Open letter to Barry Pierce, Steve Rogers and the board

[MightySharks]

If you agree with this letter I urge you to write one yourself, I have sent this letter off today, lets keep Cronulla In Cronulla!


Mr Pierce and Mr Rogers,
My Name is Glenn and I have been a Cronulla Sutherland supporter for all of my 27yrs, and season ticket holder for the previous 5. I am writing this letter in regards to recent comments by the board suggesting that in season 2006 the Sharks are considering playing some games at Express Advocate Stadium, I disagree strongly with this possible decision for the following reasons,
I can see no possible gain for the Sharks to do this as over the past 6 yrs the home crowd averages and therefore the financial intake by the Sharks has been good and I believe cannot be matched by Gosford, for a start we own our own ground and do not pay rent as we would do in Gosford our previous 6 years home ground crowd stats are as follows,
1999- 14,000 NRL rank 1
2000- 13,592 NRL rank 8
2001- 12,409 NRL rank 4
2002- 13,409 NRL rank 5
2003- 12,892 NRL rank 11
2004- 12,489 NRL rank 11
These stats are quite good when matched against other Sydney based NRL sides for the same period and when matched against crowd fiqures in Gosford our fiqures (considering once again we own our own ground) are excellent.
Express Advocate Stadium Crowd Figures
2001- 11,565
2002- 7,529
2004- 12,989
I do understand that there might be some extra sponsorship available on the central coast but I think this will be offset by the withdrawal of local sponsors upset by the lack of home games and the perception that the board believes the local community is not considered good enough to host 12 home games per year.
The board only a few short years ago changed the name back to Cronulla-Sutherland from the Sharks as the Sharks name alone was unpopular amongst Sutherland Shire residents and the partial move to Gosford would be most unpopular with local residnets which lets face it are the majority of paying customers and supporters of Cronulla. It is also my belief as backed up by the stats that Cronulla games would not be well supported on the Central coast by local residents (Northern Eagles) as they want there own team or by Cronulla Fans as unfortunatley we don't travel well. I think the board should stop this move and play no more than one home game away from Toyota Park per year or there could be a backlash towards the board from your very loyal supporters in any upcoming board meetings. It is my strong belief that if Cronulla start to achieve on field the people will come, this years Warriors game has been moved to Perth as it is was feared crowds would be low but only two seasons ago this game drew a crowd
of 15,196 so if the team performs even the Warriors can draw big crowds. You the board have best local support and supporters in the competition don't put this at risk by moving our home games.
Yours Sincerely,

Glenn Petrie

 

[King of the Hill]

Sounds good to me Glenn

 

[MightySharks]

I think if Sharks fans band together we can stop this move!

 

[carcharias]

If you build it , they will come.

good one Glen.

love the bit about backlash.

 

[MightySharks]

Is there anyhing you guys think I should add before I post it this afternoon!

 

[carcharias]

Um it all looks pretty good .
I'd just run it through a spell check ( although I didn't see any mistakes) and maybe just space it out so it is easy to read, appearance wise.

Maybe do it with letters cut from women's day magazines , that'll freak em' out.

 

[Foz]

Whats the financial incentive in Gosford?
I know we dont pay rent on Shark Park but is there any $$$ in playing at Gosford other than the possibility of a larger crowd.
Souths are looking at playing games at Telstra and its reported they will make a million.
I assume they pay rent at the Footy Stadium (wherever they play-North Sydney Oval even) but I think there are corporate dollars involved.
You'd think there is some kind of sweetner to play games in Gosford,Perth NZ or wherever.
I live on the Central Coast and would love the opportunity to see more of them but I want Cronulla staying in Cronulla.
If the $$$$ are good for a game or two a year up here I'm all for that too.
If Cronulla get nothing for coming to Gosford I'd rather them play at Shark Park where they should have a home ground advantage and where they belong.

 

[blacktip-reefy]

I think the Sharks listen & read most letter like this, but I assume this one will be duely ignored.
You get nowhere doing the same ole, same ole.
Next year, if there are 3 games at express advocate, I don't hink the majority of the 200k sharks supporters there are, will care, as long as it it good for the Sharks.
If they care enough , they will prevent it happening again the year after by turning up in droves & showing the management that there is no need to take these measures.
We'll never know, if we don't give it a go.
The best form of protest is take take 6 mates to a game or 6 more & filling the ground.

BTW, how many does EA Stadium hold?

 

[Chondricthyes]

As you say Glenn I see nothing wrong with playing a game on the CC to increase the exposure we are investing there.

Maybe the NRL should make every club play 2 home games away-as in -in the country or interstate so all clubs and the NRL gets out there to spread the code.

If they introduce zones it should be mandatory and it would take the game back to the people which they have been trying to do since "the war".

