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While the Parramatta Eels were playing the South Sydney Rabbitohs last night, the Wests Tigers hosted the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs just 10 kilometres away at ANZ Stadium.
Why didn’t they play a doubleheader at ANZ Stadium in front of a huge crowd?
ANZ Stadium could have been divided into four sections. Wests and Canterbury-Bankstown on one side, Parramatta and South Sydney on the other side.
Wests would get the gate-takings for the Tigers-Bulldogs section, while the Eels would get the takings for the Eels-Rabbitohs section.
Wests versus Canterbury-Bankstown would be played at 6:45pm, while Parramatta would take on South Sydney at 8.45pm. Sure, an 8:30pm start is a bit late however, we saw it happen a fortnight ago at Remondis Stadium when Cronulla hosted the Broncos.
Channel Nine would screen a half-hour bulletin and cancel A Current Affair for the night. Queenslanders would have an early news bulletin at 5pm. The NRL and Nine Network would then have to ensure that kick-off was on time.
More fans would turn out, which is a good look for the NRL who are struggling with crowd figures, currently at their lowest in years. These four clubs have some of the biggest followings in Sydney, with all clubs posting good crowd figures at the Olympic ground. Did the NRL think they would run at a loss by hosting a doubleheader?
As for the pitch, we get through Holden Cup matches before each NRL game, and on grand final day we play two games before the big one. Last year Suncorp Stadium hosted a Four Nations double header, and the Sydney Football Stadium hosted an NRL finals doubleheader in 2013. There will be no problems with the pitch.
The Tigers would take their NYC match against the Bulldogs to Leichhardt Oval as a curtain-raiser to the Tigers-Mounties NSW Cup match, and Parramatta would take their youth match against Souths to Ringrose Park as a curtain-raiser to the Magpies-Cutters NSW Cup match.
Roarers, would you rather watch one big match live and have the other delayed? I’d rather watch them both live, without the spoils of social media.
I am not suggesting that Nine should have double headers every Friday night, but whenever there are two big matches featuring four of the biggest teams in Sydney, why wouldn’t you play a doubleheader at ANZ Stadium?
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