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The Game Future NRL Stadiums part II

Ozzi_78

First Grade
Messages
6,238
Absolutely do not compare the Melbourne sport mindset to Sydney. Will concede this one for sure. While at the same time saying you will NEVER get Sydney to that level.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
You are not being realistic.

Explain to me (with paragraphs if that’s ok) what does every club do to increase their crowds to 20k. You make it sound so easy… please share us your knowledge on engagement to make this happen.
It isnt easy, finding new customers isnt easy in any busy as a rule. It has to be multi faceted. Just think about a restaurant. Many restaurants dont survive the first year, some restaurants thrive and are full most nights. Why? They all sell food.

You want the complete experience to be positive if youre going to spend your hard earned money and valuable free time, especially in a world of so much choice and competition for our leisure time. Quality of venue, experience (wait staff) quality of food, price point, conveniant opening hours, ease of booking, that oh so important feeling when you walk out that youve had a great time. Transalte that into attending your sports club:

1. KO times, this is tricky as we are currently a slave to tv and one area of easily growing attendance is having the whole family attend not just dad. But thats hard when so many games finish so late. Scheduling games to maximise attendance would be a good start though.
2. Price - more needs to be done to sell the value of memberships, and making sure memberships represent a great value over gate prices. Having said that many games you can see for less than $30 which isnt too bad for a top tier sporting event. egWith Eels new capacity they now have a free kids membership with every adult GA membership. Storm now give a 4 game membership to any U18 registered to play RL in Victoria. We need more of these customer development intiatives.
3. Venue - no one wants to sit in cold wind and rain, que for half the game trying to get food and drink or to go to the toilet. Having experienced new stadiums in last few years they just have a buzz about them before you even get in them. Great seats, great light shows, great facilities, keep dry etc.
4. Experience - you need to create a great night/day out regardless of result on the field. If people enjoy going they'll keep going. If that 100% relies on winning or losing then you get massive crowd avg variations depending on how the teams going. 20% is a good target, at moment it can be as much as 50% for some clubs.
5. Lean on your advantages - in Sydney that means scheduling so away fans can get to games and reciprocal agreeements so away fans can get in dead cheap or free. When you've got spare capacity you can do this.
6. Finally hype. Like it or not people are sheep and the more hype the more interest. our players need to be national superstars, our games talked up not down, massive advertisng for games. Games of the week. Every Friday night and every Sunday afternoon Sydney blockbusters etc etc

Like I said many other sports are managing this around the world so it really doesnt need reinvention of the wheel.

Absolutely do not compare the Melbourne sport mindset to Sydney. Will concede this one for sure. While at the same time saying you will NEVER get Sydney to that level.

Its not just Melbourne though it it? Its pretty much every major city in the world where the top tier sports code for that city is drawing crowds of 20k plus.
 

2012....Sharks Year

First Grade
Messages
5,385
Part of the problem is the way you’re able to sit in the comfort of your home or club or pub if you prefer and watch it live without the expense… hassle of crowds parking traffic etc etc. I’ve had season tix for more than 10 years but would only average 5 or 6 games a year. Doesn’t make you any lesser supporter if you choose to support from home. Everyone gets too wrapped up in crowd figures imo.’
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
Part of the problem is the way you’re able to sit in the comfort of your home or club or pub if you prefer and watch it live without the expense… hassle of crowds parking traffic etc etc. I’ve had season tix for more than 10 years but would only average 5 or 6 games a year. Doesn’t make you any lesser supporter if you choose to support from home. Everyone gets too wrapped up in crowd figures imo.’
Thats pretty much true for any sport in the world though and isnt a unique fan choice for RL here.
You can categorise the RL customer in two ways. The casual who follows a club and watches them on Tv or the invested that attends game, buys memberships, buys merch etc. '

The problem lies in that the former is good for the NRL as that leads to bigger Tv contracts but the latter is better for the clubs as that leads to much greater revenue. Somewhere needs to sit a happy medium, but looking at revenue from active customer at club level we arent even close to it yet for most clubs. Crowd figures are just an indication of active customer base for clubs, thats why they matter. The potential to realise so much more revenue than currently lies in getting more active customers attending games.
 

Croz Au

Juniors
Messages
54
It isnt easy, finding new customers isnt easy in any busy as a rule. It has to be multi faceted. Just think about a restaurant. Many restaurants dont survive the first year, some restaurants thrive and are full most nights. Why? They all sell food.

