David Smith, please give the good seats back to the actual fans

Queen Victoria sat on the throne for 63 years, making her the longest serving British Monarch ever. Given her longevity of office, it is safe to assume she was quite astute. 

One of the pearls of wisdom she offered up was, “Give my people plenty of beer, good beer, and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them.”

Her basic point was that to keep the working classes happy you didn’t have to give them much, but you had to give them something good. 

During her reign there was no revolution or uprising, so there must have been plenty of good, cheap beer for the masses.

If beer was the key in the Victorian era, then things like the Xbox and smartphones – along with Queen Vickie’s booze – are what sedates and distract us from the ever widening gulf between the haves and have-nots these days.

One of the biggest distractions for the common man in our society is footy. Each weekend we head off in our droves to watch live matches. Like the commoners from ages ago flocking to fight under the banners of their local lords, we put on our replica jerseys and head down to the local stadium to yell our guts out and will our teams to victory.

The NRL’s ad for drumming up members in 2014 shows images of hard-core fans emblazoned in their clubs colours. These are the game’s foot soldiers, the ones on the barricades, in the trenches. The ad ends with the message, “You’re the difference.”

And it’s the truth. The NRL is only successful because everyday people do go to every match they can – rain, hail or shine. We go when our boys are carving it up as well as when they couldn’t win a chook raffle in a pub if they bought all the tickets and owned the chicken.

The NRL is at risk of marginalising these hardcore fans because they sell the best seats to their marquee events to the corporate sector and price the average punter out. While this may turn a lot of extra bucks in the short term, it ignores the fact that these common people are the reason the TV ratings are so high and the game is so popular. It also forgets that these fans add a passion to the games that can actually influence the results and make the atmosphere special.

The stats clearly show that parochial crowds have a profound impact on the fortunes of their sides.

Over the past two seasons, 55 per cent of all trys scored have been by the home team. That means that the home side on average scores 10 per cent more than their opposition. In the last two years, not one side has scored more of their trys away from their home ground.

Further, the away sides concede on average 6 per cent more penalties than the home sides. In fact, the Roosters concede a massive 14 per cent more penalties when on the road. In the last two years only Melbourne has conceded more penalties at home than when playing away.

The main reasons that home sides do better is that they have the crowd behind them. You only have to go to a game at Brookvale Oval, Parramatta Stadium, Penrith Park or Shark Park to see the difference a parochial crowd has on a game. 

Last season I was doing sideline commentary for the ABC at Brookvale Oval and I really had to admire the Sea Eagles fans. They roared encouragement for their side all evening and they were constantly on the back of the referees, claiming the opposition was cheating. While many of their claims suggested that their grip on the rules was tenuous, they won their side at least three penalties simply through the sheer noise of their demands. 

They were truly the Sea Eagles 18th player and they had a large part in their side winning that night. It’s not surprising Manly have scored a massive 61 per cent of their tries at home in the last two seasons.

However, the most parochial and intimidating crowd I’ve ever seen was at the old Lang Park. I had the fortune to go there in 1992, and the surging Queensland crowd roared for their team and bayed for the blood of their opponents. 

Refereeing decisions against them were met with howls of derision and deafening chants of “Bullshit!” There was no doubt that their team was massively strengthened by it. It was an awesome experience that I’ll never forget.

I had the good fortune to attend Origin 3 last week at Suncorp Stadium. Although my previous experience was 22 years earlier – and at a vastly different ground – I hoped that the soul of the old Lang Park would still be present and I would be enveloped by parochial Queensland pride.

What I got made me a bit sad.

I was lucky enough to be the guest of a corporate sponsor and the seats were sensational. However, I was aghast at the price printed on the ticket – they had paid over $200 for my seat. My seat was good, but there was one grade even more expensive. To put that in perspective, $200 is well on the way to a full season ticket with pretty much any NRL club, and it was being charged for just one seat at this game.

However, it wasn’t until just before the game began that I understood the real implications of those ticket prices. State of Origin legend Billy Moore ran out on to the field to rev up the crowd with his cry of “Queenslander!” To the north end he screamed, “Queenslander!” and three tiers of maroon-clad fanatics screamed back, “Queenslander!” The equally fanatical maroons in the southern end answered Billy with the same level of religious fervor.

However, the east and west sides received Billy’s exhortations with only slightly more enthusiasm than the crowd at the 2014 NRL grand final witnessing the out-of-place Ricky Martin, with his gyrations and arm waving.

It may have been a dead rubber, but something was amiss here.

While the seats at either end of the ground were stuffed full of fanatical fans yelling their guts out, the more expensive seats seemed to be full of only mildly interested spectators.

What confirmed this was the constant and very annoying stream of people leaving their seats and pushing past me during the game to do lord knows what. While there were pockets of vocal supporters around me, for the most part the real noise and atmosphere was coming from the cheap seats.

It was them who chanted “Bullshit!” when the calls went against their beloved Maroons. It was also them who started the “Gallen’s a wanker!” chant. 

OK, they weren’t exactly couth, but I bet there were a lot of Broncos and Titans members in those mobs. I also bet that Cam Smith and his boys loved hearing it as much as Gallen and his troops didn’t.

The State of Origin and the grand final are the jewels in the NRL crown. They rate through the roof on television and are a large part of the reason the NRL secured a five-year, one billion dollar TV rights deal.

However, those jewels are only possible because of the regular home-and-away matches played every weekend between March and August. And those matches are supported by the ordinary fans who front up week-in and week-out. They are the ones who care. They are the ones who yell. They are the real supporters.

So how can it be right that for the biggest games of the year that the majority of real supporters are consigned – at best – to the cheapest seats at either ends of the grounds? Wouldn’t it be great to have Blatchy’s Blues in the bays on either side of the players’ tunnel? Imagine the atmosphere.

What would Queen Victoria think of the powers that be denying the people their good, cheap beer? Apart from robbing Origin of much of the electric atmosphere I witnessed all those years ago, it may also begin to disenfranchise those rusted-on supporters. Who knows where they might turn? Rugby? AFL? Football?

Before it gets to that point David Smith, how about this: you can still sell corporate boxes, but only to organisations who actively support the NRL clubs week-in week-out as well, rather than those that just want to cherry-pick the top events.

Further – and most importantly – the actual NRL club members must get the first crack at Origin and grand final tickets. As there is a one billion dollar TV rights deal in play, those seats can afford to be made a fair bit cheaper for these people who really support the game too. 

Then perhaps we’ll see the Origin atmosphere of old return to all parts of the stadiums, rather than just being consigned to the cheap seats.   

After all, as your ad says, the fans are the difference.