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Joined July 2019
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In South Sydney’s 112 years as a club, they have called four different grounds their primary home ground for regular-season games. Originally, South Sydney…
You are not wrong with the ‘we would’ statement. I just believe we have a much better chance away from ANZ Stadium.
By the looks of things i’m going to have to put together a pretty solid argument! I’ll do my best though!
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
steveng -Rebuild of Redfern would be amazing wouldn’t it! However I just don’t see it ever happening. We can only dream and hopefully i’m proven wrong!
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
I’m actually kind of agree about the Perth concept for a Sydney Franchise to move to Perth but as you could imagine i’m not necessarily sold on that being the Rabbitohs. That being said, i could be an idea for one Club to “bite the bullet” as per say to jump across and play all the Sydney teams over in Sydney when possible and all their home games in Perth to build the game over there. A very interesting concept actually!
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
I do agree that Allianz is a nightmare for traffic and understandably Public Transport is not a viable option for everyone. However if more people were to leave their cars at home who could use Public transport within reason then it would make everyone game day experience a lot better.
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
Well no and I perhaps the largest amount of supporters are outside the Greater Sydney/South Sydney region, I don’t have the data in front of me to say it is or isn’t but surely the greatest concentration of Souths fans are located in and around Redfern?
I definitely don’t think the name should change and I also don’t think a club the size of Man U is comparable do the supporter base for EPL compared to NRL. However going down that road how many EPL teams take Premier League Home games away from their Home ground? I’m assuming they don’t take them to other parts of the country and they certainly don’t take them to other countries as far as i’m aware.
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
Hey Nat. Your 100% correct with the statement that we get better crowds outside of Sydney and I reference the Sunshine Coast and Central Coast games last season which were amongst our largest three regular season games last season games (I believe the rawest was the Good Friday game against the bulldogs but I don’t have my stats in front of me). However the club is a Sydney Club unfortunately currently the fans do not have any form of connection to their home ground which is detrimental to attendance within Sydney which is what I’m getting at.
I disagree that the both teams were at their peaks in the last five years. Rabbitohs peaked at 13-14 and crumbled in the three years following and have rebuilt to a high standard of football over the last two years. Roosters on the other hand have maintained a consistent high standard (minus 2016 where they didn’t make the eight).
You are right in saying though that Sydney siders are pretty lousy at attending games though. When I first became a member (2013) the Rabbitohs games really did have some atmosphere and that is because they were winning. Enter season 15, 16, 17 where the team didn’t do so well and that hint of atmosphere died along with the seasons and the support has just not recovered (unforgiving fans).
In response to if I think the Easts and South could sell out Allianz twice a season. Yes I do. Placing the home ground for the clubs at the very spot that separates the club city territories as the same venue to play on the rivalry will attract crowds .
As I said in the article the magic round matter is a complete different conversation and I can tell that we would clash hard on the subject (maybe I will put an article up in the future and we can slog it out there)
As for membership yes from a comparison between Broncos and South membership you’ve hit the nail on the head. In saying that, Broncos have the best game attendance and the best atmosphere in the league in my opinion (I know right coming from a New South Welshmen). If I could go to a smaller stadium like Suncorp and get that atmosphere I would gladly triple what I’m paying for membership but unfortunately that’s not the case
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
Being a Rabbitohs fan I’m always a bit saddened by hearing the names of players moving on, but with the ever growing supply of talented players coming into the mix we need to start accepting that players need to move on to gain opportunities at the top level. Alex Johnston and Adam Doueihi are prime examples of this.
If Adam Doueihi was to remain at the Rabbitohs this year it would have been detrimental to his development as he would not be getting the game time he deserves as a player of his caliber and potential. Unfortunately AJ is in the same position and it is his time to move to a different team to get the game time he deserves.
Is Alex Johnston on the move - and where would he go?
Yeah your 100% right with the commercialisation of grounds. Brookie = Lottoland, Allianz = SFS (Moore park so you are correct), Telstra Stadium = ANZ stadium and honestly I could go on. Every few seasons they change names but that is what happens when grounds aren’t owned by the club I guess and there is no way around the matter.
Redfern would be amazing however after it was redeveloped it now only has a capacity of around 5000 which is not practical for the average game of NRL. Rabbitohs still use it as their training ground and their Woman’s, Canturbury cup and SG ball teams still use the ground for their regular season games which it is prefect noting those games tend to only draw crowds which the ground can accomodate.
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
I completely agree with your statement and as I have stated in the article the average attendance to an ANZ Rabbitohs home game was only just over 15000 including opposition fans which is really bad considering our membership numbers are double that. But even if you get 30000 to the stadium it still dosent look like an impressive turn out on media by world standards.
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
Completely agree that it is worse for teams like the Dragons. Obviously I have written this from the perspective of the Rabbitohs but it’s not an issue that is limited to one team and by no means one code (referencing Sydney FCs current situation while Allianz is being re built)
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game
It’s kind of the point that i’m getting at. Access to ANZ is fine and yet the attendance is still not what you would expect from a club with just under 30000 members. There has to be an underlying issue which I believe is match day experience which is caused by the ground situation.
Cowboys and New Zealand have it the toughest when it comes to travel and I get the issue there. But did they not sign up to play in a competition which they knew the majority of teams are from different states or all international in the case of New Zealand? Like I said I would be more than happy for one or two home games to be played on the road but they do need to remember where the teams came from.
The Rabbitohs' home-ground situation is detrimental to the game