Richardson calls for suburban footy to be axed

[AlwaysGreen]

lol @ Sydney FC. I'm sure the SFS is drowning in cash from the 16 fans of theirs that show up.

The Waratahs play like 6 home games. And the Tigers only play 3 there.

Don't care about union or soccer but these two teams have made the right choice. They probably attract more fans then the rabbletohs too.

ANZ also has Swans game that get big crowds, relatively speaking.

f**k the swans.

ANZ has a shitload more crowds over a year than SFS because SFS isn't even in the same ballpark in what it offers to teams. You know ANZ has built a private locker room for us that NOONE else gets to use without our permission?

Because they're desperate for tenants you lunatic. Plus I've heard other teams have requested not to share with souths as they're afraid the rabbletohs ineptitude will rub off.

 

[DC_fan]

35,000 plus fans at ANZ tonight has to tell us something.

Would not have got that crowd at a suburban ground.

 

[juanfarkall]

35,000 plus fans at ANZ tonight has to tell us something.

Would not have got that crowd at a suburban ground.

How many times have 5(c)uff$ had more than 30,000 at a home game in the past 10 years ?
Will it happen again this year ?

 

[franklin2323]

If you got to every Sydney game you'd know there was a hill on the way back to Carlton station, the hill that's causing you grief on the way to the SFS

:lol: As an away fan. I would love nothing more then to only go to the SFS instead of Kogarah or Shark Park that extra 30mins from Windsor can be used elsewhere.

However how many of the home fans would make the same trip?? They maybe on the illawarra line and a few stops is great for them. The hill doesn't bother me however the kids or the wives don't come. Instead of 20 there is 7 of us. If others are the same it defeats the purpose.

 

[Teddyboy]

How about compromise? We keep most of the suburban grounds as they are and only make a couple adjustments in terms of stadium arrangements. I would have the NRL team up with the A-League and pressure the powers to be to renovate SFS and help turn Parramatta Stadium into a 35,000 seat mini Suncorp Stadium complete with parking and transportation links. I would build a new stadium for Manly in the Northern Beaches area with parking. And I would renovate Redfern/Belmore so that they could a couple regular season matches a year and move the Bulldogs and Rabbitohs to Parramatta Stadium and SFS, respectively. ANZ thus could get a SCG vibe to it, hosting Origin, Grand Finals, doubleheaders, and larger rivalry games.


So I could see a stadium arrangement go something like this:
Bulldogs- 9-10 games @Parramatta, 2-3 games @ Belmore
Cronulla- 12 games at Shark Park
Manly-10 games at new stadium, 2 games @ Brookvale
Souths-9-10 games at SFS, 2-3 games at Redfern
St George-Illawarra-6 games at Wollongong, 6 games at Kogarah
Parramatta-12 games @ Parramatta Stadium
Penrith-10 games at Centerbet Stadium, 2 games at Parramatta Stadium
Roosters-12 games @SFS
Wests Tigers- 4-5 games @Campbelltown, 3-4 games at Leichhardt Oval, and 3-5 games @ANZ/SFS.


I would try to move bigger games to ANZ Stadium and try to market the heck out of them. So this arrangement you would get the best of all possible worlds. With Parramatta and SFS, you would get a modern rectangular stadium and modern facilities. With ANZ, you would get a big game feel. And with the suburban grounds, you would get an atmosphere, history, and tradition.

Too many stadiums.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

35,000 plus fans at ANZ tonight has to tell us something.

Would not have got that crowd at a suburban ground.

No but wouldnt have got that sort of crowd if it wasnt on Good Friday.

 

[DC_fan]

No but wouldnt have got that sort of crowd if it wasnt on Good Friday.

That we will never know.

 

[Perth Red]

Reality is most suburban grounds will only ever hold 20k tops, usually closer to 17k comfortably, most don't offer good protection from the elements which has a big effect on crowd drop off. If we are happy with a 14-16k avg then suburban grounds are not a problem. If we want to get to 20-25k then reality is modern stadia are needed.

And that's before we even start talking about corporate facilities that are worth a heck of a lot of money to clubs incomes.

 

[fred95]

The thing is what the SFS offers isn't even in the same ballpark as ANZ. The SFS needs to get it's head in the game, it's so far from it's rival it's not funny.

Hopefully when our contract is up with ANZ the SFS can put in a sane offer that we could consider.

Two paragraphs from Bunniesbrain and not surprisingly they contradict each other. What you are really saying is, in spite of your assertions that the ANZ is superior to the SFS, is you really prefer the SFS but your club is too tight fisted to pay the extras of having the SFS as their home ground but Souths dont give a damn about the convenience of their supporters.

 

[Perth Red]

ANZ is a poor ground for club RL and is not the answer to shared stadiums. How to get a 40k proper RL stadium in the Western part of Sydney for clubs to share is the big question and challenge for the ARLC in years to come.

 

[mightybears]

Richo hasn't done a lot, his need to get heard and stay in the papers has overridden the obviously common sense that 'surburban' RL grounds is the real RL as opposed to the soulless stupidity he promotes.

 

[BunniesMan]

Two paragraphs from Bunniesbrain and not surprisingly they contradict each other. What you are really saying is, in spite of your assertions that the ANZ is superior to the SFS, is you really prefer the SFS but your club is too tight fisted to pay the extras of having the SFS as their home ground but Souths dont give a damn about the convenience of their supporters.

Most people would rather play at SFS. If ANZ and SFS offered the same, or even just similar deals, we'd be playing at the SFS. But the ANZ is so far ahead of the SFS it's not even close. Close to a million a year in difference. Even if SFS offered 90% of what ANZ did then they'd probably get us but SFS just isn't in the right league in terms of offers.

