@Cultured Bogan said:
I don't believe for one second that every WT fan that resides in the Macarthur is of the kind on the Magpies forum who want to see a return of the Magpies, 12 games a year at CSS and the death of WT. A better commitment to the area is needed, coupled with some sustained on field success to draw the region in. Sport wise, Sydney fans are fickle by nature and want to see their team win or at the very least compete in return for their hard earned.
All Manly home games going forward should be at CSS for the very obvious reasons, with at least another Sydney side to play there. If we are playing well, Leichhardt will get decent crowds irrespective of whom we're playing. Unfortunately while ANZ are paying us to play, they get first dibs on all quality opponents in Sydney so an equitable distribution of the remaining quality opposition is required at LO and CSS. This is something that should ensure both regions see quality football and enjoy bumper crowds as a result.
CB im assuming that your from the C-town area so i think you might be an ideal person to put this to..
in your post you say that "better commitment in the area is needed". Im just very curious to know how the wests tigers can be more committed to south-west sydney or even the magpies side of the joint venture ?
We train in the inner-west suburb of Concord which is closest to Wests Ashfield but also ideally positioned next to Leichardt/ Balmain. So in terms of keeping both sides of the joint venture happy i think Concord is perfectly located as a training base for our franchise (Unless we get our own centre of excellence in C-town).
In terms of opposition allocation to C-town and leichardt, some posters seem to be of the belief that C-town continually hosts low crowd drawing teams. But from what i can tell that couldn't be further from the truth with allocation of matches being even across all three grounds. That can't be used as an excuse anyway with the Penrith game in round two last year on a sunny Sunday afternoon only attracting 9700 (you can't get closer to CSS then Penrith).
In terms of marketing and exposure of games Im not to sure why there has been so many complaints. If anything i think that the inner-west matches get neglected more so then those at C-town. leichardt games seem to get exposed in the media much more but that is from external sources and as a result of external forces, this has nothing to do with Wests Tigers management and does not depict any lack of commitment to CSS or percieved preference to leichardt. In fact the club marketed this weeks game well with the whole "2460 vs 2040" challenge, the gear-zone meet and greet and the $10 tickets to watch 4 games including the magpies (even though it wasn't advertised properly, they still tried to "commit"to something).
I also read somewhere as well that the Tigers allocate double the resources to C-town marketing then they do in any other area, but not to sure how accurate that statement is.
Seriously, as i type this i ask myself how are they not committed ? what more can they do ? can anyone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me how the Wests Tigers (not the media) neglect the Wests side of the JV in preference of Balmain ?
Perhaps the $30 ticket prices are to expensive ? well Mayer has recognised that and brought the prices down to $10 for our next match against the Broncos and its been put out there (hopefully he markets it better this time though). So where is the neglection ? they recognised a potential contributory factor to poor crowds at CSS and they've addressed it. To me that shows some "commitment" to draw better crowds at C-town.
Im not having a pot shot at anyone i seriously am not i'm just so shocked and dumbfounded by some of the complaints, conspiracy theories and the general whinging by some people on here when their statements are mostly not supported by the facts.
Im a WESTS TIGERS supporter who doesn't live in either heartland, with no connection to either side of the JV and i attend most home games across all three grounds. I have no bias and I'm dead curious…