gallagher
Well-known member
The sharks are after govt money for a COE just like us. Nothing like planting a seed in the govts head that we may not be around long teem.
One Club Has To Go
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
jirskyr
Well-known member
"I don't want to point a finger at any particular club, it's all pretty even, but if I was to cut a club, well I can't say it out loud, but it rhymes with Bests Pigers."
Oh and St George stay because they have a "great brand". Cronulla can stay because they won the comp, well that's extremely short-term Buzz.
The logical fix, if it is indeed an issue, is merge a few more sides, genuinely, merge Rabbits + Roosters, Tigers + Dogs, Penrith + Parra, Saints + Cronulla. As logical as that is geographically, the supporters don't like each other, it would take a v long time for the dust to settle.
When you start a competition based on Sydney rivalries, and set those rivalries deep into the fabric of the city over 110 years, you can't just reset the boundaries and think everyone is cool. It took Tigers at least 10 years to get any kind of true comfort over the merged brand, and our clubs liked each other. A city-wide reduction in clubs would be worse and take longer.
I'm personally not convinced the crowds are all about too many clubs. People keep pointing to Swans games but that's one city, two teams sharing it, one game per week on average. You add a few NRL games and it's 35K as well.
Crowds are also about scheduling- cold nights, wet nights, SW Sydney on a Friday after Origin - I don't know what people expect. Half of Sydney used their leave-pass on Wed to watch Origin on a school night, are they truly going to double-up on Friday to watch a rubbish Tigers play the soul-less Titans at a freezing cold ground?
And I'm not even that sure it all matters? Ratings are good, TV revenues are strong… large crowds would be nice, but you could genuinely merge all the Sydney clubs and maybe the new crowds would top out at 20K per game anyway. Maybe that's just the way Sydney is, loving the odd spectacle but not really in it for the weekly grind. Half the people I know in Sydney don't even care about footy, they aren't sportsfans or they are from out of town, so many ex-pats around, they prefer weekends at the beach or at a cafe or the park with kids. There's nobody at my work with whom I can have a genuine conversation about football, they only peripherally care, and maybe that's the same symptom that affects crowds.
Oh and St George stay because they have a "great brand". Cronulla can stay because they won the comp, well that's extremely short-term Buzz.
The logical fix, if it is indeed an issue, is merge a few more sides, genuinely, merge Rabbits + Roosters, Tigers + Dogs, Penrith + Parra, Saints + Cronulla. As logical as that is geographically, the supporters don't like each other, it would take a v long time for the dust to settle.
When you start a competition based on Sydney rivalries, and set those rivalries deep into the fabric of the city over 110 years, you can't just reset the boundaries and think everyone is cool. It took Tigers at least 10 years to get any kind of true comfort over the merged brand, and our clubs liked each other. A city-wide reduction in clubs would be worse and take longer.
I'm personally not convinced the crowds are all about too many clubs. People keep pointing to Swans games but that's one city, two teams sharing it, one game per week on average. You add a few NRL games and it's 35K as well.
Crowds are also about scheduling- cold nights, wet nights, SW Sydney on a Friday after Origin - I don't know what people expect. Half of Sydney used their leave-pass on Wed to watch Origin on a school night, are they truly going to double-up on Friday to watch a rubbish Tigers play the soul-less Titans at a freezing cold ground?
And I'm not even that sure it all matters? Ratings are good, TV revenues are strong… large crowds would be nice, but you could genuinely merge all the Sydney clubs and maybe the new crowds would top out at 20K per game anyway. Maybe that's just the way Sydney is, loving the odd spectacle but not really in it for the weekly grind. Half the people I know in Sydney don't even care about footy, they aren't sportsfans or they are from out of town, so many ex-pats around, they prefer weekends at the beach or at a cafe or the park with kids. There's nobody at my work with whom I can have a genuine conversation about football, they only peripherally care, and maybe that's the same symptom that affects crowds.
goldcoast_tiger
New member
@ said:
Well they're not merged any more, by the look of it any more.
At least one club or probably two have to go.
Yep the prices are too high. But there is not enough players to fill two( or one ) additions to the comp without cutting the same numbers from asydney.
A lot of supporters wont cough up money to watch some of the garbage served up by some of the clubs. The clubs should be told to improve in every respect, or they're out. No club should have an automatic place . Whether they've merged in the past, or whether they haven't.
I love the game, but some clubs and the NRL are slowly killing it.
earl
Well-known member
@ said:
I honestly don't get this at all. Can you explain what the problem is ? Is it that there isn't enough talent ? If there isn't then you have to get rid of teams completely. I don't think that is what it is about. Is it about some clubs underperforming ? If so that comes down to talent and the salary cap isn't working.
Tiger_Watto
New member
Try 3 Clubs… The sooner some of the Sydney Teams realise there history/foundation belongs in the NSW Cup where it all started in 1908, the sooner the game can grow as a National Competition.
I'd still like to see Souths move to the Central Coast and form an alliance with the Umina Bunnies.
But the biggest stumbling block will be the make up of the numbers for the ARLC.
Wont Happen and the NRL will continue to be a pimple on the bum of world sports.
I'd still like to see Souths move to the Central Coast and form an alliance with the Umina Bunnies.
But the biggest stumbling block will be the make up of the numbers for the ARLC.
Wont Happen and the NRL will continue to be a pimple on the bum of world sports.
goldcoast_tiger
New member
@ said:
@ said:
Two clubs still gave up something to make the Wests Tigers happen, irrespective of what happened with Balmain.
It is not fair to a club that is a merged entity to give up more when other clubs who offer little to the game continue to get the leg up. Easts have bugger all juniors, Manly's fans don't travel, St. George no longer has a strangehold on the comp so Cronulla's existence is redundant.
