I agree but I don't think there is a suitable stadium site. North Sydney oval is probably the best existing ground and easy to get to.
It's not on a train line and therefore inappropriate. If you build a stadium anywhere outside of 5-7min walk from a train station, it will always be considered negatively by the public in general. Especially a winter sport where families are concerned during cold winter days and nights. Throw in a bit of rain and you're done. The crowd will be massively affected.
Parramatta stadium is maybe the exception due to it being still reasonably close to all the amenities, restaurants and bars, but time will tell on that one too. The light rail opening up in a couple of years will also help it sustain decent crowds one would expect.
But North Sydney oval has no such infrastructure around it. It has Buckley's chance of sustaining 20k+ crowds over the long haul and that is what we are aiming for aren't we? A team that represents the entire northern Sydney region should be able to do that on its ear if they knew how to engage and charm their fan base effectively.
We need to stop scratching for chicken feed. We need to make sure that all our clubs are maximising their brand and stadium quality and location is a massive part of that. Public engagement is another. These two areas I believe Manly have fallen way short on for decades, which for me is inexcusable. Especially the fan engagement side of things. Manly's pride in how the general public love to hate them is very short sighted the way that they have embraced it. Sure use it to your advantage, but by isolating themselves on that peninsular and battening down the hatches around them, it then sends out a message to the rest of the northern region that it's just that small communities team and they are excluded from that.
Where is the wider public engagement and inclusiveness? Where are the school engagement and participation level at? What are the numbers and the year in year out KPI's on that? Have they increased by much if anything since the Bears got kicked out? If not what a disgrace. Where is the public engagement in all the different shopping centres and malls? These type of things need to be constant and omnipresent forever. All the school principals of the the entire region should be on a first name basis with the talent scouts, marketing men, coaches and anyone else of importance in the pursuit of growing their brand and their number one stakeholder, their fans. Engage, engage, engage!!! This should be the number one mission statement of Manly, hell of all our teams. Wherever and whenever possible, be available and also include the media in as many opportunities as possible too.
Remember, when the players were negotiating their players collective bargaining agreement, they agreed to have a massive improvement in promoting the game with accessibility and media involvement now that they were made major stakeholders. Well as has been reported, nothing eventuated. They just took the money and ran because it wasn't written into the contract. It was just a verbal gentleman's agreement that was easily ignored.
Well this needs to stop. When we rejig the ARLC and all its parts, they must get this right and follow the American sports model type of player engagement and write it into the damn contract this time. The accessibility the media has with sports, players and coaching staff is the bench mark for all sports around the world. We need to change and Manly in particular, need to do things differently if they want to be around for the long haul with more then just a couple of hundred thousand people that sometimes care, but generally couldn't give a stuff if they were there of not
