In a couple of decades, rugby league might be thanking the current New South Wales opposition leader Michael Daley. He might prove more commercially and culturally beneficial to the game by the end of the century than Laurie Daley was.
For those of you not following state politics, Daley is saying that if his Labor Party comes to power, they won’t rebuild Allianz Stadium once it is knocked down.
The NRL’s response is to suggest that an agreement to play the grand final in Sydney until 2042 will now be voided.
That’s music to my ears. The ’N’ in National Rugby League does not stand for ‘North Of Wollongong’.
A moveable, biddable grand final would be a boom for a game that is not supported in its Australia cradle the way the AFL is in theirs.
The only thing Sydney has done to deserve the grand final until 2042 is to spend $1.8 billion on stadia. If it doesn’t do that, the grand final should go elsewhere.
It’s not the Sydney competition anymore and the fact the Harbour City has eight and a half teams is a weakness, not a strength.
In the current edition of Rugby League World, I did a ‘Time Tunnel’ piece on the 1997 Super League grand final, the only first-class rugby league decider Down Under to be held outside Sydney.
After talking to then-Cronulla CEO Shane Richardson about the lead-up, the players, the game itself, the weather and the seating arrangements for the 58,912 who attended the old ANZ Stadium (in Brisbane, previously known as QEII), I asked him if he though a grand final would ever be held outside Sydney again.
“I think we should,” Shane said. “We’re moving things around now with Origin. Who would have thought Origin would be played in Perth?
“You do deals go get stadiums built. The truth is, great stadiums make great competitions.
“In Sydney, we’ve had **** stadiums and people don’t want to go to **** stadiums. To build (better ones), we’ve had to guarantee grand finals and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that but I think one day we’ll have grand finals all over Australia and all over the world.”
An NRL grand final in Hong Kong is, admittedly, not something we’re likely to see in our lifetimes. But Perth? Melbourne? Brisbane? Absolutely.
Before you say: do I think the Melbourne Cup can be moved from Melbourne? The name’s a problem … but they did hold Rock In Rio … in Portugal. So not insurmountable.
Why not? The Melbourne Cup in Auckland? Yeah.
The AFL grand final too – imagine how much Perth or Adelaide would pay to take it away from Melbourne.
Fly any weekend in the United States and witness the number of travelling sports fans in airports – it’s metaphorical coal for the metaphorical furnace of the country’s weekend economy.
Sports fans stay in hotel rooms and sit in airplane seats when business travellers are at home. Move games and teams around and they bring millions of people with them.
Before we called it “expansion”, back in 1980 when we first started talking about Canberra and Illawarra joining the comp, we referred to “decentralisation”.
That was the buzzword when I was 11 and first getting these strange ideas in my head about the future of sport.
We don’t use that word anymore. The NRL is now “decentralised”. But its biggest event has only gone a few kilometres west.
It’s hanging on, it’s the last bastion, the sacred cow.
Slaughtering that sacred cow is just what rugby league in Australia needs.
Robert Szemeti
Roar Rookie
Roosters 13k is pushing it, take away the adelaide 17k and central coast 10k match last year and roosters were lucky to get 12k At allianz stadium only There was a game vs st george although this was an st george home game on anzac day, not your typical weekend match Some home matches were higher like vs souths or brisbane, but most hit the 10k mark, is that still worth a rebuild
Robert Szemeti
Roar Rookie
Souths play at anz stadium in homebush Not sure why waratahs, sydney fc and roosters need a new stadium rebuild, sydney fc pull in crowds i suppose, but roosters please what a waste
Mark Ferguson
Roar Rookie
What a silly comment, Roosters are going nowhere.
steveng
Roar Rookie
They won't..."Daley is saying that if his Labor Party comes to power, they won’t rebuild Allianz Stadium once it is knocked down" end of story as this current government has been the most successful state government to ever govern NSW, as judging by what's happening in Canberra maybe Australia .
Craigo
Guest
@clipper Ha! Wrong again ClipClop. No Slide in NRL. Deal with it, Hater! "Rugby League participation grew more than 3.5% in 2018 with 36,900 people playing rugby league for the first time." https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/09/20/rugby-league-participation-up-in-2018/ Cumulative season audience figures for the two codes highlight the NRL’s dominance. The NRL’s cumulative audience this season was 94.3 million, compared to the AFL’s live audience of 89.2m. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-trumps-afl-in-tv-ratings-war-20180910-p502u1.html Crowds 2018 NRL: 16,414. Up from 2017 2018|2019: A-League 11,841. Down from 2017 2018: Super Rugby 11,004. Down from 2017 https://www.austadiums.com/sport/comp.php?sid=2 As I said ClipClop the only games that are sliding or dying in Sydney are Rugby Union and the A-League.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
You mean in America with a population of over 300 million? Yes clearly a similar situation to Australia
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
It can, but rarely does. Sells out twice a year for Origin and Gf and that's it. It's a pain to get to via car or public transport and there is nothing there at all. It's in the middle of nowhere
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
I'd love to see the GF played at the MCG or Optus Stadium in Perth but for now that's it. Suncorp needs to hold more people before it tries to host the decider. Locking 30,000 fans out of the biggest game of the year makes zero sense
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Allianz 3 tenants average less than 1/3 of capacity. The Roosters (13k), the Waratahs (14k) and Sydney FC (14k).
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Exactly. That's based on a stadium that will be filled for a minimum of 22 games a year by teams that averaged 32k and 36k at their previous home ground in 2017. You can reasonably expect that for one sport alone, Optus will bring 750k people through the gates minimum. Then there's BBL and test cricket. For Allianz, last season Sydney FC average 14k, Roosters 13k and the Waratahs 14k. So that's less than 500k for the 3 major tenants year round.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That's exactly it. People are trying to sell it as though there will be $0 income without new stadia. That's not at all the case. How many people will attend purely because it's a new stadium? I'd wager very few. The barrier is accessing. Hence why Docklands still is reasonably well attended despite a poor reputation - because it's right next to one of Melbourne's largest train stations.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It's not just Michael Daley. It's the people that have been asked to run the analysis.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The agreement had it been completed (not re-negotiated) would have seen them purchase it for a pittance. Of course that would have been based on a history of significant rental income to the state though.
clipper
Roar Rookie
Doesn't the BBL use it - they seem to get good crowds GWS seem to get 1/4 to 1/2 full most times, which is probably more than Allianz achieves.
Big Daddy
Guest
Bob Carr Mark 2.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
But will it be? I suspect not. It's a great selling point to not do it. But just because they say it will happen doesn't mean it should. Though GWS has shown how money can be wasted on upgrading a stadium.
clipper
Roar Rookie
The big difference is that AFL fans travel and games at the old stadium often sold out, Allianz stadium very rarely has big gates - can't see people getting excited to come to a no atmosphere 10k crowd.
clipper
Roar Rookie
Good point - I guess we'll see what happens in a few months.
clipper
Roar Rookie
The AFL did not pay a pittance for Docklands, don't know where you got that from.
clipper
Roar Rookie
If you're a league fan, you probably refuse to see it, but falling crowds, especially taking into account population growth and falling numbers in participation - something Soccer doesn't have to worry about. Agree that Rugby is sliding, but will have to wait on A league - WSW were homeless the last couple of seasons.