You want the complete experience to be positive if youre going to spend your hard earned money and valuable free time, especially in a world of so much choice and competition for our leisure time. Quality of venue, experience (wait staff) quality of food, price point, conveniant opening hours, ease of booking, that oh so important feeling when you walk out that youve had a great time. Transalte that into attending your sports club:

1. KO times, this is tricky as we are currently a slave to tv and one area of easily growing attendance is having the whole family attend not just dad. But thats hard when so many games finish so late. Scheduling games to maximise attendance would be a good start though.
2. Price - more needs to be done to sell the value of memberships, and making sure memberships represent a great value over gate prices. Having said that many games you can see for less than $30 which isnt too bad for a top tier sporting event. egWith Eels new capacity they now have a free kids membership with every adult GA membership. Storm now give a 4 game membership to any U18 registered to play RL in Victoria. We need more of these customer development intiatives.
3. Venue - no one wants to sit in cold wind and rain, que for half the game trying to get food and drink or to go to the toilet. Having experienced new stadiums in last few years they just have a buzz about them before you even get in them. Great seats, great light shows, great facilities, keep dry etc.
4. Experience - you need to create a great night/day out regardless of result on the field. If people enjoy going they'll keep going. If that 100% relies on winning or losing then you get massive crowd avg variations depending on how the teams going. 20% is a good target, at moment it can be as much as 50% for some clubs.
5. Lean on your advantages - in Sydney that means scheduling so away fans can get to games and reciprocal agreeements so away fans can get in dead cheap or free. When you've got spare capacity you can do this.
6. Finally hype. Like it or not people are sheep and the more hype the more interest. our players need to be national superstars, our games talked up not down, massive advertisng for games. Games of the week. Every Friday night and every Sunday afternoon Sydney blockbusters etc etc

Like I said many other sports are managing this around the world so it really doesnt need reinvention of the wheel.



Its not just Melbourne though it it? Its pretty much every major city in the world where the top tier sports code for that city is drawing crowds of 20k plus.
Sharks have been number one in game day experience for a few yrs running prior to the move to Kogarah.
I knew of clubs that tried to replicate that same game day experience; however it failed immensely. The problem with it you need the fan buy in, unfortunately NRLs don’t have this at times, are too busy with their own lives, or when they have time open to help, they get burned.
AFL does things better in membership and engagement, but then it is a different sport, and a different way of tribalism too. It runs in your blood, in your family and where you are from.
Points you have said here, have been explored by many of clubs. Another issue has been explored is, why don’t fans travel. You’ll see alot of clubs in Sydney that fans don’t like to travel, and this has been one of the big issue that won’t help the previous stadium plan where four teams play out of one ground.
 

Croz Au

Juniors
Messages
54
If I had my way,
West’s would be playing out of Campbelltown full time, with them playing once a yr at liechardt.
The merge full time at gong, with them playing once a yr at Kogarah.
Dogs wanting to go back to their old ground.
I do see Perth as the next team that should come in; however not from eliminating or removal of teams.

it was done in past, and lost fans, sponsors and $ to other codes.
 

2012....Sharks Year

First Grade
Messages
5,385
I might be on my own but why should 3 teams benefit immensely and the rest get nothing. I’m all in favour of all the grounds getting funding for a makeover/upgrade. I’m not buying this all-seater state of the art facilities b.s. A “game day” for most people is less than 2 hours. Most people I know are happy to sacrifice a bit of comfort for a greater atmosphere and that might include a hill for families. f**k the sterile super stadiums that rarely get half full.
 

Croz Au

Juniors
Messages
54
the nrl should be going hard at getting 3 new stadiums, at the moment it’s sounding like it’s going to be spread thin across lots of sites and we’ll end up with none being what they should be.
If you want to kill the Sydney teams, then this would be the way forward.
a lot of Sydney teams fans don’t travel!
 

TheEroticGamer

Juniors
Messages
1,100
Upgrades is vague. There’s 800mil to spend. Ayres said Penrith is necessary to get a new stadium as its part of the three cities plan. All the media for the past five months agrees they’ll get a 25k stadium.

Cronulla getting a new grandstand ain’t gonna put a dent in that plan.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
If you want to kill the Sydney teams, then this would be the way forward.
a lot of Sydney teams fans don’t travel!
im not suggesting they all share them, if we are sticking with our non centralised stadiums at lest make a start getting some of them what they should be, and ideally if two can share even better. The long term plan over the next 20 years or so should be for every Sydney club to be playing in a modern 25k min all covered seating stadium.
doing up grounds that are already twenty years out of date is a stupid short sighted idea, we need new stadiums for for the next 40 years of growth of the game.
if dogs and tigers are willing to share that should be priority one.
if sharks and dragons willing then that’s priority two.
Then manly or penrith for stadium three.
Wollongong only needs a new main stand

anz should not be touched until it’s ready to be done properly.

the ones that miss out priority for next spending spree. That’s sydney sorted for decades to come.
 

