By Gabriel Knowles
March 26th 2009 @ 1:36am
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The home ground disadvantage
The great news for Wests Tigers fans this year is that they aren’t playing any home games at ANZ Stadium anymore. The bad news is that these games aren’t being played at Leichhardt or Campbelltown, but instead at the Sydney Football Stadium.
While the Tigers’ decision to step away from the financial bonuses on offer for teams to play their home games at ANZ is admirable, the $100,000 they’re reportedly anticipating to make from games at the SFS obiously made the decision easier.
What’s less admirable is that their decision means they’ll play most of their home matches where the Eastern Subu … sorry Sydney Roosters also play. You can understand where the Tigers are coming from: the SFS is more realistically sized and shaped than ANZ, so the atmosphere should be better even if they pull similar crowds.
The problem is that they’re an amalgamation of the old Western Suburbs and Balmain areas, and according to the latest Gregorys, neither are situated east of the CBD.
The talk from Tiger town is that there is a “geographically broad brand,” which may be the case but the round one crowd at Campbelltown spoke volumes about where their brand is strongest.
So why don’t the Tigers consider playing some of their home games at the Sydney Showground? The Bulldogs played out of there a few seasons ago to great effect.
One of the few pluses for Tigers fans about playing at Homebush was that it is at least closer to a couple of their spiritual bases in Ashfield and Lidcombe. The Showground has a capacity of only 15,000, but that could be used to their advantage – what a boost it would be for a club to be playing in front of a sold out crowd all the time.
They’ll still have to hire have the mandatory big screen, but at least the lights are alright. And what does it matter if there’s only one decent pub within walking distance of the stadium, with the game all set to go booze free once Phil “Baby” Gould gets his way.
The Dragons have paved the way for redeveloping the suburban ground to be fit for NRL games all year round and it’s time not only for the Tigers, but also the Bulldogs and Souths, to make it a priority to do the same.
The game needs the passion back in the stands, not just in living rooms. Not every game in the English Premier League is played in a 40,000 plus capacity ground and they’re doing more than just fine.
Until the game can get a serious bidding war happening for the TV rights again, the clubs should get back to basics and try and play somewhere close to where they’re actually from.
In the mean time the Tigers will be hosting the Roosters at the SFS on Friday night.
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oikee said | March 26th 2009 @ 9:20am | Report comment
Another fine post Gabriel, there is nothing better than a full house sign go up, weather or not its 50 thousand or 20, its still full and great atmosphere. The dragons game will be a ripper, and what about the doggies fans, they are coming out of the wooodwork like cockroaches, very good to see. Cant wait for a doggies Dragons clash, hope they have there flags out and ready.
Just when you thought Sydney was down and out, woala, out they come in huge numbers. 
Worlds Biggest said | March 26th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Forget the Showground at Homebush & let’s take the cash grab issues off the table for the moment. For the life of me I don’t know why the Tigers don’t consider playing most of there home games at Concord Oval which is a magnificent Stadium. The Tigers Football Offices are based there & is the teams training base. I know there are no lights but once installed you have a ready made quality venue. Parking is an issue but it can’t be worse than Leichardt Oval. Concord also has Corporate Boxes to cater for sponsors. Concord has a capacity of about 20,000 of which roughly 10-12 is seating. It all comes back to cash and you can’t blame Clubs for taking this stance. However if the Tigers did base themselves at Concord in the future and were successful the Club could negotiate a naming rights deal for the Stadium ( once economy is back on track ). They would still need to play a few games at Campbelltown each year.
Albert Ross said | March 26th 2009 @ 12:01pm | Report comment
Lidcombe Oval would still be a better bet than Concord. LO is close to the railway station and even tho’ it’s an oval the atmosphere there was always electric.
A few years ago I noticed that the tallest goalposts in the country were still in existence, as I passed by. I wonder if they still are.
Wallythefly said | March 26th 2009 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
Interesting point on ANZ with Tigers playing Easts at ‘home’ at SFS. Last three South’s ‘away’ games to Easts at SFS there seems to have more Rabbitohs fans than Roosters fans.
