6,500 fans turned out to watch Wests Tigers Vs. Nth QLD at Campbelltown Sports Stadium on Saturday night 12th April. 6,456 to be exact. The supposed heartland; the so-called long-term future of the Joint Venture entity. The highflying Tigers are currently sitting second on the Telstra Premiership ladder, having won 4 of their first 6 Premiership games in 2014\. All of those wins, Wests have displayed a confident, free flowing attack and a no fear approach in defence which has troubled their opposition providing great entertainment for their fans.
But where are their fans? A week ago, Wests Tigers saw 16,000 plus fans cram into Leichhardt Oval to watch their team comprehensively defeat Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. Wests have been the underdogs in all of their games this year and keep coming up trumps, defeating Manly, Souths, Gold Coast and Nth QLD. Success usually brings the fans out of the woodwork, as they dust off their Black, White and Gold and attend games, especially fixtures at their traditional home grounds of Leichhardt and Campbelltown.
Although, Wests officials were scratching their heads at where the other 10,000 plus fans were only 6 days earlier. Something just is not adding up. A winning team, sitting high in the Top 4, star players and young guns in amazing form, taking on Rugby League royalty in names like Jonathan Thurston and rep stars in Scott, Tamou, Sims, Tate etc. One would assume Campbelltown should have been packed to the rafters, but on the contrary, it was a ghost town.
The Campbelltown-Macarthur municipality is one of the largest growth regions in NSW, housing a population of approximately 500,000, with more growth projected. A boundary that starts at Liverpool and stretches all the way to the Southern Highlands. This is Wests Tigers backyard. Not only do they have such a vast region at its disposal, they have a junior nursery that all NRL Clubs would kill for. Yet, 6456 fans rocked up at Campbelltown to watch their NRL representative side.
Why? Well let’s address the obvious. Not everyone who lives in the South-West of Sydney is a Wests Tigers fan. Many would already have a pre-existing club they barrack for. Wests Tigers have known this fact for 15 years, and their target has been the next generation, attracting and appealing to the kids, the juniors, the youth to become fans and members moving forward. So how do you grow support for the Wests Tigers brand and club?
Then there’s the segmentation in membership. 15 years on, and there is still ill feeling between the factional supporter bases of Balmain and Western Suburbs. Whilst the inhabitants, populations and overall demography of the inner west of Sydney, specifically centred around the Balmain region no longer support Rugby League, many old Tigers fans who live west of Homebush still make the nostalgic trip to Leichhardt, yet refuse to travel down the Hume Hwy and M5 to Campbelltown, due to the attitude that its “not our home ground”.
Tigers officials seem to think they are doing enough, but it is crystal clear they are not. Be it through a lack of effort, engagement or just resting on their laurels, thinking success will bring the fans back. Sadly, it won’t and the proof is in the pudding. Since 2011, crowds have been on the steady decline.. The community along with old Western Suburbs fans have been disenfranchised through a severe lack of equality along with an extreme lack of presence in the area, coupled by a strong dominance of Black and Gold across playing strip, merchandise, marketing and promotion of the club, link and association by media which often associates Wests Tigers as Balmain.
Add to the fact the Joint Venture Club is located some 60km away from the Macarthur region and only fronts up 4 times a year. Ask any resident if they truly believe Wests Tigers is really representing the area and its community. Wests CEO Grant Mayer made some stunning comments after the Tigers thrilling victory against the Cowboys, stating that fans and the community of the Macarthur region have one final throw of the dice to turn up otherwise Wests Tigers will play even less games at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.
Personally, a threat such as that which is an aggressive approach is not the right way to go about winning back a disgruntled area and fan base. It is a poor approach and a reactive attitude from a management perspective. Yes, it is disappointing. Yes it hurts the club financially, who made a loss due to the poor patronage that walked through the turnstiles. But what would have been a better a approach would have been Mayer coming out and saying we are going to work harder to engage the fans, the community and show them we are committed to calling the South-West our home.
Turning up 4 times a year and having a merchandise outlet in the region is not going to do the trick. Neither will the odd coaching clinic or player appearance. The region wants its own team. Its own representative team that is playing for its area. And it deserves it. The demographics; the logistics; the infrastructure all support this reasoning. Not a club that turns up casually several times a year and demands people turn up to watch them go round. Wests Tigers are either extremely naïve or are just blatantly ignorant.
I respect that it is difficult to balance commercial incentives and being present and visible in your region. But Penrith and Parramatta, two other Western Sydney based teams have managed to make it work. Can you imagine if the Panthers abandoned Penrith, or the Eels Parramatta, only to turn up 3-4 times a season? What do you think their respective communities and locals would be thinking?
Further to Mayer’s comments, the figurehead stated that the club would be offering $10 dollar tickets to their next home game at Campbelltown; a fixture that is being promoted as a 15 year anniversary game, which saw Wests take on Brisbane back in 2000, the first game as a Joint Venture Club. Do Wests Tigers really think throw cheap tickets at the area again, will be enough to entice them to turn up? The Tigers are taking the community as forgiving, gullible mugs.
The club has neglected the area for 15 years. That is the crux of this entire issue. Wests Tigers now face a momentous task of trying to win their community of the South-West of Sydney back. But if last night’s attendance was anything to go by, I fear no amount of games; no amount of player appearances, clinics and other initiatives in the area will make a dent in the hearts and minds of the region. Enough is enough. They have made up their mind. Years and years of being treated with utter contempt has taken its toll and fermented to the surface and it is evident to see.
Will Wests Tigers, their CEO and Board roll their sleeves up and work hard with the community to try and bring them back to the club? Or will this now provide ammunition for the club to take more games to ANZ Stadium in return for a positive, guaranteed financial return? From a commercial viewpoint, the Joint Venture would prefer to be making money and generating revenue. The Joint Venture’s financial problems are well documented and have been made aware to all. They have been bailed out by the NRL due to the Balmain Tigers being unable to financially contribute to the Joint Venture for a number of years. So the easy option would be to just reallocate Campbelltown fixtures to Sydney Olympic Park.
It is a sad and sorry state of affairs, but the only fingers that should be being pointed in regards to blame is wholly and solely at Wests Tigers. They have alienated old Magpie supporters through the perceived lack of inequality in an entity the Western Suburbs Group co-own; and now their own community of the South-West has had a proverbial gutful of their idea of commitment to the region. Everyone in Rugby League acknowledges the importance the South-West of Sydney has to the game. Hence why it was highlighted as a vital key in securing the corridor as Rugby League territory way back in the 1980s.
Western Suburbs Magpies relocated from Lidcombe to Leumeah way back in 1987 to ensure their future in Rugby League. The commercial realities bite the Magpies hard in 1999 who sought to extend their life in the NRL as a Joint Venture. One of the major reasons why Western Suburbs explored the avenue of a Joint Venture was mainly due to not wanting to see the Macarthur region without a strong Rugby League presence and to ensure the region continued to have ‘their own team’. 15 years on, the Campbelltown-Macarthur area has anything but their own representative NRL team to call their own. Instead they get an inner city based franchise they strolls down the M5 four times a year claiming they are the side, the team, the club that epitomies Rugby League in the South-West of Sydney.
But don’t tell Wests Tigers that. They are apparently ‘doing enough’. If the Tigers won’t service and show the Macarthur region the commitment it solemnly deserves, perhaps its time to give it to an NRL club that will. Neglect your region and it will respond in kind. Rather than a story explaining “How the west was won” this is more along the lines of a tragedy of “How the west was lost”
http://dwatsonhayes.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/a-region-neglected-how-the-west-was-lost-nrl-itsmylife-2560-rugbyleague/
