Time to sell the family silver?

[bobmar28]

IMO we should turn Toyota Park into a world class 25-30,000 seat stadium. Cronulla will be getting some solid income from developing the currently idle land assets it has into a shopping centre, retirement village and a heap of other stuff. We could then sell shares in the stadium to say, Souths and jointly redevelop it. Maybe even the Steelers could come to the party. That way we'd have Toyota and the SFS.

Would need to be more central, Homebush is in the centre of metropolitan Sydney.

 

[bobmar28]

what we need is an 40,000 purpose built stadium in western sydney (Parra/Blacktown/Liverpool) to be used by Parra/Panthers or Parra/Dogs and we need a purpose built 80,000 seater at OP. All pipedreams at this stage but.

A 40,000 seater was planned for Liverpool back in about 2000 but the deal fell over.

 

[Brutus]

The Waratahs got around 30,000 to most of their games at the SFS this year - with a packed house for the final against the Sharks. Not a sell-out, but close. The fans come from all over Sydney, so it is not a local area crowd. The SFS is very accessible - lots of parking if you want to drive and an easy bus trip / pub crawl from the city. The place is under-utilised by the NRL, mainly for the short term gain of prop-up cash from ANZ. This situation cannot last forever - sooner or later a beancounter will have a look at the cash handouts the olympic stadium is making and ask WTF?

Meanwhile, fans have voted with their feet and abandoned the place. Unfortunately this means that they have abandoned attending live matches.

The SFS was only half-full for many Waratahs games this year. That's for a team representing the entire state. A team that made the final.

I think only 2 games passed the 30k mark with one of those being a semi final.

 

[Brycey]

A 40,000 seater was planned for Liverpool back in about 2000 but the deal fell over.

50,000 seater. Planned to be built at the Whitlam Centre complex.

If Canterbury and Liverpool CC werent a bunch of corrupt scumbags we would have a purpose built stadium for Canterbury and the Tigers.

 

[dallymessenger]

realistically :

Homebush :

works well as dogs ground as it is very close to their traditional territory of belmore and canterbury. good crowds and building up to 20,000. can see getting 30,000 over time.

souths - signed to play there long term. SFS would have been a better option for the club but financially didnt stack up. again good marketing and despite it being further from their terrirory are appraoching 20,000 and hopefully 30,000 one day.

i dont mind parra and the tigers playing some big games there every year, but thats it.


SFS : easts are the best placed for this ground, its their territory and they should keep the marketing up. again though the crowds havent been excellent, the rise in ST numbers is good, and if sustained can get their crowds up to 20,000 over time



Saints - kogarah is a fine ground now, and they would be mad to play anywhere else in sydney.

manly - brookie needs to be done up, the SFS is too far away. if they cant survive at brookie they have no future as a sydney club

Parra - good home ground, odd game at telstra, why need to move
penrith - as above

Cronulla - shark park is slowly being redeveloped, playing at either the sfs or homebush is too far away for them.

tigers - leichhardt is a fine ground as is, and to get rid of the hill would be suicide. perhaps knock done the latchem robinson stand and build a massive stand like at newcastle. campbelltown could do with some new GS. with the odd game at homebush, they dont need to go to the sfs.

so ideally we needs funds to get shark park, brookie, parra, penrith and kogarah done up. mu guess is that around $150 million would get all those grounds into fantastic condition and holding at least 30,000 all seater and with good cover.

if we can get 30,000 crowds regularly to surburban grounds, thats far better than 40,000 say in neutral territory.

 

[Rockin Ronny]

Let's be realistic. If you give me a middy of beer in a pint class, it's always going to look ordinary.

Fact is: rugby league does not get the crowds you need to justify any games at a big stadium except SOO and finals. If we stop kidding ourselves, we will know that one thing hasn't changed - most clubs are happy if 15K turn up.

The game is also owned by a mob who dont want you at the footy - they make money by having you sit at home and watch every game on TV. It's ridculous that neither North Syney Oval or Gosford stadium has a fulltime team - and they are about to throw 20 bucks at the Brookvale sh*thole which people hate going to. But, that's how News Limited want it.

Rugby league was at its best at 20K max suburban grounds with TV showing one game Sun arvo and maybe sat arvo. it was great to be part of those crowds.

Now, you need a second job to afford to take your family out to an NRL game - to an empty windswept stadium with zero character.

 

[Teddyboy]

What is it with the Manly haters.Everytime i see a game at Brookvale it's always busy and the fans seem happy to be there.
12000 at Brookvale looks better then 12000 at ANZ,SFS and even Parramatta with all those lovely empty new looking seats.

 

[Tyler Durden]

how about we work out ways to get 30,000 into the big stadium ?
so here's my high tech maths -
10,000 people at $30 each gets you $300,000
30,000 people at $10 each gets you $300,000

i'm also guessing that you would get more sales in food/drink, merchandise, parking, programs with a 30,000 crowd, so the stadium will end up in front. not to mention that the better atmosphere will encourage people to come back to the next game. who knows - maybe a 50,000+ crowd for a club game may be a possibility that we don't just see in the AFL.

 

[Teddyboy]

how about we work out ways to get 30,000 into the big stadium ?
so here's my high tech maths -
10,000 people at $30 each gets you $300,000
30,000 people at $10 each gets you $300,000

i'm also guessing that you would get more sales in food/drink, merchandise, parking, programs with a 30,000 crowd, so the stadium will end up in front. not to mention that the better atmosphere will encourage people to come back to the next game. who knows - maybe a 50,000+ crowd for a club game may be a possibility that we don't just see in the AFL.

You really should be running the NRL.;-)

 

[Perth Red]

What is it with the Manly haters.Everytime i see a game at Brookvale it's always busy and the fans seem happy to be there.
12000 at Brookvale looks better then 12000 at ANZ,SFS and even Parramatta with all those lovely empty new looking seats.

12,000 anywhere will not provide enough income for a club to survive another 5-10 years. You need to be asking why Brookie only attracts 12,000. Is it ground, lack of marketing or small catchment population? History shows clubs moving into modern sporting arena designed for purpose attract bigger crowds.

 

[Alehana]

Rugby league was at its best at 20K max suburban grounds with TV showing one game Sun arvo and maybe sat arvo. it was great to be part of those crowds.

.

thats all well an good for sydneysiders, but what about the rest of us? if they stop showing it on tv, how will we support it?

 

[Perth Red]

Didn't you know they only play and watch RL in Sydney?

 

[Teddyboy]

12,000 anywhere will not provide enough income for a club to survive another 5-10 years. You need to be asking why Brookie only attracts 12,000. Is it ground, lack of marketing or small catchment population? History shows clubs moving into modern sporting arena designed for purpose attract bigger crowds.

12000-20000 is Manlys crowds.