No home games until April

[Danish Moo Cow]

Looks like the Knights have deferred all their early season home games until later on to make sure that new concourse seating on the Eastern side is ready for all home games.

Big decision, for mine. The Knights live or die by the first two months of a season and the tough opening schedule from last year had a lot to do with the mid-season form slump that they never recovered from. It might be good to have more home games later in the year, but with players going to be missing through representative matches or injuries it might not count for much.

 

[Encurly]

Financially, though, they live and die (partly) by gate takings. The seats for the new concourse aren't due in until February or March. If you didn't have those seats ready the capacity of the ground would be down to 13 to 14K. Leaving the home games to April gives time for rain delays - seems the sensible option to me.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

They could take games elsewhere. Melbourne to Adelaide would be a good exhibition since the Storm fans don't travel well and the novelty of league being back in town would be fun for people over there with nothing better to do than watch AFL.

If it were later in the year they probably could've thought about taking a game to Darwin. But it'll be too hot or wet in March up that way.

The Bulldogs have had great success in taking their home games against the Warriors to Wellington and even we did that in the early days against Manly and Souths (I think). So there is that option.

 

[Encurly]

That's hardly restoring the home ground advantage that you were worried about. It's also a risk - particularly for a one-off if you're not planning to continue it for next season. How many people is Melbourne v Newcastle in Adelaide going to attract? Probably less than it will in Newcastle.

At the end of the day I think the admin would prefer to have all 12 home games in Newcastle, even if it means none early in the season.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

You can promote it there as being an event. What other league events will be happening there? Perth? Darwin? etc. It might not give a home town edge, but at least there will be the Johns, Kennedy, Buderus thing before they're out with either injury or rep responsibilities.

And it takes away having to play at other team's home grounds for at least one of the weeks.

 

[antonius]

I think I read somewhere that the ground cap for next year is going to be around 16,000 anyway due to the re-development disruptions, even after they get the seating on the scoreboard side finished. I think this is because of safety considerations.

 

[roopy]

It would be nice if they manage to put on some Premier League games against teams like Newtown and such at the ground in the early rounds. You won't be needing the new stands for those games.

It would probably be too hard to organise though.

 

[antonius]

Speaking from a purely selfish point of view I'd rather they defer the games than play them elsewhere, simply because I want to see them, I wouldn't have a problem going to Gosford for them, but in the end it's going to be a financial decission for them to make, and lets face it it would be very hard for the Knights to get a better financial result moving games somewhere else given the home attendances we enjoy.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

Gosford! Awesome idea. They need a game or two a year now.

 

[Kaz]

I hope your home ground advantage ends up like the Broncos home ground advantage of this season. :lol:

We won just one game at our new re-developed ground.

We didn't have our 1st home game there until June.

 

[antonius]

I hope your home ground advantage ends up like the Broncos home ground advantage of this season. :lol:

We won just one game at our new re-developed ground.

We didn't have our 1st home game there until June.

Did you see the boys training on Redhead Beach last week? That's in preparation for our game at Sandcorp next season!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

I hope your home ground advantage ends up like the Broncos home ground advantage of this season. :lol:

We won just one game at our new re-developed ground.

We didn't have our 1st home game there until June.

Did you see the boys training on Redhead Beach last week? That's in preparation for our game at Sandcorp next season!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Booyah!!!!

 

[Kaz]

I hope your home ground advantage ends up like the Broncos home ground advantage of this season. :lol:

We won just one game at our new re-developed ground.

We didn't have our 1st home game there until June.

Did you see the boys training on Redhead Beach last week? That's in preparation for our game at Sandcorp next season!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Well it is a waste of time.

There was NO complaints of the surface during all the games for the World Cup.

And your Home Country England who would complain about anything, praised the ground saying it was a World Class ground.

 

[antonius]

I hope your home ground advantage ends up like the Broncos home ground advantage of this season. :lol:

We won just one game at our new re-developed ground.

We didn't have our 1st home game there until June.

Did you see the boys training on Redhead Beach last week? That's in preparation for our game at Sandcorp next season!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Well it is a waste of time.

There was NO complaints of the surface during all the games for the World Cup.

And your Home Country England who would complain about anything, praised the ground saying it was a World Class ground.

It wouldn't have worried the onion players they spend all their time rolling around in the dirt, or in this case sand. :lol: :lol:

 

[Kaz]

It wouldn't have worried the onion players they spend all their time rolling around in the dirt, or in this case sand. :lol: :lol:

At least we have a ground to roll around in. :lol: ;-)

 

[antonius]

It wouldn't have worried the onion players they spend all their time rolling around in the dirt, or in this case sand. :lol: :lol:

At least we have a ground to roll around in. :lol: ;-)

We've got ground, just nowhere to sit and watch. LOL. But give it a couple of years and we'll be the envy of everyone. 8) Great Team, Great Ground, and Fantastic Supporters.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

I wonder if the new surface laid prior to the Union World Cup at Lang Park had anything to do with the lack of complaints.

http://oneworldcup.nzoom.com/story/224617.html

Now, Kaz, why did they have to replace that surface?

 

[Kaz]

It wouldn't have worried the onion players they spend all their time rolling around in the dirt, or in this case sand. :lol: :lol:

At least we have a ground to roll around in. :lol: ;-)

We've got ground, just nowhere to sit and watch. LOL. But give it a couple of years and we'll be the envy of everyone. 8) Great Team, Great Ground, and Fantastic Supporters.

Dream on Tony

Why don't your 'fantastic supporters' travel to away games, like they did in years gone by.

 

[Razor]

How many people is Melbourne v Newcastle in Adelaide going to attract? Probably less than it will in Newcastle.

Back in the early-mid 90s when the Dragons took games to Adelaide they always got big crowds. Week-in, week-out they won't get huge crowds, but one-off games they will get a reasonable crowd.

 

[Encurly]

How many people is Melbourne v Newcastle in Adelaide going to attract? Probably less than it will in Newcastle.

Back in the early-mid 90s when the Dragons took games to Adelaide they always got big crowds. Week-in, week-out they won't get huge crowds, but one-off games they will get a reasonable crowd.

Initially they did - the crowd figures go like this:
(Source: stats.rleague.com)

1991 St George v Balmain - 28,884
1992 St George v Brisbane - 18,892
1993 St George v Canberra - 20,246
1994 St George v Wests - 12,874
1995 St George v Newcastle - 8,987

by 1995 it looks like the novelty had worn off, or that Wests and Newcastle weren't the drawcards that the earlier teams were. St George is more likely to attract a decent crowd because of their history, too.

It's possible that an Adelaide game (or elsewhere) would draw a crowd - but it's a risk.