Back to the Heart-lands

http://www.watoday.com.au/rugby-unio...06--23-10--UTC

Spoke to a couple of the Likely Lads from Lindfield who were at Brookie on Saturday evening.
They said that the atmosphere was "F**king fantastic. P*ssed all over the matches at Allianz."
"Pity about the final result, but drinking beer shoulder to shoulder and hoeing into the steak sangas sort of made up for it."

It seems that the main group which isn't happy about playing at the Northern Beaches is the Legion of Rugby Snobs from Mosman who run the ARU/RA.

1. The corporate hospitality facilities at Brookvale are not to the standard which the afore-mentioned Legion has come to expect.
2. Driving across The Spit to get to a rugby match is inconvenient.
3. Horrors of horrors - someone may suggest that the Waratahs should play matches at the new Western Sydney Stadium next year.

What does it actually hold because it looked tiny. Almost as small as that stadium during the Chiefs vs Jaguares game in Rotorua?

Well ill be damned it actually can hold more than NIB. 23k capacity apparently.

Smaller stadiums are the future for this level of Rugby. Having teams play at Allianz/ Loftus/ Durban/ Eden Park etc in huge stadiums with vast swafts of empty seats dominating the background is just making the games appear dull and the atmosphere appear nonexistant. No excitement levels due to this, its an outdated philiosphy to try and nominate every single match inside a behemoth stadium time and time again and if they dont do something about it its gonna kill off the spectators. I mean who wants to sit in a stadium and be surrounded by 15-20 thousand empty seats at each end? Surely it doesnt take another review to work this out.

NIB looked fantastic at capacity and the energy was magical

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Originally Posted by SPaRTAN

What does it actually hold because it looked tiny. Almost as small as that stadium during the Chiefs vs Jaguares game in Rotorua?

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Brookvale can take 23,000.
By comparison:

North Sydney Oval	20,000
Concord Oval	20,000
Western Sydney Stadium (new)	30,000
Belmore	19,000

Putting it in context, I think the largest crowd at a Waratahs' home match this year has been 15,650 (Tahs vs Reds, at the SCG).
The crowd at Brookie on Saturday night was estimated to be around 15,000.

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Originally Posted by FingerTips

Brookvale can take 23,000.
By comparison:

North Sydney Oval	20,000
Concord Oval	20,000
Western Sydney Stadium (new)	30,000
Belmore	19,000

Putting it in context, I think the largest crowd at a Waratahs' home match this year has been 15,650 (Tahs vs Reds, at the SCG).
The crowd at Brookie on Saturday night was estimated to be around 15,000.

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If they actually played at these smaller stadiums you listed and spread it round a bit they might actually get a few new fans... what is the point of playing at the SCG/Allianz etc if they could fill or atleast majority fill a smaller stadium and as a bonus spread the game round a bit too. This is rugbys problem. Its run by dinosaurs who wont change anything.

Possibly, but this...https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-u...06-p4zdpg.html...does raise a legitimate issue. If they go back to suburban grounds, they either need to find a way to change how they capitalise it or someone needs to accept less money. Either could be done, but neither would be popular.

On the upside, not our problem any more.

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Originally Posted by AndyS

Possibly, but this...https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-u...06-p4zdpg.html...does raise a legitimate issue. If they go back to suburban grounds, they either need to find a way to change how they capitalise it or someone needs to accept less money. Either could be done, but neither would be popular.

On the upside, not our problem any more.

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They can make that money playing elsewhere through selling more tickets (ie getting 25,000 at Newcastle), get events NSW behind it like when they brought out the Super League sides from England and from the local councils paying to host the match.

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Originally Posted by Bakkies

They can make that money playing elsewhere through selling more tickets (ie getting 25,000 at Newcastle), get events NSW behind it like when they brought out the Super League sides from England and from the local councils paying to host the match.

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Thats why I would have thought.

Surely having 15k fans turn up to Allianz Stadium would be less profitable then 15k fans turning up to Brookvale? Surely it costs more in rent for the 45k Allianz stadium for a Waratahs game than renting out Brookvale Oval which holds significantly less (23k), has less facilities/ toilets/ bars etc? I just dont understand why we always need to play at these giant stadiums where half the stands are barely in use, none of it makes sense!

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Originally Posted by SPaRTAN

What does it actually hold because it looked tiny. Almost as small as that stadium during the Chiefs vs Jaguares game in Rotorua?

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Looking at Brookvale Oval on Google Earth, they have stands along one side and at one end, and grass banks on the other side and end. The main stand will have the dressing rooms, etc, plus the cameras which will look over the grass bank; therefore on TV it looks like it has a tiny capacity.

Mind you, the stands don't look that big, so to get the 23k capacity, they must have them packed in like sardines on the grass banks!

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Originally Posted by SPaRTAN

Thats why I would have thought.

Surely having 15k fans turn up to Allianz Stadium would be less profitable then 15k fans turning up to Brookvale? Surely it costs more in rent for the 45k Allianz stadium for a Waratahs game than renting out Brookvale Oval which holds significantly less (23k), has less facilities/ toilets/ bars etc? I just dont understand why we always need to play at these giant stadiums where half the stands are barely in use, none of it makes sense!

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Allianz Stadium will have the cameras, floodlights, media facilities, etc, already set up. Mind you, as an NRL ground, you'd expect Brookvale to have that, too.

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Originally Posted by SPaRTAN

Surely having 15k fans turn up to Allianz Stadium would be less profitable then 15k fans turning up to Brookvale? Surely it costs more in rent for the 45k Allianz stadium for a Waratahs game than renting out Brookvale Oval which holds significantly less (23k), has less facilities/ toilets/ bars etc?

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If you read the link, the observation was that it probably does. But then they lose a big chunk of corporate support due to that lack of facilities, and the couple of million dollars the big stadium kicks back to them. The simple answer would be to jack those losses onto the ticket prices, but see how many show up then. So they'd need to be cleverer, when even a little clever is in very short supply.

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Originally Posted by Sheikh

Allianz Stadium will have the cameras, floodlights, media facilities, etc, already set up. Mind you, as an NRL ground, you'd expect Brookvale to have that, too.

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Yeah, or start to use some of the smaller NRL grounds.. the product looks ridiculous with a patch of a few thousand sitting amongst 30,000 seats. I think its just laziness and convenient to play all the games in Eastern Sydney (Allianz) and forgetting about the huge potenitial in Western Sydney.

Brookvale has been a conundrum for NRL for years. People from the Northern Beaches are loath to travel to Allianz, let alone Homebush. Now Tony Abbott is in the naughty corner no government seems likely to offer much to Improve Brooky either. Dunno whether North Sydney Oval would be acceptable - no corners ;)
For those of you not familiar with the situation, those suburbs are somewhat isolated from the rest of town and have outdated public transport services and old narrow roads.
Then there are the issues of a terrible playing surface with poor drainage plus poor player and corporate facilities. Its already under the spotlight - again - after 5 season ending ACL injuries from the past nine NRL matches.

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outdated public transport services

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Or none at all.


The Tahs should be looking at playing matches at Parramatta (the design pictures of the finished stadium look class), Gosford, Newcastle and Wollongong. The Illawarra is highly represented in NSW Country rep sides, produced test players like Dan Palmer, Scott Fava and Andrew Walker and hosted RWC 2003 games to strong crowds is regularly ignored. They haven't hosted the Tahs since they played the Brumbies in a trial there over ten years ago.