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ANZ Stadium is one of Australia’s best sporting arenas, and has held some of the greatest ever moments in Australian sport.
The venue has been home to the 2000 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, Cathy Freeman winning gold, an NFL game back in 1999, plenty of Australian games in the major football codes, and the NRL grand final.
Heck, it’s even hosted cricket and the ground is rectangular!
So if ANZ Stadium is being used as the grand final venue, then why should some teams have the right to have it as a home ground?
There is no question that it should be used for the big events such as State of Origin, the grand final and maybe even a ‘game of the round’ where a big crowd should be assured, however it should not be home to the Canterbury Bulldogs or the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Come the grand final it is giving either of these two sides a home ground advantage, while the majority of their games at the venue do not attract huge crowds. The Bulldogs should be playing their home games at Belmore and the Rabbitohs at Allianz Stadium, or somewhere else in South Sydney.
What is the use of having an 80,000 seat stadium if it’s not even a quarter full for the majority of games? The atmosphere at these games is downright pathetic, whereas when you get a crowd of that size to a suburban ground the atmosphere is something else.
I am proposing the use of ANZ Stadium for the NRL be completely changed.
Events like State of Origin, finals series and the grand final obviously must stay there. On top of this I would like to see a game of the round played there every week. The only consideration for this is that each week the game should be hosted by a Sydney-based team as it would be ridiculously unfair to teams not from Sydney to host a game at ANZ Stadium.
Every team should play there at least once during the season and no more than say six times. This means that each team has at least played on the grand final venue once during the season and no one is able to get too used to it.
Using this method, ANZ Stadium should get much better crowds, therefore creating a better atmosphere.
For sure it is going to be a tricky issue for the NRL to work their way around. The clubs that are there won’t want to leave and the stadium trust themselves will want them to stick around because of the profits they make from the games being held there every week.
So what do you think Roarers? How would you like to see ANZ Stadium used by the NRL?