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Sitting on the hill cheering on your team at the local suburban ground is a grand old rugby league tradition.
Over the decades, suburban grounds have been romanticised as something special and for them to be gone would cause havoc for the code.
However, once you take off the rose tinted glasses, you see suburban grounds as inadequate facilities that fans do not embrace as much as we told by the league community.
The numbers don’t lie. The Manly Sea Eagles average 11,837 at Brookvale Oval this season, despite being top of the ladder and a continual finals presence. If Manly fans love Brookvale Oval so much they should be selling it out. Considering Manly supporters refuse to cross a bridge come finals time you would think they attend their beloved suburban ground, but they don’t.
Penrith and Cronulla average 12k at their grounds. For Cronulla, it’s an understandable number for a poor season, while Penrith is disappointing for a team in West Sydney heartland who have been on top of the table.
Wests Tigers, Parramatta and St George mix modern facilities with suburban grounds to varying success. The Easter Monday game between the Eels and Tigers shows the potential for using modern stadiums to properly present blockbusters.
Over time, more games will be shifted to Allianz and ANZ stadium. It will take time for the rugby league community to embrace this change, but it is necessary in a highly competitive sporting landscape to have rugby league represented as a modern and professional sport. The suburban grounds present it as a pub sport.
Implementing a match of the day on Sunday afternoon with family friendly ticket prices and with heavy marketing is a way of integrating modern stadiums while moving out of suburbia.
At best, suburban grounds can be use for low drawing games, like whenever the Cowboys play in NSW. It’s time for rugby league to embrace modern rugby league.
To those who love the suburban grounds so dearly – turn up, because the numbers don’t lie.
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