In the lead-up to the Wests Tigers match at Campbelltown all the signs were looking good.
The Tigers were in form and making a lot of noise, having beaten some of the better teams in the competition very convincingly. Marketing for the game was very good, and while I didn’t follow their postcode challenge because I couldn’t help but think how funny teams like the Warriors, Cowboys, Broncos and the line would find it, it was admirable they tried something different.
Even the terrible weather we have had in Sydney seemed to miss Campbelltown in some minor miracle. There couldn’t have been any more reasons for supporters of the Tigers in the area to get out and watch their team play.
Unfortunately….they didn’t.
Only 6,456 people bothered to turn up and watch the West Tigers beat the North Queensland Cowboys. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t much else to do in Campbelltown on the night!
I’ve always felt that the Wests Tigers long term future lies in the Campbelltown area. It is a fast growing area of Sydney that the club can own without any other competition from any other sporting teams.
With the Sydney market so crowded and the state government not looking to pour money into run down stadiums any more, the Wests Tigers would be able to make a great case for an upgrade to Campbelltown Stadium.
That won’t be happening though if the club can only draw 6,456 through the gates there.
When you consider that the Wests Tigers can be guaranteed a cash payment to play games at ANZ Stadium, and even though it would mostly be empty, draw far more than turned up to Campbelltown stadium overnight, at some point the Wests Tigers will have to make a very tough decision on where they play their future games.
For a club that has financial issues it is facing, they can not continue to keep playing in front of such small crowds just because it is the right thing to do. Even the Western Suburbs side of the joint venture at some point will make a move to push for less games in Campbelltown and more games at ANZ Stadium or even the rundown relic that is Leichhardt Oval.
If Wests Tigers supporters in the Campbelltown area want to continue to get NRL games played locally, they have to start getting out to games. Otherwise they’ll have a long trip to Homebush to see their local side play.
It’s a conspiracy theory by Dave Smith to close down the suburban grounds by making the games there prohibitively expensive and playing teams there whose fans don’t travel. They are also playing them in the worst time slots so that they can use the poor attendance figures as an excuse to close down the grounds. Smith has admitted that after talking to Andrew Demetriou about their success with the AFL that the best thing the NRL can do is close down the suburban grounds and play all our games at ANZ, Suncorp and Allianz! I’ve watched my team win a GF at ANZ but it will never replace the atmosphere and hallowed turf of Kogarah Jubilee!!!