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Rugby fans’ rejection of long-distance spectating at Subiaco Oval is killing the Force by inches.
The Super 14 club faces slow financial strangulation this year because of the failure of successive governments to provide a suitable rectangular stadium in Perth, an assurance made by the Labor administration in 2004 when bidding against Melbourne for the team.
A mere 19,309 fans, the smallest home-game crowd in Force history, watched the Blues win the round one contest 25-19.
It was a low-water mark for the sea of blue by a considerable measure: the previous smallest Super 14 audience at the AFL ground was 21,161 for the match against the Bulls of Pretoria last April.
Gate receipts provide a significant slice of RugbyWA’s income and chairman Geoff Stooke admitted yesterday that if Force fans continued to vote against Subiaco Oval with their feet, it would be hard for his organisation to maintain its tradition of declaring a profit.
“We haven’t finalised our budget yet but it’s going to be conservative,” he said. “The only up side to the situation is that we have seven home games this year instead of six.
“Our research in the off-season predicted a big drop in crowds and unfortunately it’s come true. That’s why we’ve taken such an aggressive position on moving to Members Equity Stadium next season.”
However, the North Perth ground lacks sufficient facilities to cater for the club’s 2000 corporate clients and they will struggle to service this crucial source of funds.
“We’re investigating temporary facilities but the bottom line is that we have no option but to play in a rectangular stadium,” Stooke said. “A lot of people want to watch rugby but they’re switching to Foxtel because they get a better viewing experience.
“To get them back, we have to provide them with an enjoyable viewing experience.”
Of particular alarm to Force board members is that the opening home game of the year traditionally produces the biggest crowd of the season.
In 2006, more than 37,000 showed up for the Force’s first game, against the Brumbies, in a season in which crowds averaged 28,424.
The following year, the round one crowd topped 30,000 in a season in which the average attendance was 27,529 and last year more than 27,000 watched the home opener against the Crusaders when the average plummeted to below 23,000.
Next Friday’s visitors to Subiaco Oval, the Cheetahs of South Africa, tend to be poor drawcards and it will be a huge embarrassment to all involved in the stadium debacle if the crowd is smaller than the sell-out 18,000 who packed Members Equity Stadium three weeks ago for a practice match against the Crusaders.
The fact that gates had to be closed 15 minutes before kick-off, locking out a substantial number of prospective customers, confirmed to Rugby-WA officials the market for Super 14 rugby is as big as it was when the Force was created, but fans are simply not willing to pay to watch from afar.
The Force can’t and don’t want to hide the truth. They have no option but to campaign for a rectangular facility in which they will be viable, but highlighting Subiaco Oval’s obvious shortcomings for rugby works to the detriment of their own gate in the short term.
The issue will be resolved only when the State Government either develops a rectangular arena commensurate with a city the size of Perth, or in effect decrees the only mass-appeal sports it will support in the long term are AFL and cricket and watches the ARU transfer a bankrupt Force to Melbourne and its new, purposebuilt, 30,000-seat stadium.
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.as...ntentID=124904
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Originally Posted by Dave Hughes
Supporter" starring the #SeaOfBlue
