As the draw for the Australian rugby league competition season 2014 was rolled out, the ongoing discussion and argument on the use of local suburban grounds versus the major stadiums continued for another year.
In this writers humble opinion these are some of the key points of difference:
Big stadiums: comfort, corporate hospitality, much needed revenue, quality of service of the facilities.
Suburban grounds: tradition, history, you are closer to the playing field and its closer to home
To get to 80,000 seat Olympic stadium at Homebush from the northern beaches of Sydney is quite a journey, whereas with games at Brookvale you can make a decision after the sunday roast or after school pick up on a Friday to pop down and watch the mighty eagles. To get to Homebush for a Friday night game when there aren't the special event buses you are going to spend in excess of an hour travelling and if the game finishes at 9pm, your kids are not in bed till very late, and the next day you have the all day sports taxi service in front of you.
Is the experience of seeing the stars play on the big stage versus a few grumpy kids late on Saturday afternoon worth it? I could easily argue that the young child will still hold that memory with the long trip as well as a short trip to their local ground and they may still strive to follow in their hero's footsteps.
When the games are played at the big stadiums the players get the big coach buses into the big grounds via underground tunnels. At the local grounds the players, on occasion, walk right through the front gate and not through the back entrance. Players can watch the earlier games from the public area allowing a kid with an autograph book or playing cards to grab a signature and a selfie. Those opportunities are something to treasure and something the large stadiums cannot provide.
As a local junior I had the opportunity to wear the maroon and white on Brookvale oval in the lower professional grades. Not as many games as I would like but reality in your ability is one of the great life lessons. To have a crowd of 20,000, back in the early 90's the OH&S policies weren't as strict as they were now, to have that crowd cheering you and your mates on for the Under 21's game versus St George was a memory that only red wine will take from me. When the ball was thrown to the teams 4th choice goal kicker and I was asked to attempt the conversion from the sideline with the hill behind me, I was in heaven. I had made this kick 1,000 times before from that very spot, as Brooky is a public park so we could go down there and pretend to be stars from a very early age.
Whilst my kick at goal was high, it was long and on target......it slid past the flag on top of the left hand post and was waived away. My only true chance at points were gone and that reality thing jumped up again.
Its experiences like that, that are not available on the big grounds. You cannot play out your childhood fantasies in a lower grade professional league game.
Heck, I still get chills walking across any footy field and see how I could structure a play. I only remember the good stuff though. Memories of my defensive lapses have long since gone with the local milko delivering glass bottles with coloured foil tops.
Being able to walk onto the public accessible park where the professionals play is something special, you can't do that in a big stadium. You can't register your love for a location then strive to achieve a goal.
However, a kid wanting to be a pilot can't build a toy plane and head down to mascot to give it a go....the kid has to complete school, uni and work his way up over many, many years to use the runway at Sydney airport and get paid for it.
I have sat in some stadiums to watch baseball in the US and the cathedral like atmosphere was special. My mother states that a photo of me taken in 1997 in the now gone Shea Stadium to watch a Mets game is one of the most satisfied looks she has ever seen on me.
In 2000, my wife and I were taken by our Aston Villa supporting friends to the old Dell in Southampton to watch a premier league football game. We were in the away supporters area and I can safely say that the facilities made available at the Dell had Brookvale or Leichhardt ovals look like the Shangri La.
Not long after they built a new stadium for Southampton called St Marys. Not long after they were relegated to lower divisions. With the old stadium gone, did the teams magic go with them? Its something that I cannot measure with factual evidence so I will leave it to the reader to gather any assumption.
Manly has always played out of Brookvale and they have had lean years, not many, but a few. In the last bunch of years with the current core playing group there has been great success. Could I argue that the right hand side attack of DCE across to Lyons with both Stewarts chiming in has all been due to the green green grass of Brookvale? Tell me why I can't?
With the crowd so close when the game is on the line, the players would be robots if they didn't get that extra grunt in their legs as they hear the roar of the crowd only 15 feet away.
Again reality must be addressed. If a business, which Manly is whether you like it or not, had the business decision to make, sink or swim, any Board would not be providing true support to its stakeholders, the fans, in letting the team die.
In the new TV contract, the NRL has to deliver a product of 8 games a week. If Manly were to fold due to staying at Brooky then the NRL would not have enough product to supply and they would lose revenue that also supports junior development.
The clock is ticking on these big decisions. The AFL has made them, but I struggle to draw a comparison due to the differences in the city's and their transport and the higher volume of supporters in Melbourne. If you can get 90,000 to a regular season game, you book the MCG. When teams can only get 15,000 to a game at Homebush, why wouldn't you play it at a local ground.
The other argument is the quality of the product on the TV for Rugby League and AFL. AFL is a bigger ground and they kick the ball 60 metres plus from player to player. Its a game better watched at the ground so you can see the expanse of the players movements. Whereas League and Rugby are more central screen games, and allow for a better customer experience on the couch.
I'll make this personal now and offer a solution. Allow me the opportunity to watch my team play at a suburban ground. If the game looks like being a cracker and the crowd is going to exceed 15,000 then have the flexibility to move it to the Sydney Football Stadium which is a great place to watch the game. Allow the members to be given better transport to the new location.
I don't envy those having to make those decisions as I can make an argument for both sides. I like that I am only 15 minutes drive away if I make a late decision to go, and I am also a capitalist and a realist and the game is now a business and it must be profitable to sustain and deliver on its contracts.
For at least one more year we can sit on the uncomfortable hill at Brooky, wait in a cue for 15 minutes for lukewarm pie and get to see:
"King is tackled on the half way line and plays the ball. Ballin delivers the ball on a long pass to Cherry Evans. He shifts to his right taking in two defenders and making space for Glenn Stewart, Stewart catches and passes in one motion to his brother Brett and he is away down the touchline. Lyons cuts inside in support as the defence comes at the Manly fullback. Stewart drops the ball inside to the Manly skipper and Lyons strides away for another Manly try"
And I can watch that from 15 feet away and be home on my couch in 15 minutes.
Phil Jackett
