LO and Cambo to never host finals

[Kul]

The National Rugby League Chairmen and Chief Executives have today agreed that week one finals hosted by Sydney teams should be moved from 'home venues' to either the Sydney Football Stadium or ANZ Stadium.
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The decision brings week one venue allocations with the current ‘home city’ system that applies in week two of the Finals.
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Clubs supported the move at the NRL Annual Conference on the basis that fans would know at the start of each season where they could expect to be playing should they make the finals.
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Wests Tigers CEO Stephen Humphreys attended the two day conference at Byron Bay.
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“A big part of the growth in membership in the game has been the need for members to be assured of the chance to get the best seats at the big games at the end of each year,” NRL Chief Executive Mr David Gallop said today.
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“The commitment we have made to them all along is that we will not move matches at the last minute and this move allows them to buy their membership packages knowing what to expect.
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“Importantly, the move will allow ‘away’ team members greater opportunity and will be able to better accommodate those clubs that have memberships spread across multiple venues.”
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Today’s conference examined the length of future NRL seasons, the future of Origin, representative football and ways to generate new revenues within match broadcasts.
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The NRL has enlisted a number of sub committees to consider more detail around the concepts to refer to a future Commission.
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“The CEO’s have already been part of key sub-committees that have made significant enhancements to the structure of the NRL draw, to Collective Bargaining and to the Under 20’s and they have shown they can play a valuable role in policy development,” Mr Gallop said.
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“Proposals today ranged from lengthening the season significantly to reducing it.
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“There was a lot of focus on the impact of Origin and representative matches in the years ahead and on the future location of teams.
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“If the game was to expand to eighteen teams at some time in the future there would be strong support for adopting a conference style draw.
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“There was a strong message though that the profitability of the existing clubs needed to be ensured before expansion and that new teams had to be linked to new revenue.”

oh well, probably the best thing in the long run

 

[tig_prmz]

Yeh that means "small" grounds like LO, Cambo, WIN Jubilee, Wollongong, Parra etc wont be hosting a final game. I expect some disagreement from the Dragons.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

I know it's hardly popular opinion, but I agree with this. There is so much potential for the NRL & the clubs to make so much more money out of the finals series. The AFL must laugh their arses off when they see that idiots like Doust elect to play the first week of the finals at a 20,000 capacity stadium when they could easily get double or three times that at the SFS or Homebush…

This game is run like a chook raffle... about time the NRL had the testicular fortitude to pull clubs into line and makes the game more profitable at the gate. Clubs are struggling and turning away lucrative offers for "home ground advantage." If your team is good enough, they will win no matter where they play.

 

[Tiger_Watto]

Yeh that means "small" grounds like LO, Cambo, WIN Jubilee, Wollongong, Parra etc wont be hosting a final game. I expect some disagreement from the Dragons.

Whats the bet St George pull the "_we are a Wollongong based team_" out when the card needs to be played!!!

 

[Kul]

Do you really think they would piss off their fans like that watto?

 

[system]

Well that reduces forum debate by 33.65% in the lead up to September

 

[Tiger_Watto]

Do you really think they would p**s off their fans like that watto?

We did, although I always thought the game was going to be played at the SFS…

Its a 50/50 call... They have taken the option to have thier last 2 finals games at a local venue instead of taking the dollars on offer at the bigger stadiums?

It comes down to who they have to play I would presume. If they are playing the Roosters, Tigers or Souths, I'm sure they will take the Home Ground Advantage option. 20k from the South Coast barking out "oh where the saints" is a pretty handy addition in the finals....

 

[Fraze23]

Yeh that means "small" grounds like LO, Cambo, WIN Jubilee, Wollongong, Parra etc wont be hosting a final game. I expect some disagreement from the Dragons.

Whats the bet St George pull the "_we are a Wollongong based team_" out when the card needs to be played!!!

Its not like they play their home final in Wollongong anyways so i dont think they have a leg to stand on

 

[Bismark]

You'd be pretty annoyed if you're a Parra fan. That's a decent stadium there, and they can't use it. And Penrith fans…. have to travel to Homebush for a "home" game.

We're lucky that we already elect to play our games at the SFS, every other Sydney based club is going to be P*SSED.

 

[innsaneink]

You'd be pretty annoyed if you're a Parra fan. That's a decent stadium there, and they can't use it. And Penrith fans…. have to travel to Homebush for a "home" game.

We're lucky that we already elect to play our games at the SFS, every other Sydney based club is going to be P*SSED.

We're lucky?
Easier for Penrith fans to get to Homebush than WTs fans to get to the City

Sensible decision I guess despite it being an uneven playing field but thats the crap macintyre system they seem to love

 

[cunno]

Don't tell me the CEOs were at Byron during schoolies week?? If so they wouldn't have been able to get a drink!! I'm surprised the Sydney clubs accepted this and let the teams outside of Sydney use their ground if hosting a final maybe using Suncorp for QLD teams and the SFS or ANZ for everyone else would have been a bit fairer. I must admit travelling to Canberra this season was a pain although it was fun when leaving the ground.

