Finals "Home" Venues?

I know this has been a heated topic around finals time every year. The change a few years back to move Week 1 finals away from their suburban home grounds and to “Home City Venues” which is ironic for a few teams as the supposed home city venues are nowhere near what fans would consider “home”.

The table below shows the home stadiums for each team and their corresponding “Home City Venues” for finals matches. the teams and distances in bold indicate teams where fans are expected to travel at least 50km or more to the supposed home venue.

My question is, what do you think about this?, did the NRL get this right? Should Week 1 finals matches be moved back the traditional home grounds? should teams further out be given home ground rights to finals like regional centres?

My personal opinion is that Week 1 should return to traditional home ground venues. Having gone to these allocated city venues for the first finals match I find that they are hardly full, and they would have almost reached capacity at the suburban grounds making for quite a spectacle, rather than having large sections looking like ghost towns.

Anyway, please discuss, would love to hear your thoughts.

P.S. There may be a small reason for posting this as it’s pretty clear Penrith are the team most disadvantaged by this arrangement.

FINALS HOME VENUES BY TEAM

Team Home Stadium Finals Home Stadium Distance
Brisbane Broncos Suncorp Stadium
Suncorp Stadium
0 km
Canberra Raiders GIO Stadium Canberra
GIO Stadium Canberra
0 km
Canterbury Bulldogs
 
ANZ Stadium
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
19.2 km
0 km
Cronulla Sharks
 
Southern Cross Group Stadium
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
25.5 km
27.6 km
Gold Coast Titans Cbus Super Stadium
Cbus Super Stadium
0 km
Manly Sea Eagles
 
Lottoland
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
18.9 km
30.2 km
Melbourne Storm AAMI Park
Etihad Stadium
5.5 km
Newcastle Knights McDonald Jones Stadium
McDonald Jones Stadium
0 km
New Zealand Warriors Mt. Smart Stadium
Mt. Smart Stadium
0 km
North Queensland Cowboys 1300SMILES Stadium
1300SMILES Stadium
0 km
Parramatta Eels
 
Parramatta Stadium
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
36.7 km
11.5 km
Penrith Panthers
 
Panthers Stadium
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
60.1 km
41.0 km
South Sydney Rabbitohs
 
ANZ Stadium
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
19.2 km
0 km
St. George Illawarra Dragons
 
UOW Jubilee Oval
WIN Stadium
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
16.4 / 93.1 km
18.4 / 81.7 km
Sydney Roosters
 
Allianz Stadium
 
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
0 km
19.2 km
Wests Tigers
 
 
Leichhardt Oval
Campbelltown Stadium
ANZ Stadium
Allianz Stadium
ANZ Stadium
 
10.4 / 53.3 / 19.2 km
11.5 / 41.9 / 0 km
 

I think that a lot would depend on the ground capacity and teams playing. For us, playing against an interstate team, we should be allowed to play at home as the venue would be less likely to sell out. Playing against another Sydney based team, Newcastle or maybe even Canberra, it might be better to play at a larger venue.

While I agree in a perfect world that would be the case Mutley, though fro personal experience, I have been to a few of these home venue finals verses Roosters, Bulldogs, and Sea Eagles at Allianz and none of them were packed houses, and in two of those occasions the crowd was less than that of Panther Stadium. I know these are very specific cases, but this is where my question stems from.

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In my opinion, it’s not so much the “have to travel” issue, it’s the unfair advantage that more than a 1/3 (half if you use all the 0 km) of the comp get to play at home regardless.

How is that a fair system, bit like the Broncos getting all home games on a Friday night, or not playing every team twice, or Nick Politis…

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We need to remember when the new Parramatta stadium is built they probably will allocate that as a home ground for Eels and Panthers. Imagine Panthers v Eels semi-final home game at …. Parramatta???

Well that’s going to be in my nightmares now. :neutral_face:

I absolutely hate the loss of home ground finals, while we have a good week one record, the experience is nothing like the finals we played at penny park.

A not so far fetched question (although it wouldn’t happen due to the quest for the almighty dollar), what would stop us playing a week one final in Bathurst? It’s also our home ground isn’t it? And that’s definitely outside Sydney?