For continued growth, rugby league must go back to the future

At least from 2018,the Nrl controls the schedule.I hate Mondays ,they are gone.Friday 6pm is plum crazy for people wanting to attend from work. Whilst ever Tv stations have control of the pick of matches,the problem for crowds will remain .That means for 2017. The code had a choice.They had no money on hand and grassroots and clubs were suffering.The choice was simple achieve maximum funding from TV contracts for the interim for 2018-22,and put up with a couple of years of ordinary scheduling.Get he F&L rights clause removed and have scheduling control back form 2018 Alternatively get the scheduling under the code's control on the last deal,and have even less income coming in currently,lose players to other codes,and the grass roots get even further behind with funding. The Titans,Newcastle,Tigers were in financial trouble.Without the funding by the NRL ,the Titans would have been history.

"Games can be planned and promoted ahead of the season. While the big matches – any game that will attract 18,000 plus spectators – should still feature at the big stadiums, there is a case for more than just the out-of-town games at traditional venues." Arguably the NRL and clubs already partly adhere to this strategy -Bulldogs have played 2 low drawing games at belmore for the past 2 seasons -Tigers take their games v bigger Sydney sides to homebush were I believe they gate share with dragons, souths..... and focus the out of town teams to suburbia. -Dragons have had the "right game" "right venue" policy forced on them by the NRL which has fragmented their home games across 5 grounds which is completely unacceptable. They desperately need to rationalise their stadia situation and imo they should be concentrated in Wollongong with the balance at homebush were they can give Sydney based members the benefit of access to away games at the venue in compensation. There has to be a balance struck and some difficult choices to make in the coming years for some clubs. I don't think its sustainable to play out of 3,4 or 5 venues for a single club and I also don't think the game needs to be played in monolith stadia with banks of empty seats. In Sydney I think it should be -Roosters 8 SFS, 4 Gosford -Souths 10 homebush, 2 road games -Canterbury 10 homebush 2 belmore -Parramatta 12 parra stadium, road game option -Cronulla 12 shark park, road game option -Manly 12 brookvalve, road games option -Dragons 8 Wollongong, 4 Homebush (1 @ SFS alternating years) -Penrith 12 Penrith park, road games option -Tigers. Very difficult, one of the suburban venues has to go imo If rival clubs can stomach it, Parra stadium could be utilised a lot more than just the Eels once it is redeveloped As for crowds, they can only be properly addressed when the NRL wakes up. They offer bugger all in terms of marketing or a consistent strategy to increase crowds. They have in fact made decisions to actively discourage crowds with Thursday and Monday night football this year and then the introduction of Friday 6pm next season which will be a massive disaster in terms of crowds and ratings. Seriously who thought that would be a good idea! Some decisions like kids in for free at homebush/SFS on sundays are a no brainer plus a league wide $50 family ticket should be pushed in marketing. With young kids I find the ticket prices and night favouring schedule to be the biggest barrier to attending. A friendlier schedule might be- Friday 7.45pm, Sat 2pm, Sat 4pm, Sat 6pm, Sat 7.45pm, Sunday 2pm, Sunday 3.30pm. The 8th game could float between Thursday, Monday and Sunday 6.30pm that way the damage of midweek footy is minimised but still on offer for broadcasters. IMO Saturday is massively underutilised by the NRL and 4 or even 5 games on that day would be desirable.

Rugby league is a reality sport.

Was just a hypothetical example.

Ask the Dragons supporters about alienation with their joint venture,especially the ones entered around Kogarah and the St George District. And a joint venture involving a team in another state would be 10 times worse.If you want fans to become disillusioned that's the way to go. Anywise why should the Sharks lose their natural geographical identity,in a few years they will among the top 3 or 4 financial clubs in the NRL This year their budget estimates income wise have almost trebled,merchandise sales at record levels and membership at record levels. And from what i gather with Perth rl fans they want an exclusive Perth identity.The comparison with Hawthorn and Tasmania is chalk and cheese.

Maybe all NRL games should be played in Melbourne.....

WHY? Because their is no cultural affinity between Perth & Cronulla except perhaps 'Sharks'. This is the same reason the GWS Canberra alliance won't work, because GWS stands for Greater Western Sydney which evokes zilch in respect of the nations capital. They could start by changing the branding to Giants Footy or Greater Western Giants but they won't because they want this to be a Sydney construct for all their hard sell rhetoric of it being a regional one. Canberra is only an expedient short term safety net if you like, for GWS which is just another plastic team parachuted into a non Australian Footy demographic. It is Canberra that boasts the Australian Footy cultural DNA however the AFL are driven by $'s where television audience is the sole criteria to growth. It will all go pear shaped sooner or later I trust.

Spot on The Barry. No matter where you build a central stadium, it is always going to be inconvenient for someone. There is no perfect or ideal spot.

