The recent incident that luckily avoided serious injury at Leichhardt Oval proved one thing: local government are incapable of maintaining stadiums for their communities.
Inner west Labor Councillor Cr Philippa Scott put it this way in a statement on Facebook: “This is infrastructure that has been neglected to the point of injurious collapse.”
The chair of the Wests Tigers Lee Hagipantelis described it this way: “What happened on Saturday is indicative of the potential of what can occur throughout the entire venue.
“It is very concerning. I’ve spoken about the facilities at Leichhardt being substandard, I have described them as third world and borderline dangerous.”
Yet he still wants to play at the venue and is demanding an upgrade.
This, despite over $1 billion being spent to modernise two nearby stadia, the Sydney Football Stadium at Moore Park and CommBank Stadium at Parramatta.
There is not an endless money pit to fund nostalgia.
Leichhardt Oval is in a terrible position, poked away on a peninsula, surrounded by residential neighbours. Access is via narrow suburban streets punctuated with parked cars from houses without garages.
The closest rail access is Leichhardt North light rail station, approximately ten minutes walk away.
Light rail patrons have to negotiate crossing one of Sydney’s busiest roads, the City West Link, to get to and from the stadium.
In short, access is awful.
There is a future for Leichhardt Oval. It’s just not as a venue for professional sport.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
In recent years the number of events at Leichhardt has swelled from the rebuild of the SFS.
Temporary tenants have included Sydney FC and the NSW Waratahs. But with the imminent opening of the SFS both teams have probably played their last games at Leichhardt.
Wests Tigers only play three competition games and one trial match a year at the venue.
Do four games of professional sport per year qualify for a $50m upgrade?
Instead, Leichhardt Oval should be returned to the community. Open the gates 365 days a year!
Let the dog walkers, local school children, junior sport and emerging talent, train and play at the venue.
The state and local government should both contribute to making the venue safe by decommissioning the grandstand and make it a true community asset.
After all, if a local government the size of Inner West Council can’t maintain it currently, how would Leichhardt Council if the proposed de-amalgamation goes through?
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
From the video that I saw the problem was dozens of people putting weight on a balustrade that would not have been designed for that amount of force.
Ad-O
Guest
Who the hell gets a coffee at the footy? Was it a Latte or a Macchiato?
Stevo
Guest
Where was this stand that collapsed? It seemed to be a crowd of kids putting their combined weight on a cyclone mesh fence on a viewing platform that had never caused any problems with full house crowds in the past. Replacement with a sturdier fence to take into consideration the the less intelligent members of the public will fix the problem.
Birdy
Roar Rookie
matth Leichardt is on my bucket list. But not a ground where stands collapse. My opinion has and always will be that the tigers should permanently move to campbelltown. Not even concord. It would be great if a presence could still be at leichardt. Heritage round, 1 or 2 annual matches ,whatever.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
Suburban grounds cost a lot of money to maintain and they don't have the facilities to cater for large crowds. If you want to spend 45 minutes waiting in line for a coffee at half time that's on you. Moore Park is the way forward.
Adam Bagnall
Roar Guru
Good idea. One off games at places like Leichhardt, Kogarah and Belmore would sell out. The new stadium at Moore Park looks fantastic and should be used by the Roosters, Souths, Sharks and Dragons as the home of rugby league in Sydney. CommBank can then be used by the 4 western Sydney teams. Not sure about Manly as their fans don't travel.
Ad-O
Guest
People think that Brisbane Origin atmosphere is just because it's Queensland. It's really because the stadium, it's location, and the entire pre-match experience makes it easy to generate that sort of support.
Ad-O
Guest
Lang Park really is the best footy ground in the country. It's got history, it's close to the city but also there's a lot of nice neighbourhoods with bars and restaurants around it. I don't think you can really compare it with Homebush or Moore Park. It's kinda the best of both worlds.
matth
Roar Guru
It’s because Homebush was never a proper footy ground. Assuming the SFS is done properly then you get the best of both worlds. Even back in the BRL days in Brisbane the match of the round was always at Lang Park, a stadium built for football and it was always brilliant. There’s not a bad seat at Suncorp
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
If they had chipped away and modernised Leichhardt while keeping its retro feel, then maybe keep investing. But they haven't. It is a dump on every level, barely used and really has no more historical relevance than any other ground. The suggestions above to make it like Redfern is now are good ones. Either that or give the lease to a GPS school and let them make it a home ground and invest in it.
matth
Roar Guru
If you want the suburban footy of you youth then you should follow the Tigers at NSWRL level in suburban grounds.
matth
Roar Guru
And getting bigger crowds than the Tigers?
Ad-O
Guest
Souths games look garbage on TV. Nobody wants to see a stadium filled with 3 men and a dog when their real home could have been rocking on the regular.
Ad-O
Guest
Couldn't agree more. I'd take Brookvale, Leichardt or Shark Park over the white elephant out at Homebush any day.
Ad-O
Guest
Disagree. I used to live in the UK and they have plenty of suburban grounds, and not just in the 2nd and 3rd division, in the Premiership too. They would never consider moving all teams to Wembley. Arsenal's stadium is 10mins walk from a station in a residential neighborhood too. The fact of the matter is half full stadiums at Homebush and Moore Park are boring. Both at the game itself and watching from home. Now the NRL has a billion dollar TV deal. I don't see how it is beyond them to maintain a handful of suburban grounds without going cap in hand to the taxpayer.
Chris Cav
Guest
Will you bring home the bacon ?
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
ARE WE NOT MEN?
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
For the old Balmain die hards the club doesn't have any representation in lower tiers as well. The Western Suburbs side of the franchise has a NSW cup side which plays out of Lidcombe so the West's side is attempting to promote rugby league . If they really want matches played at Leichhardt some effort needs to be made .
KenW
Roar Rookie
I threw a suggestion in the stadiums article a few days ago that this should be the plan for all the old suburban grounds. Community sport, local centrepiece, an occasional nostalgic NRL game. Bring the regular games into the modern stadiums we already have, spend the NRLs lobbying capital on making sure they are/remain top class.
Vote for who you want
Guest
It's called democracy, Albo. Deal with it.