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Plenty of talk about the A-League grand final has been centred on the state of the Allianz stadium pitch for the season-deciding game, with the Waratahs versus Blues game sure to only make things worse.
It seemed for a time yesterday that the Waratahs were going to help their cross-code rivals out by moving their game on Saturday to a different venue, but that ultimately proved to be a false hope for football fans – the Super Rugby game will go ahead as planned.
It raises the question: were the Waratahs right to put their foot down stay at their home venue, or should they have shifted grounds ahead of the biggest A-League game of the year?
Let’s get the ball rolling on the debate. In the red corner this week we have Roar Editor Ben Conkey, who thinks the Waratahs made the right decision, while in the blue we have Assistant Editor Daniel Jeffrey, who has an entirely different opinion.
Let’s get to it!
BJ Conkey
In June 2016, the A-League announced the fixture list for the following season. From then, Football Federation Australia knew their showpiece event was on May 7.
They’ve had the best part of ten months to work out all the logistics depending on which teams made the grand final.
It surely wouldn’t have taken that long to look at the NRL, Super Rugby, and AFL fixture list to see which grounds were being used on the day or the day before and which teams would be affected.
Sydney FC then went on to lose just once in a stellar home and away season, but it feels as though the impending fixture clash with Super Rugby was only considered after the negative reaction to the state of the Allianz Stadium pitch in the Sky Blues’ semi-final win.
The Waratahs should never have been put into a predicament where they were being asked to make a last minute sacrifice for another code.
With rugby struggling as it is, moving the Saturday night rugby fixture to North Sydney at late notice would have been an extremely dumb business move and would have upset fans and stakeholders.
The FFA obviously did some planning around the grand final date as more grounds are available all weekend due to the NRL’s rep round being on. They’re just not the right ones.
It’s not rugby’s fault that Allianz Stadium struggles to host back-to-back football games.
It’s FFA’s fault for not having a clause in place to make sure potential grounds were available exclusively for the week of the grand final if they were required.
If the A-League had this clause, then the Waratahs could have given their fans two weeks’ notice along the lines of “If Sydney FC win the semi-final, we will be playing at ‘such and such'”.
Instead, the FFA have been caught out and it’s an embarrassment, but it’s not the Waratahs’ problem.
Daniel Jeffrey
The Waratahs have missed a trick by staying at Allianz Stadium. Why not take the opportunity to spread their wings, give their game against the Blues a small ground, suburban feel and earn a bit of goodwill while they were at it?
I’ll admit from the get-go that I’m a big fan of small, boutique grounds – give me a game at Leichhardt Oval instead of ANZ Stadium any day of the week. But it’s not just due to sentiment that I’d like to see the Waratahs playing in the burbs.
The fact is, the same 10,000-strong crowd that looks so dwarfed by the confines of Allianz Stadium would have a far more raucous feel to it in the more intimate setting of North Sydney Oval.
I was one of the 11,000-odd spectators at the last Waratahs home game against the Kings. The atmosphere was nigh-on non-existent. That may have been due to the shocking match we were all witnessing, but that the stadium was three-quarters empty was undoubtedly a contributing factor.
What harm could playing a game away from Moore Park do? If anything, wouldn’t it help rugby reach back out to the community at a time when the sport is in dire straits in the country?
I would have been all for the Waratahs taking the game somewhere else in the state – Newcastle, for example – but there certainly wasn’t enough time to organise such a significant change of venue. Moving to one of the smaller grounds in Sydney – be it North Sydney, Leichhardt or somewhere else – would have proved far less troublesome, and still opened up the Waratahs to new potential spectators.
Playing away from Allianz would have given the Waratahs a good, boutique-ground atmosphere, allowed them to – theoretically – reach a new batch of fans, and garnered a bit of goodwill while they were at it. Where’s the harm in that?
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Okay Roarers, it’s over to you now. Should the Waratahs have moved their game? Or were they right to stay at Allianz Stadium? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.