ANZ is a poor ground to look at our great game, to say otherwise is ridiculous. My family are part of the five and a half thousand odd members that either have a seat as part of an extended LO and/or CSS package, or solely at the stadium. That leaves some 4250 members that have no connection with the stadium, despite the ridiculously cheap and highly publicised options available.
Some say that the viewing experience of watching the game live on a big screen is keeping a lot of fans away. No doubt that it is, but hey, we spend half our time at the ground looking at the big screen from our away seats up on level four, as the players are that far away when at the southern end, that we may as well be looking out the window of a 747\. Our Gold home seats are on a slightly sloped tier, at a low elevation and still too far from the sideline, despite not being far from the fence.
As an earlier poster stated, the AFL got it's way, with our inept politicians pandering to their post olympics stadium re-configuration requests that does not suit our (NSW) primary sports, and now the state government is looking to shaft us again.
Let's get real here fellow supporters, with the current match allocation heavily favoring ANZ for a decade, we are light years from turning people away from our games. Sure the crowds have been enough to overflow suburban grounds, with a great crowd and good atmosphere there for the Parra game, but that is far from the norm, as everything aligned for that to occur.
The perfect weather, easter show double up, time slot, public holiday, reciprocal ticketing, ladder positions and form, free rail transport, together with the closeness of the contest, allowed the match to reach the level of atmosphere that our other home grounds, and particularly Leichhardt, can provide with only seventeen odd thousand.
The club also makes MUCH MORE PROFIT from a decent crowd at LO or CSS than it gets from ANZ. Mayer said as such earlier this year and I believe the figures are on this forum, for those that care to check, amongst the kerfuffle following the low Campbo attendance, from which we apparently still made a reasonable profit. Even with poor player facilities and general amenities for the public being way below the standard of some, the players, almost to a man, and the MAJORITY of fans, love coming to the suburban grounds and soaking up the atmosphere that only they can provide for an average game.
A self raising plastic seat offers little when it's location is relatively low and far from the action.
