I must admit I have highly anticipated the draw for the Penrith Panthers between Rounds 21-26 for some time, especially given the improved performance of the Panthers on the field.
The club has also made huge strides off the field in key areas of junior development, sponsorship, merchandising, memberships and crowd growth.
When I saw the draw at the start of the season it appeared the NRL had done us no favours in regards to the allocation of days and times for home games.
To a large extent we deserved our allocation of home game times, given our poor average crowds – we were the worst ranked among Sydney clubs for home game attendances in the past seasons.
I had two problems with the Rounds 1-20.
1) In the warmest footy month of the year, March, we were allocated two games starting at 4:30pm in the afternoon and another at 5:30pm. If you have been to Penrith in March can be quite a task to sit through a game of footy in over 30 degree heat, with relatively little shade available.
The NRL really needs to look allocating these games to teams with cooler climate opportunities – generally those that are located close to the seaside such as Manly, Cronulla and St George Illawarra.
2) Our overall allocation of home games involving Sydney teams was the worst, with just five games versus other Sydney teams. Most Sydney sides have either seven or all eight derby matches.
This is critical from a revenue perspective as statistics of Penrith home game attendances from 2003-2013 suggest that on average Sydney teams bring an extra 2,500 fans through the gates. When you do the maths, it’s not hard to see what revenue opportunities Penrith misses out on versus the other Sydney clubs. Therefore, it gives the Penrith General Manager Phil Gould a sizeable excuse to take more home games away from SportingBet to recover lost revenue caused by unfair NRL scheduling alone.
Then we come to this week’s announcement of the NRL Rounds 21-26 draw. The announcement is an opportunity for the NRL to make a statement to fans in one of rugby league’s true heartlands – that you’re doing well and we want to encourage that.
When I saw we were allocate two Monday night games – both in consecutive weeks against out of town opposition the Storm and Cowboys – and a Sunday night game against the Warriors, I think the hearts and minds of many Penrith fans sank.
The NRL once again has provided terrible time slots that will hardly encourage a family-oriented fan-base, especially in a family area. The NRL yet again has failed to understand the demographics of clubs when making these decisions.
To illustrate the unfair treatment Penrith continues to get from the NRL, I have obtained a breakdown of all NRL clubs home game allocation in 2014.
Unreasonable times – Thursday, Saturday 3pm or 4:30pm, Sunday night, Monday night
Reasonable times – Friday night and Saturday 5:30pm
Appealing times – Saturday night 7:30pm and Sunday 2-3pm
The findings were as follows, which supports my view that the NRL still treats Penrith unfairly compared to other Sydney clubs.
1) Unreasonable times – PEN 8 STH 6 CRO 5 PAR 4 BUL 3 SYD 3 STI 2 WST 2 MAN 1
2) Reasonable times – MAN 7 PAR 6 SYD 5 PEN 4 STH 4 BUL 4 STI 4 CRO 3 WST 2
3) Favourable times – WST 8 STI 6 BUL 5 CRO 4 SYD 4 MAN 4 PAR 2 STH 2. Didn’t see the Panthers – wait for it, they have 0. No other NRL team has zero games in a favourable time slot.
Combine two and three together and you can start to see the revenue issues here for Penrith. This is the reason why the club will continue to look at taking games to Bathurst plus the possibility of Christchurch and Hobart in years to come:
MAN 11 WST 10 STI 10 BUL 9 SYD 9 PAR 8 CRO 7 SOU 6 and PEN just 4
Does the spike in unfavourable games translate to more free-to-air exposure? It should as it does with Souths as they get three Thursday night and three Friday night games shown free-to-air.
This hasn’t translated to Penrith, who along with last-placed Cronulla have just two free-to-air home games. Perennial out of town free-to-air strugglers the Canberra Raiders, despite coming 15th, have four free-to-air games at home in 2014.
All I can say is I hope the Panthers continue to rise in the NRL. If the NRL wants Sydney teams like Penrith to abandon its traditional fan-base for the sake of taking the game to new customer bases like Hobart, like Christchurch, why not just relocate us and be done with giving false hope?a
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