@ said:
Valid business points, but can you honestly see Souths and Easts fans supporting the one club, despite the merger making obvious sense geographically? Or Penrith and Parra? The fans won't cop it.
more than one club needs to go, as some people have pointed out. But you get rid of Sydney teams and you really don't have many well supported clubs. Melbourne don't draw. Titans don't. Warriors don't. Perth might, Adelaide won't.
Why not chop the Titans? They have such a small fanbase and the population of the Coast is so transient. It'd be one thing if their stadium was somewhere accessible and near attractions up there, but it's not. The Warriors are another one.
The Tigers are fine. We have strong fan support and with one strong year next year, it'll be some other poor team having a bad run that cops it from the DT about being axed.
However the league needs to sort out: 1) the cap 2) the cap being rorted (removes TPAs and disclose salaries) 3) the media that make a living from, yet, are assisting in slowly killing the game
Why not chop the Titans? They have such a small fanbase and the population of the Coast is so transient. It'd be one thing if their stadium was somewhere accessible and near attractions up there, but it's not. The Warriors are another one.
The Tigers are fine. We have strong fan support and with one strong year next year, it'll be some other poor team having a bad run that cops it from the DT about being axed.
However the league needs to sort out: 1) the cap 2) the cap being rorted (removes TPAs and disclose salaries) 3) the media that make a living from, yet, are assisting in slowly killing the game
851
Well-known member
@ said:
That is my thought, every franchise from every sport that has played there has failed, move them to Brisbane.
I love how Buzz just glosses over the Sharks.
Kick the Sharks out and let Saints control that area. Just because they won the comp last year shouldn't mean anything. These are the latest figures I could find for membership:
Brisbane 35782
South Sydney 30411
Parramatta 24282
Melbourne 19828
Canberra 19046
St George 18435
Canterbury 18348
North QLD 18052
Wests 17686
Penrith 17622
NewZealand 17091
Sydney 15355
Cronulla 15117
Newcastle 13050
Manly 12646
Gold Coast 10865
Total 303616
Sharks win the comp and only just crack 15k members in June the next year? That's pretty poor.
Kick the Sharks out and let Saints control that area. Just because they won the comp last year shouldn't mean anything. These are the latest figures I could find for membership:
Brisbane 35782
South Sydney 30411
Parramatta 24282
Melbourne 19828
Canberra 19046
St George 18435
Canterbury 18348
North QLD 18052
Wests 17686
Penrith 17622
NewZealand 17091
Sydney 15355
Cronulla 15117
Newcastle 13050
Manly 12646
Gold Coast 10865
Total 303616
Sharks win the comp and only just crack 15k members in June the next year? That's pretty poor.
@ said:
Only 2K more members than the team that won one game last year, and less than the team coming last at the moment…
I agree, amalgamate Cronulla back into the St. George district. They have no stranglehold over the game anymore due to no residential rule so it's not as though they'll dominate the comp for a decade again if it happened.
Plus it'd be funny to hear Buzz get sooky over it.
Fade_To_Black
New member
As someone on page 1 of this thread said, drop the price of admission and crowds will undoubtedly swell. Does anyone know why the NRL are never interested in doing this? Serious question. Who wants to pay $30+ to go and sit in the pouring rain on a 5° night to watch 2 battling, hopeless teams fumble and flop around? Not to mention the extra $50 for a few beers and a feed. Surely even the biggest simpleton could realize: lower admission prices= larger crowds.
Secondly, the NRL is pretty much alot less of a spectacle to watch live than what the AFL is- hence the big discrepancy in crowd numbers between those two sports. Because the ball is in the air a lot more often in a game of AFL and always very much more visible to the crowd, it seems to me to be the more attractive spectacle live (as a game AFL is not a patch on NRL but better to watch live IMO). I paid $100 for a seat at the Kangaroos vs Kiwis Test over here in Perth last year and basically from 5 minutes of the start of the match until it ended I was kicking myself for forking out that much money when it is so much better of a code to watch on the telly.
Secondly, the NRL is pretty much alot less of a spectacle to watch live than what the AFL is- hence the big discrepancy in crowd numbers between those two sports. Because the ball is in the air a lot more often in a game of AFL and always very much more visible to the crowd, it seems to me to be the more attractive spectacle live (as a game AFL is not a patch on NRL but better to watch live IMO). I paid $100 for a seat at the Kangaroos vs Kiwis Test over here in Perth last year and basically from 5 minutes of the start of the match until it ended I was kicking myself for forking out that much money when it is so much better of a code to watch on the telly.
Tiger_Steve
New member
@ said:
We had to 'cop it'!
@ said:
Yeah the climate was different with the cleaning up of the SL war.
Tiger_Steve
New member
I must say the thought has crossed my mind that we are putting ourselves in the spotlight as far as cutting clubs goes. Our recent on and off field performance does not paint us as an untouchable club. I think we are at a real tipping point. We either come good next year based on the massive changes being undertaken or we continue to fail and risk massive membership decline, leading to further financial instability which could result in us being flicked.
I'm not trying to be negative, I really hope we come good next year. I just think we are at a crucial fork in the road.
I'm not trying to be negative, I really hope we come good next year. I just think we are at a crucial fork in the road.
goldcoast_tiger
New member
@ said:
Whoever gets the chop will think it's not fair. But fairness will not come into it when it happens. Its inevitable that one or two will go. And when it does, it won't be one of the scccesful clubs.
The clubs that have the backing and have a record of success will stay. And it would be stupid to be any other way
Anyone with the game at heart can only agree that it's needed.
