Moving the Western Sydney Panthers to Blacktown

[Warrior@Heart]

Too bad the fifa wc bid failed, the proposed retangular stadium in Blacktown would've been a perfect fit for both Parramatta, Penrith & The Wanderers. The biggest population areas out west in 15 years time will most likely be Liverpool & Blacktown. A Stadium in Liverpool to be used by Canterbury & Wests in the south-west and a stadium in Blacktown representing the north-west would be ideal for stadium rationalisation.

 

[BunniesMan]

Blacktown Panthers. Sounds good. Make it happen Dave.

 

[Perth Red]

Doc that population growth though is likely to come from people in other areas of nsw and qland moving into the region, not birth increases. As you have argued in the other thread that parents dictate club choice for kids then this growth is going to be, more than likely, people with attachments to other NRL clubs who are not going to drop their affiliation to follow a Penrith team and whose influence will stop their kids becoming g panthers fans.

 

[POPEYE]

Better to have the Panthers turn the Blueys into a mere picket fence, let them straddle it and play some games at Mudgee's Glenn Willow . . . crowds would at least match those on the Sydney side

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

By 2036 the areas that constitute Panthers primary based will have a combined population of 750k-900k.

The Panthers will never have a better opportunity to grow their club. They need to be getting the majority of rugby league supports that relocate North/West on Prospect to convert to the Panthers brand.

I'm not saying that they need to relocate necessarily, they just need to capture these areas better. That said if you look at the location of the Blacktown International Sportspark it's not the geographic centre but it's close to being the population centre of Penrith-Blacktown-Rouse Hill areas.

This is kind of what i was trying to say, but its not specifically about the geographic centre. Blacktown currently the largest population of any western sydney city and its predicted to increase its "lead".

Its still easily accesable from Penrith, but its much easier to get to from the east (parramatta, ect.).

 

[Loudstrat]

Blacktown's piss easy to get to from Penrith!

 

[POPEYE]

Therein lies the problem ol' mate, expressways in the Cumberland basin have made distance obsolete and Blacktown, the place of my birth, is smack dab in the middle . . . and what a f**king arsehole of a joint it is.

The basin encompasses the vast majority of the Sydney Metropolitan Area population and any mention of Blacktown in discussions of future demarcation zones in a sporting sense can only be detrimental to the welfare of existing clubs . . . buyer beware

 

[bobmar28]

Going by the projected population increase any new stadium should be built in Liverpool.

 

[franklin2323]

This is kind of what i was trying to say, but its not specifically about the geographic centre. Blacktown currently the largest population of any western sydney city and its predicted to increase its "lead".

Its still easily accesable from Penrith, but its much easier to get to from the east (parramatta, ect.).

The red area is Parra's. Black is Penrith's. The location now is exactly in the middle

 

[GAZF]

The red area is Parra's. Black is Penrith's. The location now is exactly in the middle

Geographically, yes. In terms of population distribution the centre would be between Penrith and Blacktown though.

 

[Canard]

LU's solution to the games problems, Graphic Design and Geography!

"Just move em down the road a bit and change some shit and that"

 

[franklin2323]

Geographically, yes. In terms of population distribution the centre would be between Penrith and Blacktown though.

Depends though. Rouse Hill & Kellyville is Blacktown council area but Parramatta district. Penrith currently has 3 housing estates being built so it's hardly going backwards itself.

 

[Lambretta]

Loudy was spot on - you need to move Blacktown to Penrith

This is easy to achieve - you just extend the boundaries of Penrith

Then we'll be able to sing

Where is Blacktown? Thats in Penrith
Where's Mount Druitt? Thats in Penrith
Where's St Mary's? That's in Penrith
Where's Ropes Crossing? That's in Penrith
Penriths everywhere (that's shit)

St Clair and Colyton? They're in Penrith
Bella Vista, Rouse Hill? They're in Penrith.. (add more suburbs and repeat) Penriths everywhere

 

[Lambretta]

On a serious note - Blacktown as a centre of the West DOES make more sense long term than Penrith as a home to a football team. Larger population base etc etc and easier access to population bases East of Blacktown. But if you were to choose Blacktown it should have been done that way from the start.

