My point is, and this is what people seem to ignore, is that it's time to treat this venture as a club in it's own right.
What we've been doing has, and continues to fail.
Sure it would be a shame to lose places like LO to top-flight football, but as it is, it's not a sustainable option, let alone a marker for success. On a side note - I think it would be lovely to have Wests and Balmain playing in a fully fledged and viable 2nd tier competition utilising older grounds to provide a certain footy experience which is rapidly becoming unsustainable at the top level.
Any decent fan would have travelled to Campbelltown for our big/important/winning games over the years. What I'm hoping for is to cut a large amount of the travel factor out of such a prospect and provide a culture of success such as at clubs like the Broncos so that every game is a big game.
This will obviously mean bringing in new staff to promote our memberships above the levels achieved by the WA Reds in Jim Beam Cup and a coach who can actually achieve consistent success in the salary cap era.
Good common sense in that post. Yes, it has always acted like a JV, but now suddenly bedomes a single venture?
I think generally the Tigers have been a sucess - the 05 presmiership is the proof.
I also think their secret is the JV aspect. A strong Tigers IMHO is the most essentail ingredient in Rugby League. Their potential support is massive - again we saw that on 05. They could easily become the first side to average 30k for each home game at ANZ.
The Tigers survive because they are effectively a one team town side for Balmain/Ryde, and a one team town side for Campbelltown/Liverpool. That is, the old 3-3-6 split between Leichhardt, Campbelltown and Homsbush meant they could market games as an event - three games a year - at CT and LO. Homebush is between them, perfectly suited to attract fans of both parent clubs.
The move to the SFS destroys that.
I'd love to see what League looks like if Wests were as strong as the Chooks or Dogs usually are.
I also thoink that plonking 2 other sides at ANZ takes a lot away from the place. It worked with the Dogs and Tigers as tennents. 4 of them, nope.