I just don't think there is a location that could be classed 'central Sydney' to put a centralised stadium with easy transport access. Whatever the model for Sydney I think it needs to be a combo of suburban grounds and centralised stadiums.

Why not more joint location teams, such as the Hawthorne-Tasmania arrangement, but formalize it, with a formal name change, etc. I'm think why won't this work for both AFL and NRL. For example, Why not the Perth-Cronulla Sharks, playing half their games at both locations. Dual name is already used for the Dragons and people don't mind. You expand into a new area, with a permanent presence (not just selling off a few games), but don't risk over saturating a marginal market while maintaining enough home games at the original locale to satisfy fans in both places (of course some will be angry and walk away but far less than a full relocation). Gold Coast could play half or maybe 4 games per year in Central Queensland and become the Queensland Titans for example. Seems like it would be the perfect solution that would alienate the least supporters while expanding into new markets.

Excellent post Mister Football and agree a 12000-16000 seater is perfect for both Rugby codes (even 8000 upwards depending what country your in for Rugby Union.), the perfect Rugby ground for me is Northampton Sixways.

Who ever had the idea to ask the Hawaii NCAA Football team to come and watch the Souths v Sharks game at ANZ need to be fired as just over 7000 in a 80000 seater made the NRL look like some local sport that no one cares about the College players be thinking bad crowds are.....not a good advert for Rugby League and has been the case for a long while.

Some great grounds to be used Pratten park - Wests old home ground Hurstville oval - saints old home ground ( good enough for Bradman to play on, good enough for saints) Lidcombe oval - tallest goal posts in league land Seiffert sports ground - a park the raiders played on Henson Park - watch a game seated in your car . Biggest spectator hill Rebuild the great Sydney Sports Ground Rebuild parra stadium to resemble the old Cumberland oval All grounds must have no hot water in away dressing rooms -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.

It would appear they dont care about crowds. And they will put pressure on clubs to play in the bigger stadiums. Its very sad to a top sport being played to such small audiences. Suburban grounds wont get much use in the future, get used to it.

You are right that the fans of the 9 Melbourne-based AFL Clubs (ie Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Footscray, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond) have always been required to travel to heart of Melbourne, regardless of whether they play at a traditional Home Ground or the nearby MCG and Docklands. But even if the Sydney-based NRL clubs were always located 10km from some arbitrary point, people would still resist the idea of playing all matches at a central location until we enhance public transport and address the atmosphere issue when a central stadium is only half full (or half empty). With Rugby League, people don't actually resist the central stadium policy, they just have very high standards for what and where that central stadium should be. Melbourne's Docklands and MCG are only a 200m walk from Spencer St / Richmond Stations. It is also enjoyable to walk to the MCG from Flinders Street Station / Federation Square along the picturesque Yarra River. Sydney Rugby League fans would flock to a central venue if the experience was on par with what a Melbourne AFL match can provide. Of course Manly and Cronulla are both very isolated from the rest of Sydney, so the fans from those suburbs are unlikley to travel into the City to watch their team. I think Penrith and Campbelltown residents would travel to Sydney, and residents from the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands would occasionally travel into Sydney. ANZ Stadium could become a great venue if the NSW Government would build a second "Central Railway Station" and interchange at Homebush / Lidcombe and introduce more express services to Gosford/Newcastle, Campbelltown, and Penrith. Then build some more hotels, build the Parramatta to Homebush Light Rail and move the industrial sites. This could take another 20 years.

Just look at the English Rugby Union Premiership. Each team plays in 10,00-30,000 stadiums, with occasional games, (usually a derby) at a big ground. It always starts with the London double header at twickenham, but that is sold with very reasonable ticket prices, Harlequins do a Xmas game asl post at Twickenham, while Saracens play one game at Wembley, (the Derby v Harlequns). All these matches are advertised extremely well and have great ticket deals. The idea in the NRL of renting out the big stadia is bonkers, as clubs cannot create the extra revenue from all the add on such as hospitality and merchandise.

Well won HY. Nothing like a burst of alliteration to clear the head.

I'm against for the same reason. The referees don't need to be second guessing during a match. Again, league is not cricket or golf or tennis.

To be honest the transport problems in Sydney relates to the nature of the terrain, and the poor planning system implemented from the beginning. It is pretty much like putting in lego pieces. Fix the mistake that you made previously. Although the more Sydney grows, the more clogged up it will get. Doesn't matter how many bridges you build, there is always going to be gridlock somewhere. We just have to live with it, and some people will avoid going to games because of it. When there is an underground subway system which takes you to different parts of the city in quick time, we might be finally getting somewhere :(

Which completely supports my view as to the outlying NRL teams,not wanting to go regularly to centralised stadiums.And undermines your" too many Sydney NRL teams " argument,because of the very size of the Sydney geography and its very nature coupled with transport issues. It is noted there are no NRL teams in North Sydney as it is.