Retractable roof, great rake, club mode, connected by west metro line. Souths, Dogs, Parra and Tigers all could have used it considering the transportation link. Burwood North is just 200m away from Tigers’ 50m centre and cafe area that’s being built and like Parra only two stops off ANZ and five minutes away. But instead we built in Parra for the Eels and a dying aleague club and now clubs like Tigers and Dogs are coming out with cap in hand asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium infrastructure all because they didn’t get a centralised stadium. If the state government follows through with what V’landys wants we’re gonna be spending the same amount of money but be much poorer when it comes to quality of stadia and ability to host major events. Absolutely tragic outcome that.

Couldnt disagree more. ANZ is never going to be good for club games no matter how much lipstick you slap on that pig. Four 30k stadiums in Sydney for its rectangular sports clubs should be the goal, sadly neither the Govts thinking, or Vlandys, will deliver that.

 

[Perth Red]

Or maybe we just have our own culture and our own way of doing things?

European cities don’t just take out bulldozers to knock down heritage buildings so they can put up a shitty Meriton Tower.

There are different values to different things and they can coexist.

Playing in "boutique" lol grounds with 18k capacities. Small minded is probably what Id call it. The game sadly still thinks its a suburban local sydney comp watched by 10k people.

 

[TheEroticGamer]

Couldnt disagree more. ANZ is never going to be good for club games no matter how much lipstick you slap on that pig. Four 30k stadiums in Sydney for its rectangular sports clubs should be the goal, sadly neither the Govts thinking, or Vlandys, will deliver that.

If a rebuilt rectangular ANZ with world class features and a 26 billion dollar transportation link can’t get decent looking crowds for clubs that either have played there for almost 20 years or are based within ten minutes east and west of it then we have major issues as a sport.

Where do those 30k stadiums go though? The spread of stadiums currently make no sense.

 

[Quicksilver]

Playing in "boutique" lol grounds with 18k capacities. Small minded is probably what Id call it. The game sadly still thinks its a suburban local sydney comp watched by 10k people.

18k isn’t a small crowd.

There are probably thousands of stadiums around the world that host national competition teams of similar size.

But none of that really matters. If we were the only competition in the world doing it, it would still be ok. Who f**king cares if people enjoy it? It’s our f**king game and we can enjoy it how we choose. If you prefer the way the other game does things go follow that.

 

[Nqcowboy]

Just looked at epl grounds ranked by capacity and allowing for a couple of thousand off they virtually follow the same trend with a couple of big stadiums being used by teams but a few 20,000 stadiums and I’d agree I’d rather see 18k at Leichhardt than18k at anz. I also like that their are grounds such as Scully park and Barlow park that can host games and give back to regional areas that provide so much and we haven’t dismissed that as being beneath us, were not the nfl.

Ps.
I was surprised that mt smarts capacity is only 30k it’s constantly baffled me as to why they don’t rip up the athletics track and square off both ends with stands

 

[Perth Red]

18k isn’t a small crowd.

There are probably thousands of stadiums around the world that host national competition teams of similar size.

But none of that really matters. If we were the only competition in the world doing it, it would still be ok. Who f**king cares if people enjoy it? It’s our f**king game and we can enjoy it how we choose. If you prefer the way the other game does things go follow that.

You cant get an 18k crowd avg with a 18k capacity stadium! You are never going to fill it for every game.

 

[Jamberoo]

You cant get an 18k crowd avg with a 18k capacity stadium! You are never going to fill it for every game.

You can if you get the size right. That is the key to a successful stadium. Your boy West Coast averaged over 95% capacity (40k) at their old stadium. There were calls to make Optus 80k as they could fill that for big games, it they made it 60k and have averaged about 90% of capacity the past two seasons. You have to make the stadium small enough that it is hard to get a ticket. This turns fans into members and members into reserved seat holders. I know West Coast are the biggest football club in the country and not a fair comparison with Sydney RL clubs, but the principles are the same.
If a club is averaging 12k in an average season, 18k sounds about right for a new or upgraded stadium. Build the stadium for the average size crowd. AAMI Park should have been 22k-25k. Would have made for a better atmosphere as it is usually half empty.

 

[Perth Red]

You can if you get the size right. That is the key to a successful stadium. Your boy West Coast averaged over 95% capacity (40k) at their old stadium. There were calls to make Optus 80k as they could fill that for big games, it they made it 60k and have averaged about 90% of capacity the past two seasons. You have to make the stadium small enough that it is hard to get a ticket. This turns fans into members and members into reserved seat holders. I know West Coast are the biggest football club in the country and not a fair comparison with Sydney RL clubs, but the principles are the same.
If a club is averaging 12k in an average season, 18k sounds about right for a new or upgraded stadium. Build the stadium for the average size crowd. AAMI Park should have been 22k-25k. Would have made for a better atmosphere as it is usually half empty.

That comes down to the size of your ambition. TBh if 18k is the max of ambition and all we think we can attract to games then the game is going to fall a long way behind AFL in the race to become the number 1 winter footy code. There are numerous reasons why NRL crowds are pretty avg and havent changed for decades and until each one gets addressed then we wont see the type of revenue we see AFL clubs being able to generate. The game limps along despite huge TV deals, largely as we dont engage the fanbase that is out there to be active participants in supporting their clubs. The goal should be 30k stadiums and 20 k avg's. That isnt unreasonable or unachievable. No doubt Eels would have got there this year with Bankwest. Partly as they have extra capacity and can offer great membership deals.

An 18k Shark park or panthers ground or Brookvale is only ever going to avg 14-15k, even with more seats and roofs. There is no sign in NRL that ltd. capacity is driving memberships at any club.

Eagles have sold every ticketed membership available for Optus and still have 9 thousand people waiting for one, and 80k would have delivered them even more revenue!

Dockers never sold out Subi memberships yet the move to bigger capacity Optus has seen their memberships go over 50k!

 

[Quicksilver]

I don’t know why you’ve decided to pick 18k as your generic capacity. Add an extra 2k if it makes you feel better. Shark Park has had 22k in the past.

People don’t go to a stadium because it is big either.

There’s not really much point building an extra 10k seats if you don’t fill them. Spending thousands of dollars on seats that aren’t filled regularly is a dumb use of money. I’d rather use the money in a commercial opportunity with an actual return.

if it gets to the point where the ground is full every week you can justifiably knock down the oldest stand and build a new one.

 

[Nqcowboy]

I’ve only been to one afl match and that was Collingwood vs Richmond at the g in 2018, regular season match but man it had a vibe even in the nosebleeds where I got seats (I managed to swindle my way down to three rows from the boundary, I can’t remember how I managed to pull that off) but it just blew me away that every afl game exceeds nrl attendances. It is a religion past the barassi line and there’s enough population for the nsw/qld sides to get decent attendances. Why do nrl fans not like going to the games