Summer may be only half over, but rugby league has its first sell-out of 2009 with South Sydney’s return to Redfern against Wests Tigers to be played before a full house.
Just over 5,000 will cram into the redeveloped Redfern Oval for the ‘members only’ match on February 8, the return to South Sydney’s spiritual home marking the re-opening of the boutique ground following a $20 million facelift.
Souths chief executive Shane Richardson said the club could have sold out the ground twice over, with the final 300 tickets unwanted by Tigers members snapped up last week.
“We could have got 8,000 or 10,000 if we’d wanted to but we only had 5,000 to do it without putting in temporary grandstands,” Richardson said.
“It’s a very positive start to the season and there’s lots of people looking forward to returning to Redfern.
“Every fan there is going to be a ticketed member – it’s a first in rugby league.
“We sold out our half of the tickets a month and a half ago, the last ones were just the extra 300 we got back from the Tigers.”
Capacity at the ground used to be over 20,000 when the Rabbitohs called it home from 1948-1987, but with the ground to be used primarily as South Sydney’s training headquarters, seating at the new-look venue has been slashed.
“It can hold up to 8000 if you put in temporary grandstands around the outside,” Richardson said.
“We decided not to do that this year, we just thought 5,000 would be a good number. We didn’t know if we’d sell that out.”
The clash with the Tigers is the first of two trials for the Bunnies with the other being the traditional Charity Shield clash with St George Illawarra at ANZ Stadium on February 28.
Col
Guest
last Thursday in the Central Coast press (sun weekly) Bears General manager Greg florimo mentioned the Bears bid will go in once again in June,making sure all 'I's are dotted and 'T's crossed so there will be no place for error this time he also said the NRL may look at "2" teams to be added....He mentioned 4 areas..CC Bears.. Western reds..New guinea and New zealand...In my opinion and many others the only 2 areas which will be ready, will be the CC and Perth....
Crosscoder
Guest
Congrats to the Bunnies for returning to their home training ground.Nostalgia still does it for me in the game. Agree with the comments a return to the Central Coast under the Bear's brand, and a return to Perth for the Reds (courtesy of new contracts(TV) will make my day.
Col
Guest
Chris I think I would rather see these 'boutique' stadiumswith lush green ovals instead of 10 storey concrete unit blocks in their place, and that probably would have been the eventual outcome to Redfern Oval if a developers had their way...
Westy
Guest
Souths have atotal membership of 11879 ( 6400 odd new ticketed members ) small fry against the Swans and other AFL clubs but an interesting improvement. Melbourne funnily enough is next .
chris
Guest
Australia has too many Rugby/sports grounds.
Westy
Guest
What I forgot to mention is that this is a members only game . Interisting development in rugby league something for members only. Much to learn from AFL but definitely a move in right direction. For any league club more than 5000 paying members is very good.
Westy
Guest
Good to see them back home. If Souths make the semis and commence some type of consistent competitiveness over the next few years they are a rugby league franchise with a powerful latent support base even dare i say it amongst some corporates. i personally like them because they have always maintained and nutured an indigenous connection well before it was politically correct to do so. They have always had that community connection. even with the takeover by private entrepreneurs. Good luck to them
Col
Guest
Well done to the Bunnies.all we need now is the NRL to see the huge benefit of having a "Return to Gosford" day for the Mighty Red and Black Central Coast Bears for 2011...