 

[redemption]

Do you really think they would p**s off their fans like that watto?

We did, although I always thought the game was going to be played at the SFS…

Its a 50/50 call... They have taken the option to have thier last 2 finals games at a local venue instead of taking the dollars on offer at the bigger stadiums?

It comes down to who they have to play I would presume. If they are playing the Roosters, Tigers or Souths, I'm sure they will take the Home Ground Advantage option. 20k from the South Coast barking out "oh where the saints" is a pretty handy addition in the finals....

This needs to be made clear - both our contracts at Homebush & now the SFS stipulate that we WILL play any home-semis there!

It is a black-&-white contractual condition!

The choice was never with the club to change venues - that was fully pre-determined!!

 

[Kul]

Do you really think they would p**s off their fans like that watto?

We did, although I always thought the game was going to be played at the SFS…

Its a 50/50 call... They have taken the option to have thier last 2 finals games at a local venue instead of taking the dollars on offer at the bigger stadiums?

It comes down to who they have to play I would presume. If they are playing the Roosters, Tigers or Souths, I'm sure they will take the Home Ground Advantage option. 20k from the South Coast barking out "oh where the saints" is a pretty handy addition in the finals....

This needs to be made clear - both our contracts at Homebush & now the SFS stipulate that we WILL play any home-semis there!

It is a black-&-white contractual condition!

The choice was never with the club to change venues - that was fully pre-determined!!

but Humphrey's got us a very nice cheque out of it

 

[innsaneink]

Do you really think they would p**s off their fans like that watto?

We did, although I always thought the game was going to be played at the SFS…

Its a 50/50 call... They have taken the option to have thier last 2 finals games at a local venue instead of taking the dollars on offer at the bigger stadiums?

It comes down to who they have to play I would presume. If they are playing the Roosters, Tigers or Souths, I'm sure they will take the Home Ground Advantage option. 20k from the South Coast barking out "oh where the saints" is a pretty handy addition in the finals....

This needs to be made clear - both our contracts at Homebush & now the SFS stipulate that we WILL play any home-semis there!

It is a black-&-white contractual condition!

The choice was never with the club to change venues - that was fully pre-determined!!

Too bad the club have **never** made it as clear as that…..but Ive never seen these contracts.

 

[redemption]

I agree that the club never spelt that out at the time ink - but the Board and CEO were well aware of their contractual obligations - and as kul said - theses conditions are met by significant financial incentives from the Stadium Trust!

I am aware of the contract status via two Board members who I know well.

 

[tigergran]

Hi everyone

The club was very non-committal in the lead-up to the semis last year. They could have said that the SFS was the contractual obligation and that would have stopped all the speculation.

Tigergran

 

[Blackpearl]

apart from being disappointed that the tigers will not play home semis at lo or cs… including the 2011 draw,how can these finals decisions be made before the new commission is established. surely decisions such as these would have been on the agenda as well as tv rights etc. i was not aware that the ceo's were running the game at present.

 

[Sabre]

So whats the advantage of Top 4 now?
Cant decide if I like this move or not

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

This decision, whilst I think it is correct, should come with ruling from the NRL that should a club's home ground have a capacity greater than the SFS (ie: 40,000), you can play a final at home.

Club's should given more incentive to take action that increases revenue streams by themselves rather than relying on TV rights. Let market forces determine who gets funding/finance for stadium expansions. If you have small p*ss weak crowds, no one will give you money for such projects as they are not viable. If you have good crowd averages and projects are viable, you get funding. The outcome is that successful and viable clubs will grow their revenue streams. Clubs with no scale, marketability and viability are left behind (eg: Manly & Cronulla).

The game has this permanent anchor around its neck of making sure everyone can survive. Time to cut away the dead wood and let the game grow naturally.

 

[Yossarian]

This decision, whilst I think it is correct, should come with ruling from the NRL that should a club's home ground have a capacity greater than the SFS (ie: 40,000), you can play a final at home.

Club's should given more incentive to take action that increases revenue streams by themselves rather than relying on TV rights. Let market forces determine who gets funding/finance for stadium expansions. If you have small p*ss weak crowds, no one will give you money for such projects as they are not viable. If you have good crowd averages and projects are viable, you get funding. The outcome is that successful and viable clubs will grow their revenue streams. Clubs with no scale, marketability and viability are left behind (eg: Manly & Cronulla).

The game has this permanent anchor around its neck of making sure everyone can survive. Time to cut away the dead wood and let the game grow naturally.

Well surely that's implied… If CUA Stadium held 40000 then the NRL would be happy for them to play there. The market forces you talk of have little to do with the clubs but boils down to how many large stadiums one city can justify or handle. Regardless of our crowd sizes, it would be extremely unlikely that Campbelltown or Leichhardt is going to be increased to over 40k when there are already 2 large stadiums in the Sydney area.