As a born and bred Sydneysider, I’ve always felt lucky to live in the harbour city. After travelling some of the world’s great cities – Paris, London, Barcelona – my love of Sydney has never wavered.
There are three things that come part and parcel with being a Sydneysider:
1. Love of beaches.
2) Love of 3am kebabs.
3) Love of rugby league.
After spending a weekend in Melbourne though, I was interested to see how different Sydney and Melbourne are in terms of their sporting culture.
Now I don’t want to start any ‘Sydney versus Melbourne war’ as both cities are amazing and totally unique. I also have no interest in starting an ‘AFL versus NRL code war’ as no amount of online bickering is going to change people’s minds about what they follow. However, I did make a few observations about the presence of sporting culture in both capitals.
Firstly, I was amazed at how easy it was to get to a game. From Southern Cross Station, Etihad Stadium was no more than a 10 minute walk and a 10 minute tram ride from the MCG right there in the CBD. Having spent my time in the CBD, I’m not sure how those in the suburbs find travelling to games, but I couldn’t help but as I hopped on a tram to the MCG, I couldn’t help but think that if it was this easy; I would be more than happy to go to games as often as I liked.
In Sydney however, if one wished to visit the SFS or SCG, they would (in most cases) first have to travel to Central station. Which means:
– No express services on the North Shore Line.
– Infrequent express services on the Northern Line, Western Lines and Southern Line.
– No rail services from the Northern Beaches and most of the Eastern Suburbs.
From there you would face either a 20-30 minute walk or pile into crowded, un-timetabled bsses as they make their way through the nauseating Sydney traffic.
As for ANZ Stadium, punters are forced to switch trains at Strathfield station, then usually again at Lidcombe station, causing the commute time to escalate. Getting there is the easy part, however. Queuing up at Olympic Park station in the cold for what seems like hours to get home is another matter entirely. Sport in NSW is very much a victim of terrible infrastructure which makes it difficult for sport mad people to get involved as active supporters.
Another thing I noticed was the way people support their teams. You could spot supporters on every street, each wearing a guernsey, a scarf, a beanie or a combination of all three. How does this differ from Sydney you might ask?
Well, if you chose a particular team, and tried to spot all their fans on a given street their would be little variation in what they wore. All the guernseys would match. All their scarves and beanies would match. If you tried to conduct the same exercise in Sydney with an NRL team it would be very hard to find two items the same since every club seems to update its jersey (and often, even its colours) every week.
I was impressed with the value people seemed to place in tradition. The NRL could learn a lot from this lesson; that if they value traditions in the same way that the fans do, the all important dollar will follow.
There’s no question that Sydney folk are just as mad about sport as their southern counterparts, but perhaps we are being let down by poor infrastructure and management.
While I’ve never really been a fan of AFL, I do think that there’s a lot that NSW and the NRL could learn from Victoria and the AFL in terms of moving forward.
Epiquin
Guest
The site was about as perfect an olympic precinct as you could ask for, however 11 years later and its time to look at the future of olympic park and realise its enormous potential.
ben
Guest
Yep, don't want to start an argument either. But AFL rocks over NRL, and Melbourne rocks over Sydney for sports infrastructure. I've lived in Sydney for 10 years and I travel to Melb 4-5 times a year for the footy. Everytime I go to Melb it reminds me how crap the transport and stadium locations are in Sydney. Sure the SCG is historic and can't be moved but why isn't there a light-rail link from the city to the ground and extending to Randwick Racecourse? Instead they charge you more than $5 to wait 20min outside Central and catch an old shitty bus to Moore Park. Then there is Homebush which feels like you're travelling to an Eastern Creek rubbish tip that takes you an hour by train if you're changing lines at Lidcombe. The game day buses aren't much better at Homebush because there is no bus lane on Homebush Bay drive to bypass the massive traffic jam going into the Olympic precinct. Unfortunately with all this in mind, I have to dispute the claim that Sydney people love their sport as much as Melbournians. Nobody loves their sport more than Melbournians! No arguments!
Damo
Guest
Epiquin, I said as much on a recent thread regarding rugby attendance at ANZ. The stadium needs a real living village to give the place some sense of life outside football. Bloody hell, a rickshaw business would do a roaring trade too for people who are sick of walking. I usually park at Concord the walk through the park.Good for exercise but increases tue 'hassle factor' when deciding whether to attend or not.
Tortion
Guest
The 3am kebab? Where in the western world can't you get one of those?
ManInBlack
Guest
it's the 'vibe'.
Brad
Guest
Here's the thing, if I go to the Olympic Stadium, it will take 45-60 minutes to get there, the game goes for 1hr 30 min. I cannot hang around after the game as the bars in the venue are shut and there are no places to have a drink afterwards so I can either go into the City (20-40 min) or go home, another 45-60 min trip. So in theory I can spend 2 hrs travelling for a 1.5hr game. Unless the game is sold out it has no atmosphere. It's a good experience but not a great experience. If on the other hand go to the SFS or SCG I can get off at Central (20 min) , walk up sampling pubs along the way before and after the game, a great night. The pubs along the way can be tribal and everyone has a good time. The SFS is purpose made for rectangular field games, why don't more clubs play here? I have heard the SFS Trust try's to charge them an exorbitant amount and that they actually get paid to play at the Olympic Stadium, can anyone confirm that?
Chris
Guest
The writer isn't comparing apples with apples... He complains about how difficult it is to get to either SFS/SCG or ANZ Stadium from the suburbs and then says how easy the MCG and Etihad Stadium are to get to from the CBD. I live on the North Shore of Sydney and don't find the job of getting to either of the main sporting precincts all that difficult. And I'm not sure if I lived in an equivalent part of Melbourne that it would be much better.