As the areas are geographically close, people from Penrith probably would have supported a Blacktown based team anyway. So yes it's logical.

To move there now just doesn't make any sense. I'm afraid that horse has bolted. You'd need to build a stadium close to the train station which would mean building on the showground or the golf course. It would also mean massive funding which means involving the State Government.

So in short, it would never happen. Blacktown is now too developed and there would be too many NIMBIES complaining about increased traffic etc on match days.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

The red area is Parra's. Black is Penrith's. The location now is exactly in the middle

That area covers about 500,000 people or something.

But the population isnt distributed evenly. If you drew a line north and south of Penrith, id guess maybe 80% would be east of that.

If you want a historical example of this, the closest would probably be the Broncos. their history was at that QEII stadium, but i dont think anyone could argue that moving to Suncorp was a bad idea. Better public transport, closer to where the people are, still accessable for their old base.

 

[Canard]

That area covers about 500,000 people or something.

But the population isnt distributed evenly. If you drew a line north and south of Penrith, id guess maybe 80% would be east of that.

If you want a historical example of this, the closest would probably be the Broncos. their history was at that QEII stadium, but i dont think anyone could argue that moving to Suncorp was a bad idea. Better public transport, closer to where the people are, still accessable for their old base.

Also a state of the art venue and close to bars and clubs. Not to mention that the Broncos played there for the first 6 years of there existence.

QE2 was crap viewing experience, shit transport links and not centrally located (in public transport terms)

 

[franklin2323]

That area covers about 500,000 people or something.

But the population isnt distributed evenly. If you drew a line north and south of Penrith, id guess maybe 80% would be east of that.

If you want a historical example of this, the closest would probably be the Broncos. their history was at that QEII stadium, but i dont think anyone could argue that moving to Suncorp was a bad idea. Better public transport, closer to where the people are, still accessable for their old base.

Penrith aren't a Sydney team though they are regional. It's would be like moving Newcastle to Gosford as there's more people there. That would make it harder for them to service to Cessnock etc. We are the same. The Mountains & Hawkesbury as well.

new housing estates of Caddens, Thornton, Jordan Springs are all within 10 mins from Centrebet. So it is definately growing. 2nd Airport coming if they use Richmond it's Penrith's catchment or Badgery's creek 20 mins the other side of the M4. So plenty happening around the region. So remaining Central is ideal

 

[Puntastic]

I think perhaps we're jumping the gun a little in regards to the problem we're actually trying to solve.

Penrith doesn't have the largest geographical area to attract fans, sure.

But moving the 'hub' isn't going to be the be-all-and-end-all to our problems. We should be attracting a larger fanbase as it is, and the fact that our membership numbers are as low as they are is indicative of a number of larger problems.

Moving the club isn't going to fix the marketing, membership attraction, membership retention etc problems that we have. I think the biggest part of this is going to be on field success and consistency. This is how the club will attract fans and players (and money).

Penrith do have an inherent disadvantage (as many clubs do). The club does not have a population monopoly or media attraction others enjoy, and the reality is there is still a bias against Western Sydney when it comes to attracting players. But I feel as though it would be a cop out if the club said that these problems could all be blamed on geography entirely, effectively absolving themselves of the blame.

I'm not sure that we were ready to drop the "Penrith" just yet, but I suspect that it was a step towards securing the long term sustainability of the club in terms of being... geographically flexible.

 

[franklin2323]

Exactly. Warren Wilson has been fantastic since coming on board. Actually having businessmen on the board and On field improvements mean we should actually be decent on and off the field over the next 5 or so years

 

[ek999]

QE2 was crap viewing experience, shit transport links and not centrally located (in public transport terms)

Reminds me of a stadium in Sydney