The venue was supposedly fine to host a Semi Final last week, now it's in desperate need of funding... (which we all knew anyway)
Now in this economy, few governments are going to be willing to put up more money for a stadium, especially a privately owned one.
It's not like the Sharks haven't been able to get government funding in the past ($9.6m in 06 for the Monty Porter Stand) but what would the hook be to make a government spend?
The club isn't offering to contribute anything (or NRL), so this can't be sold as a PPP nor is the club offering to hand over any rights to the venue either.
Crowds haven't been amazing, even with the limited capacity they only had 3 official sell outs this year & its not like their away games have been inundated showing that there is a huge supporter base missing out.
Finally, a question a lot would be asking is why when all the developments were happening on the eastern side of the ground, didn't the club incorporate stadium works? The developers were going to develop anyway, they wanted the land, something significant could have been done, instead a few terraces were promised (and have since been scrapped)
Good post.
This was a perfect opportunity for the Sharks to actually make ground improvements. A huge missed chance.
Massive investment being put into the surrounds by rich developers, yet if anything, the ground has regressed.
What were they thinking having hotel rooms and apartments overlooking the ground, instead of working with the developer to assist in increasing capacity and improving ground facilities.
At the very least, the eastern stand should have been extended to both ends of the ground off the back of these developments.
I'm sure the Sharks have made some decent coin selling off their private land but that money won't last forever, and it has come at the cost to supporters. They have treated their fans like 2nd class citizens.
It's claimed that once fully re-opened, it will have a capacity of 18 000.
In airline terminology that will be comprised of less than 1500 Business class seats and 16 500 cattle class.
And tbh, I have no idea where an extra 5000 are going to fit into that shithole when all the works are complete.
The Sharks were in a unique situation, having a privately owned ground, yet they have royally f**ked this up big time for a long time to come. The hide of them to then put their hand out to the govt for ground improvements.