Finals "Home" Venues?

SteveTidball · July 11, 2018, 2:48pm

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

Mutley · July 11, 2018, 10:48pm

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.

SteveTidball · July 12, 2018, 3:09am

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.

Kevin · July 12, 2018, 4:00am

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…

haggis2 · July 13, 2018, 2:40am

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???

SteveTidball · July 13, 2018, 3:51am

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

SouthernHillFan · July 14, 2018, 12:09am

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?