The SFS is a better stadium.

The ANZ is run by far better businesspeople.

 

[juanfarkall]

How many times have 5(c)uff$ had more than 30,000 at a home game in the past 10 years ?
Will it happen again this year ?

seems that 5(c)uff$ fans are either unwilling or unable to answer the questions.
can't imagine why.

 

[Loudstrat]

Most people would rather play at SFS. If ANZ and SFS offered the same, or even just similar deals, we'd be playing at the SFS. But the ANZ is so far ahead of the SFS it's not even close. Close to a million a year in difference. Even if SFS offered 90% of what ANZ did then they'd probably get us but SFS just isn't in the right league in terms of offers.

The SFS is a better stadium.

The ANZ is run by far better businesspeople.

Most people would rather play at home, not far away stadia.

35,000 plus fans at ANZ tonight has to tell us something.

Would not have got that crowd at a suburban ground.

35k tells us there were two home sides playing on a public holiday with 100 000 people at the Royal Easter Show.

Besides, ANZ IS a suburban ground!

 

[DC_fan]

How many times have 5(c)uff$ had more than 30,000 at a home game in the past 10 years ?
Will it happen again this year ?

In nine years (2004-12) Souths have topped 30,000 three times. Those games being

Bulldogs 2012 35,221
Bulldogs 2007 34,315
Bulldogs 2010 30,120

Souths went close to topping the mark against the Roosters back in 2008 with a crowd of 29,386.

Of Souths top 10 crowds since 2004, eight of them including the top 7 have been at ANZ stadium.

Also for your information in the last six seasons (2007-12) their has been 18 games played in Sydney where the crowd has topped thee 30,000 mark. The Bulldogs lead the list with seven games, with Souths second with three. All of those games were played at ANZ. The biggest premiership crowd at Sydney game was 41.835 when the 'dogs played the Warriors in 09.

Would the Bulldogs and Souths have drawn those sorts of crowds if the games had been played at a surban ground?

Will Souths draw another 30,000 plus crowd this season? Who knows for sure right now. But we have some big games against the Dragons and the Tigers later in the season that given the right conditions could do so.

 

[juanfarkall]

In nine years (2004-12) Souths have topped 30,000 three times. Those games being

Bulldogs 2012 35,221
Bulldogs 2007 34,315
Bulldogs 2010 30,120

Souths went close to topping the mark against the Roosters back in 2008 with a crowd of 29,386.

Of Souths top 10 crowds since 2004, eight of them including the top 7 have been at ANZ stadium.

Also for your information in the last six seasons (2007-12) their has been 18 games played in Sydney where the crowd has topped thee 30,000 mark. The Bulldogs lead the list with seven games, with Souths second with three. All of those games were played at ANZ. The biggest premiership crowd at Sydney game was 41.835 when the 'dogs played the Warriors in 09.

Would the Bulldogs and Souths have drawn those sorts of crowds if the games had been played at a surban ground?

Will Souths draw another 30,000 plus crowd this season? Who knows for sure right now. But we have some big games against the Dragons and the Tigers later in the season that given the right conditions could do so.

so 3 times out of around 108 games in 9 years
and still 3 times if it is over 10 years.

I am no BoughtDogs fan but it would appear that their presence is required for there to be a big crowd at a 5(c)uff$ game.

I can't speak for all Tigers or Dragons fans but the ones I know do not have any affection for Homeless Stadium.
As someone who travels a long way to watch my team play at their home ground I can safely say that I will not travel to Homeless Stadium at any time other than finals matches or rep games.

 

[franklin2323]

And that's before we even start talking about corporate facilities that are worth a heck of a lot of money to clubs incomes.

Our round 10 game against Dragons is sold out for corporate despite being on Monday night game has been since round 2. There is no guarantee they would be if we were at SFS or ANZ.

The prices would be higher, Stadium sponsors would get 1st option. The extra 40mins travel for fans would be the same for them. Centrebet's chairmans lounge & other corporate area's are very modern & great, same with Kogarah, same with parrra.

 

[Loudstrat]

There is no doubt the big stadium does have a positive impact on crowds. But only a complete imbecile would dump ALL suburban grounds on that basis. Dogs and Souths are the closest to ANZ. We aare probably next, yet we have a great ground, and Belmore and Redfern were dilapidated grounds with abysmal access.

Saints and Wests also used Homebush as home - and now dont. Wests especially used to get good crowds there, but they still do. I'd argue that 18k at Leichhardt is better than 28k at ANZ.

Anyway - distance is a bigger influence. Manly's semi final last year v NQ proved that. The ANZ/SFS solution is great for the inner city, f*cked for the rest. Our grounds are actually ok for our needs.

 

[DC_fan]

so 3 times out of around 108 games in 9 years
and still 3 times if it is over 10 years.

I am no BoughtDogs fan but it would appear that their presence is required for there to be a big crowd at a 5(c)uff$ game.

I can't speak for all Tigers or Dragons fans but the ones I know do not have any affection for Homeless Stadium.
As someone who travels a long way to watch my team play at their home ground I can safely say that I will not travel to Homeless Stadium at any time other than finals matches or rep games.

Its three games that if we played at a surban ground we would not have got those crowd figures.

I don't have any real problems with ANZ and going on last nights crowd neither do another 35,000 fans.

 

[juanfarkall]

Its three games that if we played at a surban ground we would not have got those crowd figures.

I don't have any real problems with ANZ and going on last nights crowd neither do another 35,000 fans.

But they could have all been played at the SFS or SCG (and have held those attendances) which are both more relevant to the region that your club claims to represent