Croz Au

Juniors
Messages
54
im not suggesting they all share them, if we are sticking with our non centralised stadiums at lest make a start getting some of them what they should be, and ideally if two can share even better. The long term plan over the next 20 years or so should be for every Sydney club to be playing in a modern 25k min all seater stadium.
doing up grounds that are already twenty years out of date is a stupid short sighted idea, we need new stadiums for for the next 40 years of growth of the game.
if dogs and tigers are willing to share that should be priority one.
if sharks and dragons willing then that’s priority two.
Then manly or penrith for stadium three.
Wollongong only needs a new main stand

anz should not be touched until it’s ready to be done properly.

the ones that miss out priority for next spending spree. That’s sydney sorted for decades to come.
I have been watching these forums for many years, and have seen your comments.
as I have previously stated, there are plenty of fans for clubs in Sydney, that don’t travel.
Having team sharing home grounds or facilities away from their own territories, making teams travel to stadiums outside the area, would lose fans, which would have an effect on sponsorships, which means less funds available for clubs.
I see where you are trying to go with it; however you have tunnel vision on this point, and Miss the big picture. Fans = $$
The big $$ for the game is coming from NSW, more to the point, sydney.

it would be a step backward, forcing teams to play the same facilities.
Bulldogs want to go back to belmore, and it is more common sense for tigers to move out to a good facility on Campbelltown, where the play at least one game a year at liechardt.
Dragons would move to the gong, and have the one game at Kogarah.
both Kogarah and liechardt are now heavily surrounded by housing, and would be extremely difficult to develop further with infrastructure restrictions.
Sharks will be staying shark park and have the capability and capacity for extra improvements to stadium to ensure it is a niche stadium capable of a 18-20k.

Wollongong is pretty new still, though had some issues being extremely close to the shore line.
Penrith and Campbelltown, likewise to manly that require a refurb.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,411
I have been watching these forums for many years, and have seen your comments.
as I have previously stated, there are plenty of fans for clubs in Sydney, that don’t travel.
Having team sharing home grounds or facilities away from their own territories, making teams travel to stadiums outside the area, would lose fans, which would have an effect on sponsorships, which means less funds available for clubs.
I see where you are trying to go with it; however you have tunnel vision on this point, and Miss the big picture. Fans = $$
The big $$ for the game is coming from NSW, more to the point, sydney.

it would be a step backward, forcing teams to play the same facilities.
Bulldogs want to go back to belmore, and it is more common sense for tigers to move out to a good facility on Campbelltown, where the play at least one game a year at liechardt.
Dragons would move to the gong, and have the one game at Kogarah.
both Kogarah and liechardt are now heavily surrounded by housing, and would be extremely difficult to develop further with infrastructure restrictions.
Sharks will be staying shark park and have the capability and capacity for extra improvements to stadium to ensure it is a niche stadium capable of a 18-20k.

Wollongong is pretty new still, though had some issues being extremely close to the shore line.
Penrith and Campbelltown, likewise to manly that require a refurb.
Tigers and dogs are already sharing stadiums, building something more suitable within easy reach of the clubs fanbases would surely be a positive step? The clubs arent growing Their fanbases as of nowNate 12-14k. Somethings got to change if we want to see growth. Reality is we arent going to see manly, penrith, gong, kogorah, shark park, belmore and Campbelltown get new stadiums or significant upgrades to the point where it will give them quality venues fit for the next few decades In order to grow the attending customer base significantly.
 

MugaB

Coach
Messages
11,821
Tigers and dogs are already sharing stadiums, building something more suitable within easy reach of the clubs fanbases would surely be a positive step? The clubs arent growing Their fanbases as of nowNate 12-14k. Somethings got to change if we want to see growth. Reality is we arent going to see manly, penrith, gong, kogorah, shark park, belmore and Campbelltown get new stadiums or significant upgrades to the point where it will give them quality venues fit for the next few decades In order to grow the attending customer base significantly.
Dogs and tigers low attendances are also because they aren't making finals, struggling on field has a lot to do with it, dare say leichardt gets jam packed but only 3 times a year, as long as its a reasonable timeslot. Can't day the same about the roosters even when they are competitive
 
Messages
3,224
I might be on my own but why should 3 teams benefit immensely and the rest get nothing. I’m all in favour of all the grounds getting funding for a makeover/upgrade. I’m not buying this all-seater state of the art facilities b.s. A “game day” for most people is less than 2 hours. Most people I know are happy to sacrifice a bit of comfort for a greater atmosphere and that might include a hill for families. f**k the sterile super stadiums that rarely get half full.
hahaha
so 1970s
 
Messages
3,224
Putting lip stick on pigs is lunacy & is a far greater mis use of public monies then the original plan for Sydneys stadiums.
800 Million spent on 2 new venues & some upgrades to a few others is far more sensible & will benefit the code for decades to come.
The roof on homebush , lol ... what an effing joke
 

2012....Sharks Year

First Grade
Messages
5,385
Putting lip stick on pigs is lunacy & is a far greater mis use of public monies then the original plan for Sydneys stadiums.
800 Million spent on 2 new venues & some upgrades to a few others is far more sensible & will benefit the code for decades to come.
The roof on homebush , lol ... what an effing joke
Yeah… nah…. It’s not all about the Pennies mate, Sounds like you had your mind set on a spanking new stadium and have had your heart broken. If you’re so confident your fans will travel why can’t you share BankWest with Parra… barely 30 mins down the M4 and you can have the facilities you crave for every second week.
 

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