More than 1 or 2 and we start putting flaming crosses outside Sharkies.

 

[Cometshark]

First off I dont like the idea of moving any games away from toyota, but doesnt the NRL offer cash incentives to move games to development areas like the CC. From memory it was a couple hundred thousand, could be way off, but I remember its a fairly sizeable amount.

 

[MightySharks]

Next year, if there are 3 games at express advocate, I don't hink the majority of the 200k sharks supporters there are, will care, as long as it it good for the Sharks.
If they care enough , they will prevent it happening again the year after by turning up in droves & showing the management that there is no need to take these measures.

They already do care as shown by my stats we are cronulla we should play at cronulla in no other major sport does a team play 3 games away from home any way cronulla have set 5 record crowd fiquers in the last 5 years

 

[blacktip-reefy]

The only problem is, our crowd records arent that high. Broncs wouldcould consider our record a bad day.
If things were good with attendances, do you think they would be moved? I doubt it.
Also, there are more sharks fans who dont go to the games, for whatever reason, than go to the games, & they must also be considered.

 

[Sharkie73]

I think they should put all there energy into getting more locals to our home games rather than playing games on the Central Coast. As the saying go's "Don't bite the hand that feeds you", and thats what there doing to all the local supporters by playing home games on the Central Coast all they will achive is to piss off all the local supporters, also if they go ahead with this idea do all the season ticket holders get big discounts!!!! because of the low number of home games, I bet they won't.

 

[wazzashark]

As most people have said previously.......

If the on field performance improves, the fans will turn up........ Pretty simple......

Just watch, after the first few games when we start kicking @ss, the fans will return on mass......

Then there will be no need to move games to the CC..........

Vote with your feet........

 

[ali]

I don't like the idea of 3 games on the CC. I am happy with 1 game in Perth this year, as I think it will be a success. i'd take one game on the road next year, to Adelaide, as they haven't had a match in yonks, and should be a guarenteed good turnout.

The other 11 must be at home.

 

[MightySharks]

The only problem is, our crowd records arent that high. Broncs wouldcould consider our record a bad day.
If things were good with attendances, do you think they would be moved? I doubt it.
Also, there are more sharks fans who dont go to the games, for whatever reason, than go to the games, & they must also be considered.
_________________

First of all mate we are not the Broncos and should not be compared to the Broncos they have 3/4 of a whole state to draw fans from, we can only be compared to ther Sydney clubs and our crowd fiqures compare very well over the past five years, as I said before no other major sporting team would move three home games in a year not even a lowly ranked english premier league side there fans would not stand for it nor should we, as for the "fans" you mentioned who cannot go to a game, well I am sorry if they have reasons why they can't attend but I will not consider fans from areas that are to far away from Shark Park as we are Cronulla and like all teams should look after our own backyard first, there is no financial gain for moving games only supporter and local sponsor backlash and the board instead of looking for excuses why crowds are down should focus there energy on winning games and as my stats show the people will come, if you really think black-tip reefy that games should be played away from Shark Park I have serious doubts about the affinity you feel for the real supporters of this club most of the cronulla fans live in or around the shire and we are the bulk of the clubs financial and supporter intake, this is not to say I don't welcome supporters from other areas but there is 12 away games a year available for them to attend and every game is on FOX sports a home game is for home supporters and lets hope this year we can turn it in to the fortress it once was.

 

[Alan Shore]

Going to Gosford would be silly and financially it would be a waste.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

To be brutally honest, last year the football played at home last season was absolute garbage!

Some of the Sharks best footy last season was away from home.
The Brisbane, Roosters and Storm games come to mind quickly.


I agree with the comment that if they play quality football at home people will come back in droves. But if they dish up the same garbage as last year they'll go fishing instead.

 

[MightySharks]

agree with the comment that if they play quality football at home people will come back in droves. But if they dish up the same garbage as last year they'll go fishing instead.

Which is no different to any other team in the NRL, but they are not talking about moving three home games a year to an area which rightly has shown no interest in any other team other than having there own, and if the people on the central coast love the Sharks so much I wonder how many of them drove down to Shark Park last year like they expect us to do to support our own team in Gosford, I would be willing to go up there one time a year or anywhere else to promote the game but no more than that. I went to the trial game up there last week and did not see overwhelming support at that Sharks Game

 

[Dragon Slayer]

True.

I was at the game as well, and I was surprised that more Novacastrians didn't turn up. Being so close to them and all.

They'll be crap this year and they know it.

10,000 people turned up and a fair percentage were Newcastle supporters.

What happens when they play an opposition team who's supporters are just as far away as we are.

You'd struggle to get 10,000 I reckon.

I still think they've lined up the Central Coast as Plan B if the development plans falls through.

A possible 3 games at the C.C next year hmmmmmm........