Ken
Guest
An interesting viewpoint from out-of-town. Most complaints about the Olympic Stadium revolve around it not being near the city, no bars etc. As you say though, the facilities themselves are first rate As for the privately owned vs member owned debate, I think there are clear benefits of this in the running of the game, there's been plenty of threads dedicated to that.... is it that terrible at the club level though? Looking at the best run clubs in our game, the privately owned ones probably shade the publicly owned ones. Of course, either model could have poor results if run badly and I guess in that situation it's easier to ditch a poorly performing board than a poorly performing owner - but the runs on the board say that it generally works pretty well. I reckon that Newcastle under Tinkler, the most recent privatisation in the NRL, is going to go through the roof
Nathan
Guest
No, Subiaco's not that bad, especially after the Mandurah railway. Perth's public transport system is quite good, only suffers from the lack of circle routes, Subi is a 5min walk from a Fremantle-line station, about ten minutes ride out of the city. Will be very important how they upgrade the links for the Burswood replacement stadium though.
Epiquin
Guest
On a bit of a sidenote I think the Olympic park site is vastly underutilized. It's growing as a business hub as well as a sporting hub, but I think there's room to create a cultural hub too. The riverside area would be great for restaurants and cafes, even hotels with ferry links to the city. There's potential for museums and theaters. Which can be better accessed from the west an connect it all with some sort of light-rail/monorail network or something.
Jaceman
Guest
Doesnt explain the difference in crowds between Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane though... Subiaco and Westlakes are not easy to get to whilst Suncorp has a train station during big games..
Epiquin
Guest
Thanks Richard. Good to hear some positive feedback from down south.
Epiquin
Guest
I suppose I'd just like to see a little more action and outside the box thinking from the government. Maybe see the nrl (and other sporting bodies) working with the government to improve how events are run.
Mals
Guest
mds1970 - regarding GWS you haven't mentioned the "elephant in the room". I live in the Hills District, despite it not being that far away from Blacktown, very few residents from this area like visiting/travelling to Blacktown. Homebush is much preferred as the venue home of GWS.
Richard
Roar Guru
The big advantage for AFL in my view is that it is still a club based sport, and by that I mean, the clubs are not privately owned, they belong to the members. In addition the AFL is an independent NFP organisation, which owes no dividends to anybody and instead dedicates funds to the development of the game. Perhaps when the NRL becomes independent of News Ltd it will be a good start, but clubs belonging to individual "entrepreneurs" is a problem in my view. As for the transport, I have just returned from Sydney where I attended the Swans v 'Pies game at Olympic Park. I agree the SCG is a bit of a pain to get to via public transport, but I was very impressed with how easy to was to get to the game at Olympic Park. There were express trains from Redfern. There were guards on the platforms to assist passengers. The trains were clean and quiet and uncrowded. The walk from Olympic Park station through to the stadium was a very pleasant walk (a bit cold, but not as cold as my home town Melbourne). So we had a very good impression of the Sydney set-up. Even better because of the result of the game. Go 'Pies!
Brett McKay
Guest
Middie, I can't speak for watching sport outside Australia, but I certainly agree that Melbourne is unique within our shores. And you explain it perfectly too: it just is..
mds1970
Roar Guru
Some people have criticised GWS Giants for playing at the Showgrounds rather than further west; but the issues with access as mentioned in here is why the Showgrounds was chosen. For someone who lives in the Hills district (where a lot of the Giants' support will come from), you can get on the Olympic bus after the game and be home in no time. Or if you're going by train, the railway station is next door. Plus there's plenty of (scandalously expensive) parking within the Sydney Olympic Park complex. Compare that to Blacktown Olympic Park, which is next to the railway line but a couple of kilometres from Doonside or Rooty Hill stations. After the game would involve a half hour walk through some poorly lit back streets to wait on the platform for a train that only runs every half hour. And if you wanted to drive, good luck getting out of the carpark; the local roads are quite narrow, and there's no direct entry from Eastern Road onto the M7. While it may in theory have been desirable to play further west, and to play at the same ground at Blacktown where the Giants will train; in practice the difference in road and public transport infrastructure between the two sites is too big to ignore.
Ken
Guest
I don't necessarily disagree with anything in the article but I'm not sure what to take away from it. That Melbourne's major stadia are easier to access than Sydney's, especially from their respective CBD's, is not in any dispute. I'm not sure that there is any obvious solutions to that problem though, it's basically a joint problem of history and geography. Sydney's growth from port -> settlement -> town -> city was organic, generally unplanned (from a big picture perspective) and heavily shaped around the land/water. It's gorgeous and historic, and a glorious mess. Melbourne was a purpose designed city, placed carefully in a space that fits. As for the colours/jersey history, depends on who you're looking at. It seems that most of the 'newer' teams (i.e. 60's and later) are shockers for constant changes (Penrith, Newcastle, Brisbane, NZ are notorious offenders). On the other hand supporters gear/jerseys for the Dragons and Souths would be easily recognisable to fans of early last century, even if they might be surprised by the advertising!
Midfielder
Guest
Melbourne is unique in the world when it comes to watching sport.... I don't think it can be copied ... it just is...
punter
Guest
There is no doubt, Melbourne & Victorians do sport much better than Sydney. This does not mean we in Sydney are less passionate, it's just that in Melbourne, it's just so much part of their culture. Yes Sydney can learn from Melbourne on how to run sports.