I understand the financial reasons but as a Souths fan its terrible that we have a great footy stadium right near Redfern yet choose to play at a massive stadium in Western Sydney.
Gabriel Knowles said | March 26th 2009 @ 4:49pm | Report comment
Too true oikee, there’s nothing better than a sell-out to get the buzz going – all of a sudden you’ll have people packing into pubs to watch games as well. Now that’s an advertisement for the game! The only better advertisement is the first two rounds and as you said this weekend is shaping up deliver the goods again.
Not a bad idea about Concord Worlds Biggest – I’d discounted it based on the parking situation but when you brought it up it occurred to me that there are quite a number of ovals and fields within walking distance of there so maybe they could use them in a similar way that they do at the SFS and SCG although there could be issues with ruining local playing fields. Mind you they always seem to manage with parking when they play at Leichhardt so I’m sure they could figure something out if they really wanted to.
I doubt Lidcombe will ever get a look in for an NRL game Albert but it would be great if they could play a trial there at some stage.
westy said | March 26th 2009 @ 7:52pm | Report comment
i took my son to a game at leichhardt last year. It was a full house old fashioned suburban ground my son who plays for Norwest rugby was mesmorised. the gold and black was all over the hill opposite . The old men of the tigers in the stand for their use at the southern stand 60/70/80 behind the gold posts ( they changed the configuration of the ground). i know as ewen mckenzie said playing elite rugby gets you away from leichhardt but unless its cardiff Arms park or a full house at the SFS the old leichhardt takes some beating in downtown suburban sydney.
westy said | March 26th 2009 @ 8:11pm | Report comment
gabriel certain names are still scrawled over the home dressing room at lidcombe. use to finish playing rugby for smithfield then off to lidcombe to see the raw passion of the Wests magpies my maternal grandfather’s club. he attended the games from Pratten park days and then lidcombe..
Noel kelly ( who definitely would have made a good rugby hooker) Dave barsley, harry wells , Cody, Kel O’Shea , Mick Alchin, Tony Ford ( a very good rugby player) Steve Knight , terry parker both good rugby centres, Les boyd, Dallas donnelly , Steve Winter, Elford ( the best tackler I have ever seen pound for pound in rugby or league), raudonikis (some mad slavic mick coached by some nun) jack Gibson .holman, Dorahy the list goes on . i am old but rugby union or rugby league they brought great passion and interest which i do not forget lightly.
Rex mossop complaining he would kill the bloke who slashed his tyres on mazda Rx7? sports car to a roar of thr crowd.
not romantic nonsense just the memories of an aging man. Do not get me started with the the two Blues premierships in the 1980’s.under peter Fenton . great days.
some rugby people do not understand some people in DISTRICT rugby are a little closer to the rugby league boys. there was always a residual interest at randwick in the Roosters and souths rugby league . just ask Eddie.
rob whyte said | March 27th 2009 @ 4:13pm | Report comment
i have been going to leichardt oval since i was 3 and my boy has even played there,it is the best ground for watching a game as you are so close to the playing surface and you can just about touch the players as they run around.it is a shame that we have only three games this year,i bet that if you asked anyone who had been to a game at Leichardt oval wether it was to support the tigers or to support any other team they would agree it is the best ground in the league,nothing beats the roar of a cheering Tigers crowd on a sunny sunday or any other day,forget concord as it just doesn,t have that feel of a traditional ground.
Worlds Biggest said | March 27th 2009 @ 8:59pm | Report comment
Rob, I know where you are coming from however the Tigers need to look forward for there future. Leichardt needs a heck of a lot of work just to maintain it’s viability as a future venue. Who is going to cough up the money to upgrade Leichardt ?.
Tradition is great but you can’t hold on to that forever. Concord is a better alround venue than Leichardt. I have been to many games at Leichardt and the facilities are sh*thouse.
brad turner said | March 27th 2009 @ 10:03pm | Report comment
hey if it does my club good,so be it .
i live in ctown and as long as majority is played at both true homes i dont care, go you good things,go go go tigers.